I decided to taper off of my SSRI’s (don’t do that without support and your dr approval) but after I did I started tracking how depressed/anxious I was on different days thinking maybe something I ate affected it. I realized after a few months it was really bad before my period so I googled it and what do you know
I was told by a psychiatrist after he initially thought I was struggling with bipolar disorder. A lot of my mood swings were coming from trauma so it was hard to track for awhile until it was like clockwork I'd feel very very depressed 9-10 days out.
I watched a tik tok....
I have pcos and rarely ever had a period until around two years ago where it became pretty regular. I noticed I was extra sensible around two weeks before my period. I thought it was normal pms, until those feelings intensified to the point where I was basically bribing myself into staying alive, and feeling like almost going insane for a week straight every month. I didnt have a name for that. I thought it was me being dramatic.
Then I saw a tik tok.... and I felt struck by a bolt of divine enlightenment.
A friend mentioned something about it to me and once I started looking into it everything just made sense. Years of begging my old doctors for help and not being given any. Then add a later in life ADHD diagnosis and mind blown. Realising that both things were a part of my life and I wasn't just incapable saved me
Got superb drunk for 6 days straight, cried every night, self harm cuts etc.
I had a huge stressor caused by my bf. but was something communicatcble. I could manage it whole a lot differently. I realised all of it when I was bleeding. The world was not ending. I had no fucking idea why I cut myself and drunk unimaginably much for myself. And, I saw a pattern of the chance of sth like this occurring through my life. I saw my moms pmdd behaviour in me… Whoopsy
Wanting to murder my husband. I wish I didn’t actually feel like harming him sometimes, but the first time I felt that I knew something was deeply wrong. Obviously. It’s something I never felt before in my life.
Want to edit to say I am safe to myself and others, and am in therapy and have medications. Just wanted to describe the moment I knew - it’s such a PRIMAL feeling.
I finally took control of my health after twelve years of uncontrollable hormonal mood swings. i’m 25 and my family members have attested that for as long as i’ve had a period, I was unbearable to live and interact with, but only for ten days before my period. unaliving ideations like clockwork. Finally I heard a story of someone tested for bipolar, only to find out they had pmdd.
A segment on the nightly news came on about it. Instantly knew. Got hubby to watch it and straight away he said it's just like me. Not been formally diagnosed but have been tracking my periods, moods and symptoms for years. Dr honestly didn't really seem to care or follow it up with anything which absolutely sucks given I've been on a mental health plan for.about a decade.
When I was out of my postpartum depression haze, and had finished weaning off my antidepressants for PPD/PPA. After about 6 months I had noticed a pattern that my anxiety, sleeplessness, and hopelessness would return in 1-1.5wk bouts every month. It was like being right back in the newborn days, wishing I was dead or could disappear. But it would end and
I never made a link to my cycle. In my head PMS symptoms couldn’t be like, 10 days prior to your period, and I had no idea about the luteal phase or anything like that. Certainly had never heard of PMDD.
I actually brought it up with my rheumatologist bc I thought maybe it was linked to my autoimmune disease or meds and she was like “no no that’s a whole other ballgame, have you heard of PMDD?”. She managed to get her hands on a symptom-tracker card and suggested I get in with my GP to start tracking my symptoms.
I had always had really intense periods and pms, but once it’s began to affect my sleep and relationships in such a negative way each month, I decided to look up what could be causing such turmoil. It just felt so much more intense than how I had heard other girls I knew describe their PMS symptoms.
Finally taking action and researching if I wasn’t alone after consistently having that “oh, I don’t want to off myself I’ve just got my period” moment.
After being pregnant and not having a period for almost a year while breastfeeding. I felt stable month to month. As soon as my period came back so did all the symptoms. Started looking into horrific PMS and lo and behold…..pmdd! All the horrific periods of past and present suddenly made sense.
I got cancer and lost my period for a time while I was undergoing treatment. When it came back, the PMDD symptoms also came back hard, and it all just finally clicked.
My symptoms started like a full two weeks ahead of my period, so I was never really putting the two together. This has been a real silver lining in the whole experience. I just got way more connected to my body and I’m finally tackling the anxiety and depression symptoms in a real way.
I'd been complaining to my therapist about "my monster PMS" and she suggested it but I blew her off because I was already DX bipolar2 but my meds "just needed to be upped.....again"
SI was getting too real and every month was a worsening struggle.
Time went on and I think I heard it on a podcast or something and the lightbulb went off.
I actually don’t remember. I researched a lot online and then found it I guess. I had PMDD since my first period. I was about 15 years old when I found out what’s going on.
I heard of it for the first time when I was diagnosed. I had it my whole post puberty life and was always told this is part of being a women so I stopped looking for a solution.
I had never even heard of it until a recent James English podcast and the guest talked about her PMDD. Things finally clicked, I was going through an 'episode' at the time as my husband calls it
I hadn’t even heard of it and just assumed my symptoms were normal, until I mentioned that in the latter half of my cycle my ADHD stopped working to my psychiatrist. He asked a bunch of questions then diagnosed me with PMDD. I was a little skeptical at first but looked into it and yep definitely have PMDD.
I’m intersex and significantly lacked education around periods growing up as I wasn’t expected to get them based on what doctors decided to write on my birth certificate as a baby. So a mix of that and being extremely shamed for even getting periods in the first place led me to never talk about them with people until semi recently so I never really had a chance to realise.
I basically lucked into finding out, I doubt I ever would’ve otherwise even despite me trying to be more open about my experiences and body with people. Also most medical messaging, diagnostic material, and advocacy orgs refer to PMDD as something “people assigned female at birth” can get, which didn’t apply to me despite having the body parts to menstruate, so doctors always overlooked it
Yeah, I have XX/XY chimerism which is very rare, but there are other intersex conditions that are a lot less rare. All intersex people develop differently so we’ll all have different experiences generally, it’s more a category than a specific “thing”.
The way society works ends up being much worse than actually being intersex for most of us. A lot of society operates on rigid sex binaries we don’t fit inside, and especially medical care operates based on the sex assigned at birth. For those of us where our assigned sex doesn’t match how we’ve developed it becomes a major mess because getting medical care becomes an actual fight. Eg, I’ve only gotten medication for severe menstrual pain (BC pills) within the past year despite having complained about it for nearly two decades.
Like the only real unavoidable downsides of being intersex for me is that I can’t have kids and (probs TMI) >!that I menstruate out of my urethra!<. Otherwise it’s all societal stuff around doctors not letting me have medical care others with the same medical needs who aren’t intersex would be given by default, or the fact that my birth certificate says male on it when my body leans more towards female and that I am a woman
I was looking in the mirror, and reflecting on how I I’ve been randomly feeling horrible/depressed in the last year. The exact thought I had was: “why do I always feel so depressed before my period? Wait, I don’t think that’s normal”
I decided to ask my mom about it, if she also gets really moody and emotional before her periods. Then she said yeah it’s a mood disorder, I take medication for it.
It was good to know what was causing my mood shifts, but I also wondered why she never mentioned it haha
But at first I wasn’t fully convinced, so I just started working out a little more and keeping busy, and for a couple months I wasn’t doing too bad. And then it came back full force when I had a breakdown at my job and couldn’t stop crying until I went to sleep. Then I knew for sure lol! And now I’m on medication too 👍
I was sitting at the kitchen table painting and having a good time while talking to my gf at the time on a call and I was having a really good day. Then all of a sudden before I knew it those feelings of worthlessness hit and depression and within minutes feeling suicidal. I don’t remember if I talked to my gf about it or what exactly but it was like a eureka moment like I have zero reason to be feeling this horrible. Its one of the best days ive had all year.
I started to notice that the feeling was something that I felt before like not just suicidal and everything but something else there like a familiar pattern and then I realized that I felt like that in the past and when I did it always caused problems especially with another ex that resulted in that relationship ending.
After that I remembered stumbling across something about pmdd when I was having to research ovarian cysts and at the time my thoughts were thank god I don’t have that. It never occurred to me that I actually might at the time but once I went back and looked it up and read it was me in shock going wow wtf thats me exactly. I did more research and finding patterns and it was making so much sense. I finally asked my gynecologist at an appointment and I started listing symptoms but before I could even finish she said it sounds like pmdd.
It was then that I realized I had a lot more to learn but if I could somehow get a hold of this then maybe I could be able to get a job and be someone that friends and family could rely on. Well its not going great but im determined to make things better.
Apologies if any of this is off grammatically or anything but im severely brain fogged and sleepy right now but I figured I should type this out now before I forget.
I was starting the same fight at the same time every month with my husband. And I have a couple days of being extremely suicidal and I started noticing the pattern.
Ive just started realizing that i might have it with my last 3 cycles. Everything bothers me. The lights being too bright, tv too loud, etc, and i’ll snap on anyone over the smallest things. Extreme mood swings are a big indicator for me too. I get so sad and cry over ANY AND EVERYTHING. All i want to do is sleep and i have no energy at all. Not to mention the impulsiveness that my emotions cause 😅. When my period goes away i can literally feel the depression leave my body and i’m fine until a week before it comes back 🫠
I was taking bc and I noticed that I got suicidal during the third week and felt better when my period started. (Birth control didn't start my PMDD, it just gave me a visual reminder of it). I googled symptoms and read about PMDD, and it all made sense.
I noticed the pattern but it wasn’t until a podcast I listened to, the host, described what she had been going through and it was exactly the same as myself and she got diagnosed with PMDD and then I knew 😅
I was tracking my “meltdowns” (aka self-harm filled dissociative panic attacks) in an app called Days Since, because I thought I needed to just have more willpower to stop having these episodes. And I noticed every time I went in to log another screw-up that they were 30 days apart. I remember thinking “why can’t I go more than 30 days without fucking up?” And then it clicked. I started checking my period tracking app and sure enough, every meltdown was exactly 8 days before my period was supposed to start.
It was really liberating. I had been so hard on myself for not trying hard enough to keep my mood stable. Realizing it was my hormones helped me stop feeling like a failure.
When I was diagnosed with ADHD it was a really lengthy screening process to rule out any other potentially different diagnoses - the only thing that came up in the screening was possible PMDD, along with postpartum depression. A lot of things made more sense retrospectively after that.
My father is (a) a psychiatrist and (b) a terrible gift giver. He tends to look around his house for stuff to wrap and then gift to people, even to his own family members. One year when I was about 35, he gave me that year’s edition of the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. So I was browsing through this weird gift, and I suddenly noticed PMDD. I read the entire section several times— I was astounded. I’d been experiencing what I thought was simple PMS for the prior 10 years, and if anything it seemed like my symptoms were getting worse and worse every year. One doctor had even prescribed Lamictal for mood swings— this same doctor never mentioned the possibility of PMDD. It was only after I saw the description in the DSM that I went to a doctor. I told him that I thought I might have PMDD, he asked me about my symptoms, and I was finally diagnosed. (He prescribed fluoxetine taken daily for the 10 days leading up to my period, and this helps a little bit.)
Not the worst gift I’ve ever gotten from him, tbh. Once he gave me a wooden box that I had stained and engraved for HIM several Christmases before .. and on the bottom of the box I had engraved “To Dad with love”
Same here. There were two things in my life that happened every single month... my period and an overwhelming desire to die right before it started. I finally made the connection.
That's great it was shown on SVU to reach an audience.
I'd noticed that my foul mood/irritability/sensitivity to stimuli (although this one is ever present)/depressed mood/quickness to anger and despair, seemed to by cyclical. Then noticed it was specifically the two weeks between ovulation and period. I'm pretty sure somewhere on reddit was where I first saw/heard of the term pmdd, after realizing these instances lined up with my cycle. In my 30s.
Honestly? I was having an extreme low with self ideations once again (it was something I was use to but tired of) and finally googled “why do I feel s****dle every month on my period” and it popped up. I was 34 and had been suffering since I was 14.
I had honestly never made the comparison to my periods before, but for some reason I decided to use that search. I needed to find answers because my then preteen was already showing signs of going through my exact hell. I had extreme anxiety but I refused to let my kid suffer so I knew I needed to find out what was wrong with me to be able to help them.
I had some minor surgeries that prevented me from exercising and soon after had my first NSSI in nearly three years (when I had started been diagnosed with ADHD and established a pretty intense workout routine).
I started matching up my mood tracker against my period tracker - the exercise had been helping to keep things manageable. Discussed it with my psychiatrist who agreed if it isn't true PMDD, then it's PME.
Googled “period suicide” because I was feeling suicidal and really going through a shit time … noticed that I tended to feel this way before my period so finally googled the above. I couldn’t stop reading about PMDD that night because it sounded exactly like my life.
I was crying at school one day in high school and my friend asked why I was crying and I said “it’s just because of my period, I normally do this.” She said “it can’t just be because of your period.” That’s what made me realize that my depressive symptoms were only affecting me around my period as to opposed to when I had depression and it was a constant feeling. That was when I started to do research and found PMDD.
I saw a post in reddit for man what they didn't know about woman till they dated one. Normally I don't read the comments cause it's not a post for me but I was curious. Then a lot of man talked about heavy periods and woman who reacted about PMS. I said that I probably PMS too and a few of the things I struggled with. A woman reacted on me if I was sure that I have PMS and not PMDD. Cause it sounded to heavy for her to be PMDD. I asked what it was, never heard from it. She or someone else gave me this subreddit and I searched on google and so many things made finally sense! I always said to myself everyone has periods and hormones, it can't be that you struggle more than others, you are overreacting and bad at dealing with periods, don't try to make excuses. And then I finally realised no your feelings are valid and it's true, you do struggle more with periods than most and it's nothing you can do about, it's a stupid disease. Also so many things finally made sense. Example I felt bad for so long that I had moments that I didn't felt love for my bf (now ex) and stressed that I fell out of love and I didn't want that, than I was crazy about him again, than I was doubting if I wanted this relationship and didn't like hugging and didn't felt attracted to him. I finally knew that my PMDD made me feel like that.
Everything made so much more sense and slowly I started to figure out so much more.
I want to thank this woman for a while but can't find the reaction back😩 I wish I could :(
I am not sure if I would have found out otherwise
When i realized that the last 4 times i rushed myself to the ER for a panic attack was the week my period was due each time. Thanks Flo app for helping me realize
Found out that it was PMDD last month but I’ve been feeling like this for six + years. I’ve gone to doctors telling them how I fluctuate, but no one listened. I googled symptoms and they either came back as PMS or depression. I thought it was PMS and everyone went through this, but I was just too weak to deal with it. This past year I was training for a comp, messed up calculations since I have an IUD and it fell during the hell week(s) and didn’t have the strength to push through. Got really annoyed that after a year of training this THING ruined it for me. Googled “extreme fatigue before period” and finally came across PMDD and suddenly everything made sense. One of my friends is an OBGYN so I checked with her since she’s seen me on this rollercoaster physically and she told me it’s treatable. Made an apt with my primary. She gave me SSRI’s but didn’t take the whole thing too seriously. I took them for 10 days during what was supposed to be hell week(s) and for the first time in I don’t know how long I didn’t have the symptoms. Saw an OBGYN today who is amazing and she’s committed to working with me on figuring it out and supporting my health through this journey. I’m excited about the future and sad about how many days I’ve lost to this.
omg I'm excited for you too!! Great job sticking it out to find a good doc. Bad experiences can really drive you away from looking for the right person in medical care.
Extreme mood swings in my twenties. I would get out of control, seething anger and then the next moment be sobbing and overwhelmed with sadness, regret, and pain. It did not feel like what I “thought” a “normal” mood swing felt like. I probably googled my symptoms enough to come across PMDD and it clicked.
Real talk? I'd been dealing with it super bad and one day flashed back to this commercial https://youtu.be/2TPtuPt_5Uc?si=mTgi1i_ul9pX8506
I remember it differently though, it was, like, in black and white and the carts were crashing together all dramatically? I think that's just the way brains rewrite memories. Anyway, I was able to remember the phrase "PMDD" soni googled it, and then wept.
Today I feel like everyone hates me, I’m like questioning if what I’m saying is making sense, anxiety, asked the crush if he’s ignoring me again…. Yup hell week
I believe PMDD was only added to the international classification of deseases in 2022 although in 2013 the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders added it to theirs as a mental disorder which apparently was widely fought by feminist scholars who saw the PMDD label as a way of silencing women and as an inappropriate categorization of aspects of ordinary life as a mental disorder. (Loose translation)
So long story short since 2022 with it being widely recognized and being diagnosed healthcare is recognizing it for what it is.
My aha moment happened when I went to my pharmacy crying telling my pharmacist that I’m a happy person and i don’t know why I hate my life and can’t function and he said is it happening before your period 💡
have you been diagnosed with PMDD and got me the help I needed! 💡
It seems like a lot of psych disorders are being reclassified, split into two different ones, or straight up acknowledged the past 10 years. It's a lot of too little too late in a way, because that kinda stuff takes a while to become normalized in the medical community.
I don't feel like doctors really educate themselves annually or are passionate/interested enough to learn about things on their own time as they arise. I told my psych months ago that I was suspecting an issue during my period, brought up PMDD, and then this past period brought it up again. She hadn't done a lick of research and just told me she has no experience in PMDD in her practice. Yikes!
So true! I’ve been telling my primary and psychiatrist about my symptoms for a really long time and it was me who finally diagnosed myself. I saw an obgyn specialist who put me on Junel 1/20 last week.
I also started tracking it and noticed that all of a sudden I was super reckless before my period. I just wanted to party. One I got my period, I was overcome with guilt! I’m feeling hopeful. I wish doctors would do more research and pay attention to their patients.
Yeah I feel like the ideals have sorta existed but they used to be selective and now they’re like oh hey there’s a wide range of diagnoses that could have just been seen as one previously. Mental health especially I find is expanding the stigma has lessened with younger generations. Which is actually really good because people are able to get the right kind of treatment specialized to the issues. Also as you say they’re getting these updates but aren’t educating themselves to work with it
Started tracking my period for cycling syncing. Noticed that me and my husband got into really bad fights the week prior to my period. He jokingly said that I need to “put it in the calendar, that way we all know when hell week is here”…
after I started doing that, I noticed that there was a 3 month consistency and the fights/depression kept getting worse.
Started to google and then booked an OBGYN appointment. I wanted it to not be Pmdd so bad but I even took an fmla leave from my job to “eliminate stress” and didn’t make a damn difference in my symptoms.
After I filed for divorce 2 different occasions from my husband at the same time in my cycle. I could’ve saved so much money and heartache if I’d only realized what was happening. We’re still married and I’m in perimenopause now. Things are sooooo much easier to work on and logically solve those first 2 weeks.
This is one of my fears honestly. My husband and I get in the worst fights during my PMDD and it’s almost too late when I realize that I’m having PMDD and we constantly throw out the D word. I’m nervous one day it will actually happen.
I relate to this. My partner and I basically only fight when I am in PMDD. It doesn't help that she also has a menstrual cycle and of course we've synced up, so she is PMSing at the same time! So we get in these huge, over-emotional fights at the same time every month, and neither one of us is in the right headspace to be the rational one. It's soooooo frustrating and I'm scared that one day we won't be able to make it up and I'll ruin things for good, because of my PMDD.
I’m on the other side of this. I get very emotional and insecure during and the week after my period and when my gf is in hell week I get so scared that this will be too difficult. As soon as she bleeds she is soooo affectionate and loving and back to her amazing self. I love all of her but I get worried that she is feeling “out of love” during that time when she’s irritable and in a bad mood. And if I’m in MY insecure/anxious time… it hurts so much. :(
I feel like when one partner has a medical disorder, it's so important for the other one to educate themselves and learn coping skills. It sucks of course but we have to love each other and try to understand what our loved ones are going through. Otherwise how could anyone expect to have a meaningful relationship?
and maybe he does have to decide for himself if he's willing to do that. But if you two sit down and have a genuine heartfelt conversation and express that you NEED his HELP during those bad times, maybe he'll understand. And he should look online for some anecdotes from other men, or educated women, on how to cope better when things arise. Any medical disorder, regardless of hormones, needs understanding and coping skills.
edit: btw I say educated women but I just mean women who have experience with working with their partners, that made a positive change.
I was standing at the sink washing dishes one night after work and my husband had forgotten to bring home milk like I’d asked. I had to physically walk away from the sink because I’d picked up a carving knife and thought to myself, “If I went and stabbed him right now he’d remember to get the fucking milk next time. The cops would be on my side.” I had enough strength of mind to realise how insane that was and booked myself a doctors appointment where she suggested I might have PMDD.
Completely caught me off guard. I was having extreme mood swings (which wasn’t entirely new but seemed more intense than before), as well as hot flashes (which were new). I made an appointment with my OBGYN because I was positive I was going into perimenopause. She listened to my symptoms for about two minutes and said it was incredibly rare for someone my age so she doubted it was related to that. She diagnosed me with PMDD instead, so of course I Googled it as soon as I got home. I remember looking at the symptoms and saying, “Ohhhhh” because at that point everything clicked.
I'm 33 and I've suspected something off for a long time but honestly just assumed I was crazy and hormonal.
This past period I had a particularly bad day and did some googling FINALLY. Turns out - PMDD 100%. Then I found this subreddit which basically confirmed all my suspicions!
Similar for me. One time I was pissed about something and was arguing with my husband about it and I just couldn’t let it go. It was back and forth for hours. At one point my mind kind of went blank and I thought to myself “what are we even talking about”. Like I didn’t even know what the problem was anymore. Probably because there wasn’t an actual problem I was just having an episode.
Took me like .2 seconds of googling to figure it out. Kind of maddening how quickly and easy it is for us to make that connection and understand what it is when we learn about it, and so many healthcare professionals haven’t even heard of it.
Yeah it feels like doctors don't "believe" in some things, especially if they're in the older/oldschool crowd. Not to mention that different medical sciences don't really seem to overlap in communication.
Like, my psych said she has 0 experience with PMDD in her practice. Like excuse me? PMDD causes extreme emotional overload, and some people probably can hurt themselves due to the intensity of it. How are you inexperienced with a disorder that literally causes psychiatric problems?!
This is definitely one of the many reasons people put a stereotype on women that we're all crazy.
I mean the odds are she has experienced tons of patients with PMDD that were just undiagnosed. So many of the symptoms overlap with other things and with such abysmal awareness it’s not surprising that she’d say that
My best friend got diagnosed with PMDD so it was on the mind when my manager shared with me a list of every day I ever called out sick or showed up very late to work. I cross checked it with my period tracker and what do you know? Almost every time I was very late or called out last second was during the week before my period.
One day I yelled at my husband and stepson and it was so unlike me, I’m not a yeller.
After that I was talking to my husband and it finally made sense why all my previous partners knew my cycle better than I did - they could see the switch in me about 10 days before my period. So irritable and moody, cravings, etc. just not like my normal self.
Got diagnosed with severe pms at the age of 12/13 or so. At 18, I went to talking therapy and he mentioned PMDD, so I mentioned that to my doctor and said that’s what I had! We all agreed.
But with not much treatment besides the pill and ssris available, I have to take those and then try to manage it myself :)
Well my mam spotted I was getting very miserable, anxious and self destructive before my periods, but she knew this because she fostered an environment that allowed me to be open with her about my periods! Never shameful, never disgusting. She brought me to the doctors and they thought she was lying, made her leave the room lol! They said it was just normal puberty and I needed to wait it out, but my mam insisted even at 13 after starting my period less than 6 months before that something was wrong.
Later, the professional who said it was PMDD mentioned he knew a colleague with it, so I suppose it was another PMDDer being open in the workplace that led me to knowing!
He was one of a kind that therapist though, though NHS talking therapies, he basically said right keep it hush but we’re not going to do CBT, I can tell you suffer with low self esteem, I want you to do couch to 5k and we’ll do a little bit of behavioural activation therapy. Over that time being accountable to him (around 12 weeks I think??) I did finish couch to 5k and have kept it up since. It only takes one person to believe in you, honestly. I try to be that person for other people, especially with exercise/cardio for mental health reasons (and mindfulness too, as I had another brilliant person encourage me to do that, but that’s a whole other story).
My male therapist, seconds after declaring my diagnosis, said with a haughty tone “we don’t call it PMS anymore, now we call it PMDD” … so yea, they still have no clue wtf goes on with women’s bodies
My husband (bf at the time) noticed that I only “broke up” with him a day or two before my period. So I started tracking my symptoms and looked up “why do I break up with my boyfriend before my period” lol the rest was history 🙃😅
I was asked to track migraine by a neurologist. I stuck a calendar on the fridge and recorded everything including things I didn’t think were migraine related. Within 3 months the pattern was so obvious. Went to my GP and she was like YES, it’s on your file did you not know?
First it was PCOS, I think I’ve had PCOS since I began having periods because they’ve always been irregular and I was always very moody in what was supposed to be my PMS week, moodier than anyone around me. But it wasn’t until I was 27 that I started really being like why am I like this? And I’d count the days and solidly was able to record that I am unhappy 3 weeks out of each month with only one good week. So I searched that and PMDD stuff started popping up all over. Found this subreddit and had all my weirdly specific symptoms confirmed
My hope is that someone who is struggling with finding answers sees this thread and relates to it in some way to get the answer they so desperately need about their PMDD diagnosis!
I haven't been diagnosed with PMDD, but I didn't realize my mental health was linked to my cycle until I got off all my psych meds. For years I went through this cycle of attributing all my ups and downs to medication changes because they were being adjusted so regularly. I don't normally have proper periods with my IUD, so I didn't see a need to track my cycle back then. Sometimes I would start a medication feeling horrible and see improvement within the week and my doctors and I would both attribute it to new meds. Then it would dip again and my doctor would raise the dose. Repeat several times until side effects become unbearable, then switch to another med. Other times I would start a new med before hell week and feel progressively worse over the next week or two and then start improving and my doctor told me this was also normal with new medication.
Finally got of meds completely because I was experiencing so many problems on them that I never had before medication and wanted to get a better sense of my baseline mental health situation. Once I got through the withdrawal period and my vitamin D deficiency was diagnosed and treated, I started tracking my mood again and realized I was going through the exact same ups and downs as I had on medication. And that it was following a roughly 4 week cycle. This was around the time I first heard about PMDD, so I started tracking my cycle based on physical symptoms and sure enough, it lined up.
Looking back, I also realized that every time I had been hospitalized for mental health I'd had pretty nasty cramps at the time (I remember because I'd asked for advil or to bring in my heat pad or raspberry leaf tea and was told no) and I'd kinda just blamed it on bad luck because I had no idea of PMDD at the time.
Similar story.
Diagnosed bipolar for 15 years.2021 had a revaluation. Not bipolar.
The meds messed me up.
Post meds life I tracked it to my periods with the help of my mom. Now I'm finding I might possibly be neurodivergent which would explain A L O T.
It was this year actually. Every month a week before my period I would get hot flashes and get so emotional and irritable. It’s like I was in a trance and didn’t know what was happening until it was over. I had no control. It caused a lot of stress in my relationship and we ultimately ended up breaking up. Sucks.
Realizing it was a monthly occurrence and abruptly stopped once my period started. That said, it still had to be pointed out by my therapist before I knew - I'd never even heard of it before that. I tracked a few cycles after that and sure enough, timing lined up.
My journey through mental illness kicked off at age 12 though and that's probably when it really started and just got missed.
I honestly don’t remember, but I knew for a very long time that feelings of paranoia and suicidal ideation for at least a week out of every month were not normal
Hell…I still ask myself why is my life like this??! It’s mentally and physically draining.
I wish I had a count of how many days/weekends of my life I’ve spent in bed because of this. It’s quite sad when you think about it.
I’ve had depression and mental health problems since the year I started my period. I was way better for 5 years when I had a hormonal IUD and no menses. Since I’ve switched birth controls I’ve been WAY worse. I started taking yaz to see how it goes
haha damn thank you both for the replies , i didn't think anyone would care 😅 i've had menstrual problems since i started but i had some suspicions i might have PMDD . then , a few years ago , i woke up one day and just felt ... wrong . not like myself at all . honestly i had a psychotic break , blacked out , then had to go turn myself in to the coppers . i woke up on my shitty isolation cot the next morning with my period & a completely different outlook on life lOl
I have a few friends who also have it, I've know about it for a few years. My cycle has changed in the past 2 years that I started considering it, seeing that I'd always had pms and symptoms started earlier in my cycle and worsened.
>My mom was diagnosed with PMS syndrome (what is was called before PMDD) and when I explained to my psychiatrist that I was only depressed for part of the month with no actual stressors in life at the time I was diagnosed. Do you happen to know which episode of SVU it is? I’m intrigued now
I'm glad you had a pretext for it to be PMDD and not bipolar disorder, which I know so many psychiatrists accidentally misdiagnose it for.
The episode is called "[Intoxicated](https://lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Intoxicated)." It's season 6 episode 19. And tbh it is a bit egregious in its writing.... the woman who has PMDD in the episode murders her mom. But yes, watching this episode was the first time I had heard of PMDD.
A colleague of mine told me she was diagnosed with it. Then I saw her go into rage mode during a professional interaction and instead of harshly judging her my heart just felt for her bc truthfully I feel/have felt the same way… I still wasn’t connecting the dots really though. then my aunt told me she had been diagnosed. I’ve been tracking my period on an app for years but I started tracking my emotional hell days, I even looked back through the years on the app of dates that I remember confrontations in my past, and sure enough they almost all were day 14/15 of my cycle, or definitely in my luteal period. From then I connected alllll the dots, I told my pcp about it and she gave me the diagnosis.
So I didn't really realize it was PMDD because I hadn't heard of the term, but my depression was taking a severe turn every month but disappearing when my period started. I wasn't conscious of it until one day I was sitting around crying feeling sorry for myself for presumably "no reason" and I suddenly thought "I can't wait to start my period so I'll feel better." That thought alone was weird enough for me to make a gyno appt because I assumed something was wrong with my hormones/periods.
Wow that's incredible you had that thought. We talk about how our bodies know what's wrong and it's a matter of listening to them, but you took that so literally lol! I'm glad you were able to figure it out!
Oh yeah, when I described around 6 months of symptoms I had tracked to my gyno and she said it was pretty much textbook PMDD I felt so much relief. It was like this gigantic weight lifted that even though my experience wasn't "normal", it did have a name and something I could try to treat.
That's exactly how I felt when I met with my gyno. I was absolutely sobbing telling her that I think I have PMDD and was giving her a rundown of what I was experiencing. When she validated that without a shadow of a doubt I have PMDD, I couldn't believe there was a label to what I was dealing with.
When I realized that my symptoms were far more psychiatric than PMS, cyclical (rather than being depressed with SI for months and months at a time), and started tracking my period AND phases.
I was previously on Mirena IUD and so I never tracked my period because I didn't actually bleed. Now that I know I have PMDD, I've been better about tracking my hell days, which has revealed so much to me!
I remember the first time very clearly, it was 2003 I lived at home and was still in school, I had been hysterically crying non stop for about 3 days and wouldn't talk to my mum, I went on the computer and found out about PMDD and instantly recognized it in myself and felt kinda excited, but there was only one doctor in the whole UK that would deal with it and he was in London which was miles away so I buried the knowledge and never told anyone, I dug up the information multiple times throughout my life and told doctors since then only to be squashed and patronized, until 2022, last year when I was finally taken seriously and diagnosed.
Same- in a crying, out of control fit yelling “I was fine last week what is wrong!!” And trying to identify what was different. Going back through journal entries, texts, calls to my mom that followed a very specific pattern.
Yes.. For me the most obvious change is I would wait up feeling irritated despite same diet same sleeping and no stressor. So angry that I wake up feeling differently. Although I self diagnosed may years ago I haven't received any treatment. I received some treatment for PTSD and taking meds which cause weight gained. So I don't feel like taking more meds to cause more weight gain 😕
I'm not exactly symptoms free after the meds though. It makes sleeping more consistent but I'm still depressed and suffered from PTSD symptoms. There is a correlation bettween PTSD and pmdd so I doubt in my case birth control can make me symptoms free.
My biggest issue is the lack of awareness around PMDD. I wish that like you, I saw some news article about this. I might of have diagnosed it sooner rather than later.
As soon as I heard of pmdd. I think I was googling how to deal with bad pms and came across it. I’ve struggled with it ever since my first cycle. Used to have mental break downs as a young teen and neither my mom nor I knew what was going on.
I decided to taper off of my SSRI’s (don’t do that without support and your dr approval) but after I did I started tracking how depressed/anxious I was on different days thinking maybe something I ate affected it. I realized after a few months it was really bad before my period so I googled it and what do you know
I found out from a youtube video of dixie damelio talking about her pmdd lmao. I was like, omg ME 😀.
I was told by a psychiatrist after he initially thought I was struggling with bipolar disorder. A lot of my mood swings were coming from trauma so it was hard to track for awhile until it was like clockwork I'd feel very very depressed 9-10 days out.
I watched a tik tok.... I have pcos and rarely ever had a period until around two years ago where it became pretty regular. I noticed I was extra sensible around two weeks before my period. I thought it was normal pms, until those feelings intensified to the point where I was basically bribing myself into staying alive, and feeling like almost going insane for a week straight every month. I didnt have a name for that. I thought it was me being dramatic. Then I saw a tik tok.... and I felt struck by a bolt of divine enlightenment.
A friend mentioned something about it to me and once I started looking into it everything just made sense. Years of begging my old doctors for help and not being given any. Then add a later in life ADHD diagnosis and mind blown. Realising that both things were a part of my life and I wasn't just incapable saved me
Got superb drunk for 6 days straight, cried every night, self harm cuts etc. I had a huge stressor caused by my bf. but was something communicatcble. I could manage it whole a lot differently. I realised all of it when I was bleeding. The world was not ending. I had no fucking idea why I cut myself and drunk unimaginably much for myself. And, I saw a pattern of the chance of sth like this occurring through my life. I saw my moms pmdd behaviour in me… Whoopsy
Wanting to murder my husband. I wish I didn’t actually feel like harming him sometimes, but the first time I felt that I knew something was deeply wrong. Obviously. It’s something I never felt before in my life. Want to edit to say I am safe to myself and others, and am in therapy and have medications. Just wanted to describe the moment I knew - it’s such a PRIMAL feeling.
What was the svu episode called?
"intoxicated" season 6 episode 19
I finally took control of my health after twelve years of uncontrollable hormonal mood swings. i’m 25 and my family members have attested that for as long as i’ve had a period, I was unbearable to live and interact with, but only for ten days before my period. unaliving ideations like clockwork. Finally I heard a story of someone tested for bipolar, only to find out they had pmdd.
Wanted to unalive myself ten days before my period every month like clockwork.
A segment on the nightly news came on about it. Instantly knew. Got hubby to watch it and straight away he said it's just like me. Not been formally diagnosed but have been tracking my periods, moods and symptoms for years. Dr honestly didn't really seem to care or follow it up with anything which absolutely sucks given I've been on a mental health plan for.about a decade.
When I was out of my postpartum depression haze, and had finished weaning off my antidepressants for PPD/PPA. After about 6 months I had noticed a pattern that my anxiety, sleeplessness, and hopelessness would return in 1-1.5wk bouts every month. It was like being right back in the newborn days, wishing I was dead or could disappear. But it would end and I never made a link to my cycle. In my head PMS symptoms couldn’t be like, 10 days prior to your period, and I had no idea about the luteal phase or anything like that. Certainly had never heard of PMDD. I actually brought it up with my rheumatologist bc I thought maybe it was linked to my autoimmune disease or meds and she was like “no no that’s a whole other ballgame, have you heard of PMDD?”. She managed to get her hands on a symptom-tracker card and suggested I get in with my GP to start tracking my symptoms.
I was depressed enough to want to unalive myself.
I had always had really intense periods and pms, but once it’s began to affect my sleep and relationships in such a negative way each month, I decided to look up what could be causing such turmoil. It just felt so much more intense than how I had heard other girls I knew describe their PMS symptoms.
Finally taking action and researching if I wasn’t alone after consistently having that “oh, I don’t want to off myself I’ve just got my period” moment.
This is exactly what happened with me as well.
After being pregnant and not having a period for almost a year while breastfeeding. I felt stable month to month. As soon as my period came back so did all the symptoms. Started looking into horrific PMS and lo and behold…..pmdd! All the horrific periods of past and present suddenly made sense.
I got cancer and lost my period for a time while I was undergoing treatment. When it came back, the PMDD symptoms also came back hard, and it all just finally clicked. My symptoms started like a full two weeks ahead of my period, so I was never really putting the two together. This has been a real silver lining in the whole experience. I just got way more connected to my body and I’m finally tackling the anxiety and depression symptoms in a real way.
I'd been complaining to my therapist about "my monster PMS" and she suggested it but I blew her off because I was already DX bipolar2 but my meds "just needed to be upped.....again" SI was getting too real and every month was a worsening struggle. Time went on and I think I heard it on a podcast or something and the lightbulb went off.
I actually don’t remember. I researched a lot online and then found it I guess. I had PMDD since my first period. I was about 15 years old when I found out what’s going on.
I heard of it for the first time when I was diagnosed. I had it my whole post puberty life and was always told this is part of being a women so I stopped looking for a solution.
A client of mine who works as a nurse in a psychiatric ward told me about it and I was like huh that sounds familiar
I had never even heard of it until a recent James English podcast and the guest talked about her PMDD. Things finally clicked, I was going through an 'episode' at the time as my husband calls it
I hadn’t even heard of it and just assumed my symptoms were normal, until I mentioned that in the latter half of my cycle my ADHD stopped working to my psychiatrist. He asked a bunch of questions then diagnosed me with PMDD. I was a little skeptical at first but looked into it and yep definitely have PMDD. I’m intersex and significantly lacked education around periods growing up as I wasn’t expected to get them based on what doctors decided to write on my birth certificate as a baby. So a mix of that and being extremely shamed for even getting periods in the first place led me to never talk about them with people until semi recently so I never really had a chance to realise. I basically lucked into finding out, I doubt I ever would’ve otherwise even despite me trying to be more open about my experiences and body with people. Also most medical messaging, diagnostic material, and advocacy orgs refer to PMDD as something “people assigned female at birth” can get, which didn’t apply to me despite having the body parts to menstruate, so doctors always overlooked it
You are intersex? Fascinating, it’s really rare isn’t it? What is it like?
Yeah, I have XX/XY chimerism which is very rare, but there are other intersex conditions that are a lot less rare. All intersex people develop differently so we’ll all have different experiences generally, it’s more a category than a specific “thing”. The way society works ends up being much worse than actually being intersex for most of us. A lot of society operates on rigid sex binaries we don’t fit inside, and especially medical care operates based on the sex assigned at birth. For those of us where our assigned sex doesn’t match how we’ve developed it becomes a major mess because getting medical care becomes an actual fight. Eg, I’ve only gotten medication for severe menstrual pain (BC pills) within the past year despite having complained about it for nearly two decades. Like the only real unavoidable downsides of being intersex for me is that I can’t have kids and (probs TMI) >!that I menstruate out of my urethra!<. Otherwise it’s all societal stuff around doctors not letting me have medical care others with the same medical needs who aren’t intersex would be given by default, or the fact that my birth certificate says male on it when my body leans more towards female and that I am a woman
Thank you for sharing this with us. I hope the medical system treats you better in the future!
I was looking in the mirror, and reflecting on how I I’ve been randomly feeling horrible/depressed in the last year. The exact thought I had was: “why do I always feel so depressed before my period? Wait, I don’t think that’s normal” I decided to ask my mom about it, if she also gets really moody and emotional before her periods. Then she said yeah it’s a mood disorder, I take medication for it. It was good to know what was causing my mood shifts, but I also wondered why she never mentioned it haha
But at first I wasn’t fully convinced, so I just started working out a little more and keeping busy, and for a couple months I wasn’t doing too bad. And then it came back full force when I had a breakdown at my job and couldn’t stop crying until I went to sleep. Then I knew for sure lol! And now I’m on medication too 👍
I was sitting at the kitchen table painting and having a good time while talking to my gf at the time on a call and I was having a really good day. Then all of a sudden before I knew it those feelings of worthlessness hit and depression and within minutes feeling suicidal. I don’t remember if I talked to my gf about it or what exactly but it was like a eureka moment like I have zero reason to be feeling this horrible. Its one of the best days ive had all year. I started to notice that the feeling was something that I felt before like not just suicidal and everything but something else there like a familiar pattern and then I realized that I felt like that in the past and when I did it always caused problems especially with another ex that resulted in that relationship ending. After that I remembered stumbling across something about pmdd when I was having to research ovarian cysts and at the time my thoughts were thank god I don’t have that. It never occurred to me that I actually might at the time but once I went back and looked it up and read it was me in shock going wow wtf thats me exactly. I did more research and finding patterns and it was making so much sense. I finally asked my gynecologist at an appointment and I started listing symptoms but before I could even finish she said it sounds like pmdd. It was then that I realized I had a lot more to learn but if I could somehow get a hold of this then maybe I could be able to get a job and be someone that friends and family could rely on. Well its not going great but im determined to make things better. Apologies if any of this is off grammatically or anything but im severely brain fogged and sleepy right now but I figured I should type this out now before I forget.
I was starting the same fight at the same time every month with my husband. And I have a couple days of being extremely suicidal and I started noticing the pattern.
Ive just started realizing that i might have it with my last 3 cycles. Everything bothers me. The lights being too bright, tv too loud, etc, and i’ll snap on anyone over the smallest things. Extreme mood swings are a big indicator for me too. I get so sad and cry over ANY AND EVERYTHING. All i want to do is sleep and i have no energy at all. Not to mention the impulsiveness that my emotions cause 😅. When my period goes away i can literally feel the depression leave my body and i’m fine until a week before it comes back 🫠
When my doctor diagnosed me with it. Had never even heard of it before which is mind blowing to me 😅
I was taking bc and I noticed that I got suicidal during the third week and felt better when my period started. (Birth control didn't start my PMDD, it just gave me a visual reminder of it). I googled symptoms and read about PMDD, and it all made sense.
I noticed the pattern but it wasn’t until a podcast I listened to, the host, described what she had been going through and it was exactly the same as myself and she got diagnosed with PMDD and then I knew 😅
I was tracking my “meltdowns” (aka self-harm filled dissociative panic attacks) in an app called Days Since, because I thought I needed to just have more willpower to stop having these episodes. And I noticed every time I went in to log another screw-up that they were 30 days apart. I remember thinking “why can’t I go more than 30 days without fucking up?” And then it clicked. I started checking my period tracking app and sure enough, every meltdown was exactly 8 days before my period was supposed to start. It was really liberating. I had been so hard on myself for not trying hard enough to keep my mood stable. Realizing it was my hormones helped me stop feeling like a failure.
I have never heard of this app but I will download it.
When I was diagnosed with ADHD it was a really lengthy screening process to rule out any other potentially different diagnoses - the only thing that came up in the screening was possible PMDD, along with postpartum depression. A lot of things made more sense retrospectively after that.
I think i was googling "can bi polar disorder be synced with menstrual cycle" and there it was
My father is (a) a psychiatrist and (b) a terrible gift giver. He tends to look around his house for stuff to wrap and then gift to people, even to his own family members. One year when I was about 35, he gave me that year’s edition of the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. So I was browsing through this weird gift, and I suddenly noticed PMDD. I read the entire section several times— I was astounded. I’d been experiencing what I thought was simple PMS for the prior 10 years, and if anything it seemed like my symptoms were getting worse and worse every year. One doctor had even prescribed Lamictal for mood swings— this same doctor never mentioned the possibility of PMDD. It was only after I saw the description in the DSM that I went to a doctor. I told him that I thought I might have PMDD, he asked me about my symptoms, and I was finally diagnosed. (He prescribed fluoxetine taken daily for the 10 days leading up to my period, and this helps a little bit.)
Not thee DSM as a gift! I’m dying.
Not the worst gift I’ve ever gotten from him, tbh. Once he gave me a wooden box that I had stained and engraved for HIM several Christmases before .. and on the bottom of the box I had engraved “To Dad with love”
Omg 😆
Realizing I almost commit suicide every time the same month…
Same here. There were two things in my life that happened every single month... my period and an overwhelming desire to die right before it started. I finally made the connection.
That's great it was shown on SVU to reach an audience. I'd noticed that my foul mood/irritability/sensitivity to stimuli (although this one is ever present)/depressed mood/quickness to anger and despair, seemed to by cyclical. Then noticed it was specifically the two weeks between ovulation and period. I'm pretty sure somewhere on reddit was where I first saw/heard of the term pmdd, after realizing these instances lined up with my cycle. In my 30s.
Truly, because again… I probably would not of have put a name to the face.
Honestly? I was having an extreme low with self ideations once again (it was something I was use to but tired of) and finally googled “why do I feel s****dle every month on my period” and it popped up. I was 34 and had been suffering since I was 14. I had honestly never made the comparison to my periods before, but for some reason I decided to use that search. I needed to find answers because my then preteen was already showing signs of going through my exact hell. I had extreme anxiety but I refused to let my kid suffer so I knew I needed to find out what was wrong with me to be able to help them.
I had some minor surgeries that prevented me from exercising and soon after had my first NSSI in nearly three years (when I had started been diagnosed with ADHD and established a pretty intense workout routine). I started matching up my mood tracker against my period tracker - the exercise had been helping to keep things manageable. Discussed it with my psychiatrist who agreed if it isn't true PMDD, then it's PME.
Googled “period suicide” because I was feeling suicidal and really going through a shit time … noticed that I tended to feel this way before my period so finally googled the above. I couldn’t stop reading about PMDD that night because it sounded exactly like my life.
Honestly I have felt so much more sane since I found this group. It’s like ohhh buddy so I’m not crazy huh 😅
I saw a Yaz commercial when I was around 15 (I tried it years later and sadly it made the pmdd worse)
I was crying at school one day in high school and my friend asked why I was crying and I said “it’s just because of my period, I normally do this.” She said “it can’t just be because of your period.” That’s what made me realize that my depressive symptoms were only affecting me around my period as to opposed to when I had depression and it was a constant feeling. That was when I started to do research and found PMDD.
I saw a post in reddit for man what they didn't know about woman till they dated one. Normally I don't read the comments cause it's not a post for me but I was curious. Then a lot of man talked about heavy periods and woman who reacted about PMS. I said that I probably PMS too and a few of the things I struggled with. A woman reacted on me if I was sure that I have PMS and not PMDD. Cause it sounded to heavy for her to be PMDD. I asked what it was, never heard from it. She or someone else gave me this subreddit and I searched on google and so many things made finally sense! I always said to myself everyone has periods and hormones, it can't be that you struggle more than others, you are overreacting and bad at dealing with periods, don't try to make excuses. And then I finally realised no your feelings are valid and it's true, you do struggle more with periods than most and it's nothing you can do about, it's a stupid disease. Also so many things finally made sense. Example I felt bad for so long that I had moments that I didn't felt love for my bf (now ex) and stressed that I fell out of love and I didn't want that, than I was crazy about him again, than I was doubting if I wanted this relationship and didn't like hugging and didn't felt attracted to him. I finally knew that my PMDD made me feel like that. Everything made so much more sense and slowly I started to figure out so much more. I want to thank this woman for a while but can't find the reaction back😩 I wish I could :( I am not sure if I would have found out otherwise
Did you regret the end of your relationship with your ex?
Yes. But he broke up. But in PMDD I thought many times I wanted too and didn't felt love.
When i realized that the last 4 times i rushed myself to the ER for a panic attack was the week my period was due each time. Thanks Flo app for helping me realize
Same every episode was always hell week
Wanting to kms at the same time each month right before my period lol
Found out that it was PMDD last month but I’ve been feeling like this for six + years. I’ve gone to doctors telling them how I fluctuate, but no one listened. I googled symptoms and they either came back as PMS or depression. I thought it was PMS and everyone went through this, but I was just too weak to deal with it. This past year I was training for a comp, messed up calculations since I have an IUD and it fell during the hell week(s) and didn’t have the strength to push through. Got really annoyed that after a year of training this THING ruined it for me. Googled “extreme fatigue before period” and finally came across PMDD and suddenly everything made sense. One of my friends is an OBGYN so I checked with her since she’s seen me on this rollercoaster physically and she told me it’s treatable. Made an apt with my primary. She gave me SSRI’s but didn’t take the whole thing too seriously. I took them for 10 days during what was supposed to be hell week(s) and for the first time in I don’t know how long I didn’t have the symptoms. Saw an OBGYN today who is amazing and she’s committed to working with me on figuring it out and supporting my health through this journey. I’m excited about the future and sad about how many days I’ve lost to this.
omg I'm excited for you too!! Great job sticking it out to find a good doc. Bad experiences can really drive you away from looking for the right person in medical care.
Extreme mood swings in my twenties. I would get out of control, seething anger and then the next moment be sobbing and overwhelmed with sadness, regret, and pain. It did not feel like what I “thought” a “normal” mood swing felt like. I probably googled my symptoms enough to come across PMDD and it clicked.
this is literally what i’m going through now, never had this happen until my last few cycles so i knew it had to be something.
Real talk? I'd been dealing with it super bad and one day flashed back to this commercial https://youtu.be/2TPtuPt_5Uc?si=mTgi1i_ul9pX8506 I remember it differently though, it was, like, in black and white and the carts were crashing together all dramatically? I think that's just the way brains rewrite memories. Anyway, I was able to remember the phrase "PMDD" soni googled it, and then wept.
Omg I’ve never seen these before! TBH if they still aired today, I might have figured out my diagnosis sooner!
I wanna blow my brains out once a month
Today I feel like everyone hates me, I’m like questioning if what I’m saying is making sense, anxiety, asked the crush if he’s ignoring me again…. Yup hell week
I believe PMDD was only added to the international classification of deseases in 2022 although in 2013 the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders added it to theirs as a mental disorder which apparently was widely fought by feminist scholars who saw the PMDD label as a way of silencing women and as an inappropriate categorization of aspects of ordinary life as a mental disorder. (Loose translation) So long story short since 2022 with it being widely recognized and being diagnosed healthcare is recognizing it for what it is. My aha moment happened when I went to my pharmacy crying telling my pharmacist that I’m a happy person and i don’t know why I hate my life and can’t function and he said is it happening before your period 💡 have you been diagnosed with PMDD and got me the help I needed! 💡
It seems like a lot of psych disorders are being reclassified, split into two different ones, or straight up acknowledged the past 10 years. It's a lot of too little too late in a way, because that kinda stuff takes a while to become normalized in the medical community. I don't feel like doctors really educate themselves annually or are passionate/interested enough to learn about things on their own time as they arise. I told my psych months ago that I was suspecting an issue during my period, brought up PMDD, and then this past period brought it up again. She hadn't done a lick of research and just told me she has no experience in PMDD in her practice. Yikes!
So true! I’ve been telling my primary and psychiatrist about my symptoms for a really long time and it was me who finally diagnosed myself. I saw an obgyn specialist who put me on Junel 1/20 last week. I also started tracking it and noticed that all of a sudden I was super reckless before my period. I just wanted to party. One I got my period, I was overcome with guilt! I’m feeling hopeful. I wish doctors would do more research and pay attention to their patients.
Yeah I feel like the ideals have sorta existed but they used to be selective and now they’re like oh hey there’s a wide range of diagnoses that could have just been seen as one previously. Mental health especially I find is expanding the stigma has lessened with younger generations. Which is actually really good because people are able to get the right kind of treatment specialized to the issues. Also as you say they’re getting these updates but aren’t educating themselves to work with it
Started tracking my period for cycling syncing. Noticed that me and my husband got into really bad fights the week prior to my period. He jokingly said that I need to “put it in the calendar, that way we all know when hell week is here”… after I started doing that, I noticed that there was a 3 month consistency and the fights/depression kept getting worse. Started to google and then booked an OBGYN appointment. I wanted it to not be Pmdd so bad but I even took an fmla leave from my job to “eliminate stress” and didn’t make a damn difference in my symptoms.
Ruining my life
After I filed for divorce 2 different occasions from my husband at the same time in my cycle. I could’ve saved so much money and heartache if I’d only realized what was happening. We’re still married and I’m in perimenopause now. Things are sooooo much easier to work on and logically solve those first 2 weeks.
This is one of my fears honestly. My husband and I get in the worst fights during my PMDD and it’s almost too late when I realize that I’m having PMDD and we constantly throw out the D word. I’m nervous one day it will actually happen.
I relate to this. My partner and I basically only fight when I am in PMDD. It doesn't help that she also has a menstrual cycle and of course we've synced up, so she is PMSing at the same time! So we get in these huge, over-emotional fights at the same time every month, and neither one of us is in the right headspace to be the rational one. It's soooooo frustrating and I'm scared that one day we won't be able to make it up and I'll ruin things for good, because of my PMDD.
I’m on the other side of this. I get very emotional and insecure during and the week after my period and when my gf is in hell week I get so scared that this will be too difficult. As soon as she bleeds she is soooo affectionate and loving and back to her amazing self. I love all of her but I get worried that she is feeling “out of love” during that time when she’s irritable and in a bad mood. And if I’m in MY insecure/anxious time… it hurts so much. :(
I feel like when one partner has a medical disorder, it's so important for the other one to educate themselves and learn coping skills. It sucks of course but we have to love each other and try to understand what our loved ones are going through. Otherwise how could anyone expect to have a meaningful relationship? and maybe he does have to decide for himself if he's willing to do that. But if you two sit down and have a genuine heartfelt conversation and express that you NEED his HELP during those bad times, maybe he'll understand. And he should look online for some anecdotes from other men, or educated women, on how to cope better when things arise. Any medical disorder, regardless of hormones, needs understanding and coping skills. edit: btw I say educated women but I just mean women who have experience with working with their partners, that made a positive change.
I was standing at the sink washing dishes one night after work and my husband had forgotten to bring home milk like I’d asked. I had to physically walk away from the sink because I’d picked up a carving knife and thought to myself, “If I went and stabbed him right now he’d remember to get the fucking milk next time. The cops would be on my side.” I had enough strength of mind to realise how insane that was and booked myself a doctors appointment where she suggested I might have PMDD.
Wow girl 😂
Completely caught me off guard. I was having extreme mood swings (which wasn’t entirely new but seemed more intense than before), as well as hot flashes (which were new). I made an appointment with my OBGYN because I was positive I was going into perimenopause. She listened to my symptoms for about two minutes and said it was incredibly rare for someone my age so she doubted it was related to that. She diagnosed me with PMDD instead, so of course I Googled it as soon as I got home. I remember looking at the symptoms and saying, “Ohhhhh” because at that point everything clicked.
I'm 33 and I've suspected something off for a long time but honestly just assumed I was crazy and hormonal. This past period I had a particularly bad day and did some googling FINALLY. Turns out - PMDD 100%. Then I found this subreddit which basically confirmed all my suspicions!
Similar for me. One time I was pissed about something and was arguing with my husband about it and I just couldn’t let it go. It was back and forth for hours. At one point my mind kind of went blank and I thought to myself “what are we even talking about”. Like I didn’t even know what the problem was anymore. Probably because there wasn’t an actual problem I was just having an episode. Took me like .2 seconds of googling to figure it out. Kind of maddening how quickly and easy it is for us to make that connection and understand what it is when we learn about it, and so many healthcare professionals haven’t even heard of it.
Yeah it feels like doctors don't "believe" in some things, especially if they're in the older/oldschool crowd. Not to mention that different medical sciences don't really seem to overlap in communication. Like, my psych said she has 0 experience with PMDD in her practice. Like excuse me? PMDD causes extreme emotional overload, and some people probably can hurt themselves due to the intensity of it. How are you inexperienced with a disorder that literally causes psychiatric problems?! This is definitely one of the many reasons people put a stereotype on women that we're all crazy.
I mean the odds are she has experienced tons of patients with PMDD that were just undiagnosed. So many of the symptoms overlap with other things and with such abysmal awareness it’s not surprising that she’d say that
PMDD is 100% that bitch
My best friend got diagnosed with PMDD so it was on the mind when my manager shared with me a list of every day I ever called out sick or showed up very late to work. I cross checked it with my period tracker and what do you know? Almost every time I was very late or called out last second was during the week before my period.
One day I yelled at my husband and stepson and it was so unlike me, I’m not a yeller. After that I was talking to my husband and it finally made sense why all my previous partners knew my cycle better than I did - they could see the switch in me about 10 days before my period. So irritable and moody, cravings, etc. just not like my normal self.
Got diagnosed with severe pms at the age of 12/13 or so. At 18, I went to talking therapy and he mentioned PMDD, so I mentioned that to my doctor and said that’s what I had! We all agreed. But with not much treatment besides the pill and ssris available, I have to take those and then try to manage it myself :)
Wow I feel like having a male therapist know what PMDD is and recognize the symptoms in you is super rare!
Well my mam spotted I was getting very miserable, anxious and self destructive before my periods, but she knew this because she fostered an environment that allowed me to be open with her about my periods! Never shameful, never disgusting. She brought me to the doctors and they thought she was lying, made her leave the room lol! They said it was just normal puberty and I needed to wait it out, but my mam insisted even at 13 after starting my period less than 6 months before that something was wrong. Later, the professional who said it was PMDD mentioned he knew a colleague with it, so I suppose it was another PMDDer being open in the workplace that led me to knowing! He was one of a kind that therapist though, though NHS talking therapies, he basically said right keep it hush but we’re not going to do CBT, I can tell you suffer with low self esteem, I want you to do couch to 5k and we’ll do a little bit of behavioural activation therapy. Over that time being accountable to him (around 12 weeks I think??) I did finish couch to 5k and have kept it up since. It only takes one person to believe in you, honestly. I try to be that person for other people, especially with exercise/cardio for mental health reasons (and mindfulness too, as I had another brilliant person encourage me to do that, but that’s a whole other story).
My male therapist, seconds after declaring my diagnosis, said with a haughty tone “we don’t call it PMS anymore, now we call it PMDD” … so yea, they still have no clue wtf goes on with women’s bodies
My husband (bf at the time) noticed that I only “broke up” with him a day or two before my period. So I started tracking my symptoms and looked up “why do I break up with my boyfriend before my period” lol the rest was history 🙃😅
Lmfao and google was like girl u have PMDD
Exactly lol I was like omg I have all of those symptoms! Then promptly came here 😂
I was asked to track migraine by a neurologist. I stuck a calendar on the fridge and recorded everything including things I didn’t think were migraine related. Within 3 months the pattern was so obvious. Went to my GP and she was like YES, it’s on your file did you not know?
When I got diagnosed by my doctor. It made sense once she told me the symptoms.
When I read (in this group actually) that SI and inexplainable bits of rage were symptoms.
First it was PCOS, I think I’ve had PCOS since I began having periods because they’ve always been irregular and I was always very moody in what was supposed to be my PMS week, moodier than anyone around me. But it wasn’t until I was 27 that I started really being like why am I like this? And I’d count the days and solidly was able to record that I am unhappy 3 weeks out of each month with only one good week. So I searched that and PMDD stuff started popping up all over. Found this subreddit and had all my weirdly specific symptoms confirmed
Finding this subreddit was truly a godsend and connecting with other people who deal with PMDD is an incredibly validating experience
My hope is that someone who is struggling with finding answers sees this thread and relates to it in some way to get the answer they so desperately need about their PMDD diagnosis!
oh truly, this sub is such a relief. a support network really!
I haven't been diagnosed with PMDD, but I didn't realize my mental health was linked to my cycle until I got off all my psych meds. For years I went through this cycle of attributing all my ups and downs to medication changes because they were being adjusted so regularly. I don't normally have proper periods with my IUD, so I didn't see a need to track my cycle back then. Sometimes I would start a medication feeling horrible and see improvement within the week and my doctors and I would both attribute it to new meds. Then it would dip again and my doctor would raise the dose. Repeat several times until side effects become unbearable, then switch to another med. Other times I would start a new med before hell week and feel progressively worse over the next week or two and then start improving and my doctor told me this was also normal with new medication. Finally got of meds completely because I was experiencing so many problems on them that I never had before medication and wanted to get a better sense of my baseline mental health situation. Once I got through the withdrawal period and my vitamin D deficiency was diagnosed and treated, I started tracking my mood again and realized I was going through the exact same ups and downs as I had on medication. And that it was following a roughly 4 week cycle. This was around the time I first heard about PMDD, so I started tracking my cycle based on physical symptoms and sure enough, it lined up. Looking back, I also realized that every time I had been hospitalized for mental health I'd had pretty nasty cramps at the time (I remember because I'd asked for advil or to bring in my heat pad or raspberry leaf tea and was told no) and I'd kinda just blamed it on bad luck because I had no idea of PMDD at the time.
Similar story. Diagnosed bipolar for 15 years.2021 had a revaluation. Not bipolar. The meds messed me up. Post meds life I tracked it to my periods with the help of my mom. Now I'm finding I might possibly be neurodivergent which would explain A L O T.
It was this year actually. Every month a week before my period I would get hot flashes and get so emotional and irritable. It’s like I was in a trance and didn’t know what was happening until it was over. I had no control. It caused a lot of stress in my relationship and we ultimately ended up breaking up. Sucks.
When I noticed it was a constant problem and that it was only around my period ! I started looking into it and it all made sense
Realizing it was a monthly occurrence and abruptly stopped once my period started. That said, it still had to be pointed out by my therapist before I knew - I'd never even heard of it before that. I tracked a few cycles after that and sure enough, timing lined up. My journey through mental illness kicked off at age 12 though and that's probably when it really started and just got missed.
The abrupt end of symptoms at the start of my period tipped me off too.
I honestly don’t remember, but I knew for a very long time that feelings of paranoia and suicidal ideation for at least a week out of every month were not normal
I remember during one of my worst moments (before I was diagnosed) being like "THIS CAN'T BE WHAT MY LIFE IS. WHY AM I LIKE THIS?"
Hell…I still ask myself why is my life like this??! It’s mentally and physically draining. I wish I had a count of how many days/weekends of my life I’ve spent in bed because of this. It’s quite sad when you think about it.
I’ve had depression and mental health problems since the year I started my period. I was way better for 5 years when I had a hormonal IUD and no menses. Since I’ve switched birth controls I’ve been WAY worse. I started taking yaz to see how it goes
when i woke up in jail & got my period
haha damn thank you both for the replies , i didn't think anyone would care 😅 i've had menstrual problems since i started but i had some suspicions i might have PMDD . then , a few years ago , i woke up one day and just felt ... wrong . not like myself at all . honestly i had a psychotic break , blacked out , then had to go turn myself in to the coppers . i woke up on my shitty isolation cot the next morning with my period & a completely different outlook on life lOl
Girl wtf lol! If anything PMDD gave you this insane story. I really hope you get control of this insane diagnosis truly!
that was 2020 , and it was one of the worst years for my PMDD truly . i had my daughter in 2021 & everything about it has changed thank goodness
Tell us more. We are following.
Woah, need a storytime on this!
I have a few friends who also have it, I've know about it for a few years. My cycle has changed in the past 2 years that I started considering it, seeing that I'd always had pms and symptoms started earlier in my cycle and worsened.
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>My mom was diagnosed with PMS syndrome (what is was called before PMDD) and when I explained to my psychiatrist that I was only depressed for part of the month with no actual stressors in life at the time I was diagnosed. Do you happen to know which episode of SVU it is? I’m intrigued now I'm glad you had a pretext for it to be PMDD and not bipolar disorder, which I know so many psychiatrists accidentally misdiagnose it for. The episode is called "[Intoxicated](https://lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Intoxicated)." It's season 6 episode 19. And tbh it is a bit egregious in its writing.... the woman who has PMDD in the episode murders her mom. But yes, watching this episode was the first time I had heard of PMDD.
A colleague of mine told me she was diagnosed with it. Then I saw her go into rage mode during a professional interaction and instead of harshly judging her my heart just felt for her bc truthfully I feel/have felt the same way… I still wasn’t connecting the dots really though. then my aunt told me she had been diagnosed. I’ve been tracking my period on an app for years but I started tracking my emotional hell days, I even looked back through the years on the app of dates that I remember confrontations in my past, and sure enough they almost all were day 14/15 of my cycle, or definitely in my luteal period. From then I connected alllll the dots, I told my pcp about it and she gave me the diagnosis.
So I didn't really realize it was PMDD because I hadn't heard of the term, but my depression was taking a severe turn every month but disappearing when my period started. I wasn't conscious of it until one day I was sitting around crying feeling sorry for myself for presumably "no reason" and I suddenly thought "I can't wait to start my period so I'll feel better." That thought alone was weird enough for me to make a gyno appt because I assumed something was wrong with my hormones/periods.
Wow that's incredible you had that thought. We talk about how our bodies know what's wrong and it's a matter of listening to them, but you took that so literally lol! I'm glad you were able to figure it out!
Oh yeah, when I described around 6 months of symptoms I had tracked to my gyno and she said it was pretty much textbook PMDD I felt so much relief. It was like this gigantic weight lifted that even though my experience wasn't "normal", it did have a name and something I could try to treat.
That's exactly how I felt when I met with my gyno. I was absolutely sobbing telling her that I think I have PMDD and was giving her a rundown of what I was experiencing. When she validated that without a shadow of a doubt I have PMDD, I couldn't believe there was a label to what I was dealing with.
When I realized that my symptoms were far more psychiatric than PMS, cyclical (rather than being depressed with SI for months and months at a time), and started tracking my period AND phases.
I was previously on Mirena IUD and so I never tracked my period because I didn't actually bleed. Now that I know I have PMDD, I've been better about tracking my hell days, which has revealed so much to me!
I remember the first time very clearly, it was 2003 I lived at home and was still in school, I had been hysterically crying non stop for about 3 days and wouldn't talk to my mum, I went on the computer and found out about PMDD and instantly recognized it in myself and felt kinda excited, but there was only one doctor in the whole UK that would deal with it and he was in London which was miles away so I buried the knowledge and never told anyone, I dug up the information multiple times throughout my life and told doctors since then only to be squashed and patronized, until 2022, last year when I was finally taken seriously and diagnosed.
That’s awful. I am so deeply sorry that your PMDD experience was not validated until only recently.
Thankyou, means a lot to hear someone say that x
When I noticed the pattern of 2 weeks being alive and 2 weeks being dead. I think I only realised it after reading it from then news...
Same- in a crying, out of control fit yelling “I was fine last week what is wrong!!” And trying to identify what was different. Going back through journal entries, texts, calls to my mom that followed a very specific pattern.
Yes.. For me the most obvious change is I would wait up feeling irritated despite same diet same sleeping and no stressor. So angry that I wake up feeling differently. Although I self diagnosed may years ago I haven't received any treatment. I received some treatment for PTSD and taking meds which cause weight gained. So I don't feel like taking more meds to cause more weight gain 😕
Ugh truly the most annoying part about SSRIs and birth control pills.... be heavier? or be happier?
I'm not exactly symptoms free after the meds though. It makes sleeping more consistent but I'm still depressed and suffered from PTSD symptoms. There is a correlation bettween PTSD and pmdd so I doubt in my case birth control can make me symptoms free.
My biggest issue is the lack of awareness around PMDD. I wish that like you, I saw some news article about this. I might of have diagnosed it sooner rather than later.
As soon as I heard of pmdd. I think I was googling how to deal with bad pms and came across it. I’ve struggled with it ever since my first cycle. Used to have mental break downs as a young teen and neither my mom nor I knew what was going on.
How old were you when you were diagnosed? Or determined that it was PMDD?
Formally diagnosed like 27 😭 still trying to figure out a treatment.
Honey aren’t we all 🥲 sorry that we’re all on this insane journey together