Hi @Ljcrow
I just came across your post. How are you getting on?
I only recently found out about PMDD. I've always suffered badly with PMS and I have every single symptom. I used to have terrible rages when I was in my teens and tried various contraceptive pills that didn't help and ended up self medicating with cannabis.
As I got older my rages calmed down but my cyclical panic attacks, anxiety, depression, paranoia, all got worse and I also got cyclical dermatitis. It was like I was two different people. Happy, bouncy, bubbly, confident, loads of energy in the first two weeks of my cycle and the absolute extreme opposite in the second two weeks of my cycle.
When I was 42, (5 years ago) my periods got even heavier, more painful and I started getting symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It was probably peri-menopause kicking in. My aches and pains were so severe that at times, I needed crutches to walk and at times I couldn't use the crutches because I had pains in my wrists and thumbs, my 80 year old mum looked and felt healthier than I did. I would spend two weeks of every month in desperation. In tears, thinking life just wasn't worth living.
My GP referred me to Rheumatology last year and I'm still waiting for my appointment. Then nine months ago, I thought I'd give HRT a go. I've found it has helped but it's all trial and error and guesswork at trying to get the balances right.
Combined patches with progesterone made my mental PMS even worse. Too much oestrogen makes my aches and pains worse, my fatigue worse, my headaches worse. The oestrogen patches I'm on now and the body identical Progesterone definitely seems to help all my symptoms, but the balance still isn't quite right, I'm sensitive to the Progesterone and I'm breaking out in dermatitis all over my hands, arms, chest, neck and face.
My GP has finally decided to test my hormone levels and is referring me to a Gynaecologist.
I take Sleepease (Boots) which is an anti-histamine, to help me sleep, that works really well and I only need to take 25mg.
I take Vitabiotics Well Woman 50+ (even though I'm not quite 50 yet) - it's got a good variety of the B vitamins and others.
I've been on various anti-depressants over the years, Sertraline was the last one (SSRI) at first it seemed to help but and it made me put on weight and eventually didn't feel like it was really helping me.
I am however, willing to try SSRI's again but just for the two weeks when I'm feeling at my worst (I didn't know this was an option until I read about it as a treatment for PMDD)
I think, like a lot of other sufferers, we live in hope, hope that we will find a reason and a cure or if not, ways to manage the symptoms so we can live the life we want.
I hope things are going well for you.