Mental health/PMDD… where to turn?!

[limebasilandmentalhealth]

Frequent MN poster but I have NC… not sure why, not ashamed, I guess I just want to keep this part separate.

Not sure where to start but to avoid war and peace… I have struggled with my mental health all of my life, mainly anxiety with a bit of depression thrown in.

I did years of IVF prior to having my twins (who are now almost 4) so my body was hormonally out of balance for quite some time. I always had PMS but following the birth of my children my cycles became worse. To be honest I was dealing with a marriage breakdown and then the pregnancy was high risk and stressful so when I was told I had PND, and put onto Citalopram I assumed the anxiety would reduce.

It did… to a degree, but the stress of pretty much being a sole parent to young children meant I couldn’t tell what was “normal stress” compared to what is much worse.

I have noticed however for the last 12 months my moods in the week or so leading up to my period, are much much darker. I am short tempered, tired and have thoughts of suicide.

I am on the Depo provera injection which should actually stop my bleeds, but it doesn’t (possibly my body is progesterone resistant?) although they’re less heavier than they were without.

I am 37 and recently paid for a private specialist consultation and he said he believed I had PMDD and possibly could be peri-menopausal. He suggested a full hysterectomy may be my only option. Unfortunately since the consultation I’ve struggled to get notes or follow up with him (have tried a number of times) and so I have nothing to take to a GP… I know their response will be to increase my Citalopram at points in my cycle, but I already find it makes me feel quite “flat” and really would prefer not to be on them at all.

Ive seen on threads here about women being prescribed HRT, I wondered how you all went about this? Or indeed if there are any herbal remedies that could help?

Bloods are all normal (b12, calcium, iron etc)

Im feeling utterly desperate right now. I cannot describe the low I feel when this comes, each and every month - and it’s only getting worse.

I was in the same boat and Prozac worked for a while and then it didn’t - I got hrt but I was progesterone intolerant, it’s why I thought about a hysterectomy too, however my gynecologist thought it was overkill and that the solution was to find a more tolerable type of progesterone.

I had a hell of a time with it all, I was very close to putting myself in a psychiatric hospital it got that bad. Fortunately I was in menopause by 48 and a lot of the mood problems reduced or went away.

I could have written this OP. It’s hard but I’d change consultant! That’s extreme.

So I tried progesterone orally and oestrogen gel. Made things worse. Had counselling which actually helped… but recently discovered using just progesterone as pessaries (cyclogest) is amazing, has lifted my symptoms. Apparently we all react to hormones differently and it’s also got a lot to do with past trauma and brain chemistry affecting hormone sensitivity. I’d find a menopause clinics advice clued up in PMDD. They might also suggest Mirena coil and oestrogen to stop ovulation and therefore PMDD. Sertraline also massively helped me. I was so low for so long, but it can be fixed!

There are facebook groups. I too am sure I have this and it really isn't looked into enough. I have the contraceptive pill to stop ovulating and to stop periods. I am also on sertraline but that's for a diff issue.

Thankyou for the advice and kind words here.

Woke up this morning and despite having had 8 hours sleep and zero alcohol, feeling like I’m in a foggy hangover and as if I could sleep all day, or just burst into tears. Aching limbs and just generally feeling so low. I know I have to keep going today for my DCs and just have to power through somehow until bedtime.

Interesting about the different methods of taking progesterone being more effective in some cases. The depo injection I’m on at the moment clearly isn’t doing enough, nor did the progesterone pill I was put on. I did take other forms of progesterone when doing IVF (including cyclogest) so maybe that’s something to explore.

The hysterectomy option was what the specialist suggested as he didn’t think the coil would be suitable for me due to other issues.

My DM didn’t hit her menopause until she was around 50, so the thought of going through this potentially for another 13 years or so terrifies me!

I have just joined a couple of PMDD support groups on Facebook too, so thankyou for this suggestion x

I was on the depo injection and it made me so angry so that might not be helping. You have my sympathy it is awful and can make us act out of control and character.