new here, PMDD

[Luvmyboston]

i’m new to this group. I’m wondering if there’s others that suffer with PMDD. I’ve had it for years and there’s been times where it has been worse than others. I just had a really bad episode recently scared my boyfriend to death. My emotions are so erratic and I start to feel suicidal at times I hate the roller coaster, and I understand that the people in my life also have a hard time being around it. It just adds to the isolation and kind of a shame that goes with it anyway, I’m looking for anybody that would like to talk more about this or has had success with treatment. I do take meds for my depression and reading about other peoples stories with PMDD I think mine could be so much worse to the point of hospitalization if I wasn’t on meds, now I’m getting to the age of menopause so these periods have gotten extremely dark and brings me to the lowest of lows in my depression . Look forward to finding support in this group.

[Luvmyboston]

It’s my fits of rage and anger where I can’t even get my emotions under control of that is embarrassing and leads to a lot of self hatred. It’s a hell I would never wish on anybody else. Still trying to work on solutions and answers to make my cycle easier but so far nothing has been 100% successful.

[Luvmyboston]

I’ve gone back to that after trying the morena iud, which I was told would help. All I experienced was constant bleeding. And now my dr even has me go 3 months without a break from the hormonal pills. Doesn’t take away the suffering, just have it less times a year. Not sure what is next. I just came out of a bad episode, need to talk to the dr again

[MyStar86]

I was diagnosed back in 2021 after years of suffering, mine was due to an intolerance to progesterone. I went through chemical menopause with hrt and then had a total hysterectomy everything removed ovaries, tubes, cervix and uterus. It took a while to balance the hrt but it’s been like a miracle I felt like a new person rhe dark clouds lifted and life was clear again. The constant fluctuations in hormones would send me into a spiral different pills made me worse but the hysterectomy was a risk however it’s the best decision I ever made.

[Luvmyboston in reply to MyStar86]

Thank you for sharing your personal experience. It seems like I keep hearing a lot about hysterectomies making a huge difference. That’s a big decision but I appreciate so much the feedback.

[MyStar86 in reply to Luvmyboston]

Yes it is a big decision but I did it and I was only 35 but it saved my life time Pmdd made me suicidal so really it was an easy choice for me but don’t underestimate the surgery is massive and it’s a big recovery it was a shock to me as I didn’t really think about that side of things plus getting the hrt balance to start with is scary I’d say 4/6months before I was fully settled 4 months and I felt amazing the oestrogen really boosted me and I felt human again the dark clouds lifted and it all became worth it. However I would advise doing chemical menopause first with hrt to see if it actually helps you save a massive surgery without knowing plus then you can balance the hrt during the chemical menopause. I didn’t get on with the zoladex so I only did it for a month but took the risk of the surgery as I had nothing to lose and luckily it paid off. Let me know if you have any questions I’m always happy to help xx

[Luvmyboston in reply to MyStar86]

Did your doctor do hormone testing on you? I’ve had some doctors that are not willing to give me hormone treatment because I’m diabetic, but being suicidal every time I go through a cycle is frightening. I’m glad I’ve met somebody that gets this. People that don’t have any issues around this have a very hard time understanding it. this last time I didn’t want to be left alone for one of the days, but I live alone. I don’t have any really close friends or family that lives close by me. I inflicted a mild amount of self harm. I need to just go to my doctor and tell them what I need. I feel like because I’m calm when I talk to them they don’t take it as seriously.

[MyStar86 in reply to Luvmyboston]

No my gynaecologist didn’t do hormone testing because I have always been on the combined contraceptive pill and he said that the bloods wouldn’t be accurate due to the pill which makes sense to me but I couldn’t stop taking it as my breaks were my mental time. It all became clear when I had to swap pills due to mine coming off the market and I totally lost my mind it was the scariest time of my life as I was out on a pill with different progesterone in it and I flipped I was a totally different person I would cry myself to sleep cry all the time and just want to die it was awful but we never knew it was the pill however talking things through with my gp after over a year of thinking I was mental all on my own she swapped me to another one and it was like a miracle but every month I would go through the Pmdd cycle of hell so I chatted things through with her and she referred me to a gynaecologist who totally got it but unfortunately also found I had endometriosis and the treatment for that is progesterone 😱 this is when we all realised my issues properly and we tried the chemical menopause but the hrt wasn’t strong enough for me so I was having panic attacks and couldn’t cope so I stopped the zoladex after a month. My gynaecologist was then worried about a hysterectomy due to my reaction to the zoladex but it was the wrong progesterone in the hrt anyway luckily I needed a hysterectomy due to my endometriosis and my gynaecologist totally got the Pmdd issue and was worried for my mental health so we went ahead quickly and then I was able to take oestrogen only.

It’s very difficult to cope with and I do 100% understand it was the worst years of my life going through it and no one understands you feel very alone but I promise I will always be here if you need to rant just message me. I was the opposite during my worst times all I wanted was to be on my own as I could t cope with people they would just add to my anxiety. Oh my lovely I never self harmed so I can’t relate or advise on that one but please don’t hurt yourself be strong and calm when you talk to doctors get your point across and fight for your life it’s hard but you have to be your own advocate so you need to be strong and assertive as it’s not an easy thing for some doctors to understand but keep going till you get the right one. Massive hugs xx

[MyStar86]

I just wanted to check how you are doing?xx

[Luvmyboston]

thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with me. And the encouragement to be my own advocate. I know that’s what’s needed 100%.

I went through my period cycle and got back on my birth control, hormonal pills, and went back to my normal self. While, youre’re in the midst of it and at your low point of PMDD you start to believe that that’s who you are. Because you’re not thinking straight. My next step is to reach out to my doctor. When he told me to take the hormone pills continuously for three months and then take a break, he said just be prepared. But that’s not acceptable, feeling like you just wanna die, and you can’t trust your own self.

Thanks so much for checking back in with me. I know I’ll be taking you up on your offer to message you.. as you know, there’s not a lot of people out there that understand this PMDD.

❤️

[Lizzo30]

Have you tried natural progesterone cream

[Workingonme]

hello, just trying to figure out if I’ve got PMDD. I had bad periods and very hormonal when younger, so ended up on the pill, the implant etc. I came off my pill in my early 30’s to start trying for a baby, and I remember terrible anxiety hitting me just before my period. Didn’t think much of it once it was over and just thought it was the hormones all levelling out etc. not long got pregnant and then after the birth of my son I suffered very badly with anxiety. I couldn’t eat, sleep, function and was trying to look after a little baby. It was so hard. I ended up on anti depressants and back on the pill and I eventually picked up. Once I started to feel better I weaned off the anti depressants. I felt ok until about August 2021, we got Covid and my anxiety spiralled once again and I have pretty much suffered with this up and down since. I was on and off the pill I kept coming off as was worried it was bad for me. But then was still struggling with my mental health.

I have been trying various anti depressants to help, but I had noticed a pattern in my cycle from dec and jan, I got the coil last June, started my new anti depressant in September, picked up a bit, but by December I seen the lead up to my period I was starting to feel ‘off’ and anxious. I noticed this again in Jan before my period and it was setting my anxiety off badly. So i told my doctor about this, he suggested getting the merena coil out, he also said to up my antidepressants so that was 25th Jan I seen him. So upped the tablets, then got my coil out, then felt ok was managing but then side effects from what I think was the dose increase hit me, I couldn’t eat, felt sick, sweating, dry mouth from 17th feb over 3 weeks after upping my dose. I have since been to see the doctor to start the pill again as I was so worried about everything. So now have a lot going on in my system. Upped dose of anti depressant, coil out and started the pill. Feeling very anxious the last few days but would have been due on next week; so possibly my cycle causing this to and how I would normally feel. I just feel at a loss. I know need to let things settle I was ok on cerelle before I had my son. But it’s so hard at the minute it’s been going on for so long. Any advice on this? Anyone been like this? Thank you