I hope this is the right place. Just wanted to explain what I'm struggling with to see if anyone relates with this and can help me to know if I'm on the right track or not.
I have neurodiversity which is highly related to also having PMDD. So the doctor told me I likely had this when I went to her explaining my struggles before. She offered me some pills and that was it, but my body is so sensitive to artificial hormones I declined this and tried to battle on.
This particular cycle has been hell on earth so I've been reading into PMDD a lot more to see what might help.. and it seems it's primarily psychological symptoms people complain about the most. Mine is very much the physical symptoms, and other than being anti social and feeling a bit low I don't struggle with any of the mood or mental health related challenges.
In addition to that, the things I struggle with most don't seem to be mentioned much with PMDD - my major symptoms are: before my period for a good ten days, absolutely debilitating fatigue that hugely impacts my ability to function, raging appetite, extreme stomach/pelvis pain that comes and goes and makes me double over, joint pain, and general feeling completely depleted physically
And that I can't even get the strength to cook dinner from scratch.
Then when my period comes, like now, instead of the symptoms going away, they double down! The cramps continue to get worse so I can't do much but curl into a ball and sob, I'm so nauseous the thought of anything aside from bland processed food is impossible and my appetite completely disappears. The crippling fatigue remains, and the mood/mental health element still isn't there really aside
from irritability and general frustration.
I've suffered with this since my mid twenties, prior to that it's never been easy but not this intense. I'm in my thirties now and not near perimenopause time yet either. I've been checked for that before too when I was having trouble. It's a nightmare because I have to schedule everything in my calendar to try and clear all plans around this time, which is difficult to do when the symptoms are an minimum of two weeks each month as well.
I am hoping someone with endometriosis sees this and can let me know if this could align with this condition? I hadn't ever considered it before because there are some key symptoms I don't have.. like painful sex or extremely heavy periods for example. But I have a lot of the other symptoms and starting to think it could still be that and you don't need every symptom? I know I need to see a doctor but as part of my adhd/autism I get so so uncomfortable talking about this type of personal thing so I put it off.. and the processes to diagnose endometriosis sound really unpleasant.
Thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to help.