Theory about early preg and severe PMS/PMDD - anyone?

[mamababy1955555]

I suffer from PMDD, which is a severe form of PMS where you feel very bad (physically and emotionally) before your period. It's thought to be because of high progesterone/low estrogen and I use estrogen HRT when not pregnant as part of my treatment.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone else has this condition and has had similar experiences in early pregnancy. I am 10+5 in my second pregnancy and starting to feel normal after 6 weeks or so of awful symptoms: sickness/extreme aversions, but also upset stomach and feeling so tired and so low emotionally, not feeling like I can cope with my life, etc. In other words, very similar to my PMDD symptoms. I'm wondering if this is because early pregnancy is more progesterone dominant? And maybe estrogen starts to go up around 9/10 weeks? This pattern is very similar to my first pregnancy but I can't find anything online about PMDD and pregnancy, other than most women feel very well for the most part (which I definitely did later on in my pregnancy with my son) because they have loads of estrogen in their bodies and no cycles. It's such a poorly researched condition, it would be interesting to know if others have similar/different experiences.

Thanks so much.

This is really interesting. I was just talking to my hairdresser who said for her early pregnancy was just like the three horrible days before her period.

Hello, I have PMDD and recently terminated a pregnancy due to the sever anxiety I had in the first trimester . It lasted 5 weeks and I couldn't take anymore. I felt instantly less anxious after due to the drop in oestrogen. Did your pregnancy improve? I'm really keen to try again but scared of it happening a second time

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I seriously contemplated doing the same (and might have done had we not been in lockdown, which made it more complicated).

Yes, it did. I would say I found the first 12 weeks or so very difficult in both my pregnancies with PMDD-like symptoms. I felt very well after the sickness wore off with both my boys. Really stable and happy. And I felt pretty good after both births until my periods returned after I stopped breastfeeding.

I hope you find your way through if that's what you decide to do.

Hi @sallysophie - I’m really thankful I saw your message. The same thing happened to me in summer 2023 and I’m just trying to unravel it. It was something I wanted, but was a surprise, and I was fine but shaken for 2 days and then I was only able to hack 2 weeks of the mental hell I went into before terminating. Thank you for sharing

@Faithb123 Would you be up for speaking privately about this ?

Absolutely, please DM me on here and il be happy to share contact details