hormones & depression in early pregnancy?

[magnificatAnimaMea]

I've always been particularly susceptible to feeling like hormones/chemicals* are sending my brain haywire - wild fluctuations of mood through the menstrual cycle, extreme mood-related reactions to various drugs, etc. I've also had depression on and off most of my life.

I'm pregnant, and one of the things I've noticed when pregnancies get to 5 weeks is feeling really, really depressed. My mood has really started to plummet in the last few days, just as pregnancy is beginning to feel obvious (nausea, hugely inflated boobs, low blood pressure). When I was pregnant up to 12 weeks last year, the depression just got worse and worse from weeks 5-12 and then took ages to resolve after the ERPC I had. There were obvious miscarriage-related reasons to feel a bit down, but this was recognizably depression rather than a normal reaction.

Does anyone else get this? Can you do anything about this?

*chemicals: for want of a more precise term, as I'm not a neuroscientist or a biochemist...

Yes other people get it prenatal depression is very much recognised. I can highly recommend panda foundation for support but also speak to your gp. When you first speak to your midwife be honest about your previous depression so they can support you as best they can. Take care and congratulations on your pregnancy!

OK - will look it up. I thought this would be too early for prenatal depression. I did discuss it with the midwife on the last pregnancy and she said "well, we can obviously address that if it comes up, much later in the pregnancy"... ?

This describes me pretty well too magnificat. I am 11 weeks and have been off work for the last three. My (brilliant, lifesaving) GP says she's pretty sure that this episode is hormone related and I'm hopefully waiting to see if the second trimester brings any lift in mood.

I hope you have good support from your midwife this time, because of my medication I am under a consultant and have a midwife from a special team who is really understanding.

and to you, this is a tough time.

I've noticed symptoms the last couple of weeks (I'm 18 weeks) so I did some reading and it made it sound like it was more common at the beginning when you get all the hormones. You can be referred to counselling of some sort or if needed there are antidepressants you can take. Apparently antenatal depression is as common as postnatal depression.

This happened to me from about 6-13 weeks I felt so down for no real reason and went through huge mood swings usually ending up in floods of tears with no explanation as to why other than I felt down? It was horrible! Anyway after about 13 weeks I started to feel much more myself and positive about things again. I haven't really suffered previously with depression or feelings like that before I was pregnant and if you have maybe you should speak to the GP but if it has come on since the pregnancy then hopefully it's just hormones like me and it will pass! I suffered terribly with 24/7 nausea too so I think that was a contributing factor!

Hope you are feeling better soon
X

Thanks everyone. After several weks of no exercise because of flu, I've found today that exercise helps, and being outside in the sunshine - so will go and spend some time gardening!

all round and hope everyone feels better soon.