Ladies, is OCD worse on your period?

[mmmmww]

Hi ladies, sorry if this is quite personal/tmi, but I have noticed that my OCD appears to be worse when I am on my period. For my period week, I have noticed that I wash my hands/change my clothes/do rituals more often than the rest of the month.

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed a difference whilst on their period or is it just a coincidence and I am putting two and two together.

[1BlessedMaMa]

Yes! I deff see a slight difference during that time. Because of all the hormones and then i feel really testy so things tend to bother me more and stressed so then here comes the ocd!

[mmmmww in reply to 1BlessedMaMa]

Thanks. It is interesting to know.I guess maybe the change in hormones affects the brain chemistry to make the OCD more prominent.

Well at least now I have an explanation as to why certain weeks/days are "bad" days.

[BlackOnyx]

I am not sure if my OCD is worse than but my depression is way worse than. Mines coming up soon and I skip it with birth control a lot but I think I'm supposed to have it every three months so I'm worried in a couple days it wil be awful. Any tips for improving mental health while on your period. Also I'm genderqueer so I have gender stuff around my period too.

[mmmmww in reply to BlackOnyx]

I have only developed my contamination OCD when our son was born. So only had it for about 19 months and I have only recently noticed (last 2 or 3 months) that OCD seems to be worse on my period.

I used to take the pill before child birth and have not started it back up again yet. (Undecided on a 2nd child) but since I didn't have OCD prior child birth, I have nothing to compare it to.

On my other posts, A few other prople have suggested vitamin B6, so you could maybe try that? I am certainly going to look into it.

[BlackOnyx in reply to mmmmww]

Thanks.

[Eli_E]

I definitely noticed my thoughts going a lot more haywire on my last period. I think I was able to notice it more this time around because I have been in therapy and have started to experience improvements so I think this past month's plunge back into louder OCD thoughts felt a lot more dramatic and thus was more noticeable. My therapist said she definitely has some patients who experience a shift. She said for some its not too noticeable, but she did say that she has a few patients are in a really good spot mentally, but things always take a dive either on or around their period. I'm guessing all our experiences are slightly different because our bodies are different, but from what I gather it is definitely a thing.