PMDD coping strategies

[SouperLou]

If anyone else suffers from PMDD what do you do to cope? I find work the most difficult thing to cope with as I interact with a lot of people every day (180+) - I’m a teacher so also navigating teenagers. I can’t just keep taking time off work. Last cycle I had severe PMDD for 15 days.

any coping strategies welcome. Feeling really isolated at the moment and I can’t trust my own thoughts / decision making.

You need to get a treatment for it, can you get a private appointment with a gynecologist.

My mother had severe PMDD, I had it and now my daughter. I had to fight to see a psychologist over 12 weeks. She saw how different I was every fourth week and referred me to a psychiatrist who I saw once - she diagnosed me with PMDD for the second time in my life and got my GP to prescribe low dose diazepam for the PMDD days. Increasing carbohydrates and calories during those days helped - it evens out over the month. Loads of sleep, sanity over housework. SSRIs did not help at all. I had the same job as you. Thankfully I had an early menopause.

https://www.mind.org.uk/media/9117/pmdd-pdf-for-download-pdf-version.pdf

Are you currently taking any medication/receiving treatment?

it is not a condition to be lived with without support from the thankfully growing numbers of experts in the field. But you do need to seek them out and timescales to diagnosis and appropriate treatment can be shockingly lengthy.

We reached crisis point in our family and have spent a fortune in private consultation with a couple of gynaecologists and life is finally becoming more normal. Medical menopause turned out to be a game changer, but there are alternatives prior to that which help many women.

Mind is an excellent starting point. Don’t just keep on suffering and just getting through each month. A gynae referral from your GP is the way forward but if you are able to give evidence of a mood diary for 3 months, it will really speed diagnosis along.

Medication! HRT has been a game changer.

Thank you all. I was taking sertraline as I had post natal depression. As that started to ease, I came off sertraline then the depression lingered each month.
I feel so vulnerable I can’t stick up for myself when I’m at the doctors and have already been three times this month due to a different condition. When I’m low, I can’t really talk about it and advocate for myself but then as soon as the depression lifts I think I’m time wasting as I’m on in a depressive episode. I don’t trust my judgement on what to do or say.

Hormonal treatment is the only thing that worked for me. Contraceptive pill and then HRT.

I do also see a therapist but I recognise that this is really quite strictly a hormonal / chemical issue. Whilst therapy has helps with post natal depression and other life issues I know I’ll need medication for this to cope.

as a complete hrt novice, how do I go about getting hrt treatment?

i take health & her pmt supplements - 1 per day for the first 2 weeks of my cycle, and 2 per day for the second half - these have massively helped my emotions. I also take a night nurse for sleep when the insomnia kicks in. This is how I’m managing at the moment, but if either stop working I’ll go for the SSRIs and possibly a private women’s health clinic.

Are you on any of the PMDD support FB groups? Lots of info on those.

There are some excellent threads on here about pmdd which have helped me a lot. I saw Peter Greehouse who was recommended on here and got a private hrt prescription for oestrogen for the last two weeks of my cycle. It is life changing.

I totally understand the feeling of being unable to articulate this to a clinician. I was - and still am - my daughter’s advocate in all this. I recall that there is a checklist of symptoms (perhaps on the mind website) that you can tick off and hand to someone you are talking to. Also many PDFs of mood diaries that are tick box. All powerful tools.

I second Peter Greenhouse. He consults privately via Teams and is incredibly understanding and helpful. I don’t know what we would have done without him. He provided my daughter with a treatment plan, a private prescription for HRT and a way forward. Armed with this, she now sees someone locally on occasion and is like a changed woman. It really is worth taking the step; she was able to change her life.

The only thing that worked for me was the mini pill, it was a life saver. SSRIs didn’t work and neither did the combined pill as I get PMDD symptoms when I take anything with oestrogen in.

I couldn’t take HRT due to early breast cancer. so that wasn’t a possibility. My daughter told me about a menstrual tracking app and we both used it. She can’t take any hormones due to the breast cancer risk.

I couldn’t afford to go private and had to see numerous GPs before I found one who would refer me. for each separate diagnosis. Could you keep a diary or use the mood tracker if you have an iPhone and make an appointment for the Easter holidays?

I couldn’t take SSRIs with Tamoxifen and took Venlafaxine for ten years, but that was ineffective for PMDD and I had to advocate strongly for myself to see a clinical psychologist (NHS.)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68676066.amp

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532307/

Thank you for all your help and advice. It’s good to know I’m not alone in this. I’m going to keep a mood tracker as suggested and will talk to my GP about possible medication. I was on sertraline but hated the way it made me feel. I can’t take mini pill due to other medical conditions so will see what other options are available.

Do you only take oestrogen for the second part or your cycle? And progesterone too?