Horrific PMT-what works?

[PencilFace]

I’m 39 and over the last couple of years my PMT seems to have got so bad that I don’t really recognise the person I am at that time anymore.

I have always got it bad, but never like this. My mood starts to decline from after ovulation. The week before my period I am snappy and borderline rude to people at work, my mood is dark and morbid and my anxiety is terrible.I wake up and cry every morning before work. I also get insomnia and palpitations. I am an anxious person anyway but this is just unbearable.

Has anyone suffered with similar and is there anything that works? I already take a bunch of ‘calming’ herbs and supplements and quite honestly they do nothing, or seem not to. Diet is healthy, don’t drink, I exercise etc. Work is stressful. What can I do? I’m scared to take hormonal medication as mum had breast cancer.

A Mirena coil to hopefully stop your periods. I wish I’d had one years earlier than I did.
I had an increase in PMT at the beginning of peri, it took me some time to realise what it was.

Mirena, small dose of progesterone regularly. With me this was one of the signals of perimenopause….dreadful pmt. Talk to your gp as it grinds you down. I was really down by the time I’d accessed proper hrt which really helped. It may be something else in your case.

I have so much sympathy for you, it’s like you lose yourself.

Have you read up on PMDD OP? The Mind website has some useful info among other places. Some people go on sertraline for a portion of the month. I have not asked for this yet but might at some point as I suffer very badly from this and always have although this last year has not been as bad for some reason. I don't/can't do hormonal solutions either, they make my MH much worse.

Kind of random but one thing I found that helped with sleep and relaxation was the Therabody sleep mask - when I'm in that state I can't relax on my own no matter what I do, but that has vibration and heat that make me destress despite myself.

I’ve not heard of the mask, I will look it up. I did read about PMDD and it could be that, I am considering asking for an SSRI for half the month but I’m just rather scared of meds.

It’s just so so frustrating, it’s like being two different people and I fear the decisions I could make when feeling like it (e.g leaving husband.) It also makes me absolutely terrified of menopause.