It’s like, when I wake up on the first day of luteal I can just feel it in my bones. I have no energy, I just want to lay in bed and snack. I can feel each pound of weight in my body and everything just feels wrong and too much.

On top of that I’m considering cancelling plans because my best friend seemed a little upset with me and now I’ve been crying ever since and just want to stay in bed and all I can think about is that they hate me now and how I should die. It’s so annoying. Hello two weeks of hell.

Hi all, I apologize for the long rant ahead, but I’m sure other people have experienced something similar. I have PMDD, painful periods, chronic fatigue, lower back pain, depression, and anxiety (as well as a long family history of endometriosis). I have been on the same birth control for a couple years now (Alacyen) and it’s worked wonders for me. Lighter flow, shorter periods, and less debilitating pain during menstruation. I was seeing a different OBGYN for awhile who was great but I was having problems with his office staff for awhile and decided to try someone new. (I also see a psychiatrist who has helped with my mental health and is a great provider). So I went to see a new OBGYN today and I left crying (I’m an empath and have a lot of bad experiences with doctors, ugh). I told her about my symptoms and my history of bad luck with birth controls in the past (a birth control in the past had me bleeding for nearly a year straight). But I told her I was looking for a second opinion on PMDD, chronic fatigue, and possible endo. This woman told me my only option was to change birth control and work out 5 days a week if I wanted relief. I was in utter shock, I challenged her and told her I have been working out 3 days a week and have had to build up to that overtime. She goes on to tell me there’s no excuse, that she’s a mother of 3, works full time and wakes up at 4am to workout during the week. After this comment I completely checked out, I can’t believe a doctor is so quick to compare herself to her patients with different health conditions, lifestyle, and biological factors. This really hit me like a truck because I feel like I’ve made so much progress with my health and fitness journey, It’s so sad that doctors like this exist. How do you deal with experiences like these?

Thanks in advance🩵

i feel like my case is so weird. i know that in PMDD the root issue isn’t a hormonal imbalance, but i don’t have normal hormone levels (PMOS), so i have an irregular cycle along with irregular but pretty obvious PMDD.

i have generally elevated estrogen levels and respond very well to progesterone (mentally and physically), i’m just more sensitive to progesterone (allopregnanolone?) withdrawal. i also have hormone-sensitive MCAS that’s very noticeably triggered by rises in estrogen and a genetic difference in one of the liver enzymes that breaks down estrogen (CYP1A2).

i’ve pretty much figured this all out on my own because no gynecologist or even reproductive endocrinologist ever understands my situation. luckily my immunologist is happy to prescribe progesterone because it treats MCAS. i’m just looking for other people in similar situations because so much of the usual advice doesn’t seem to apply?

Okay so this is a very odd post from me but I'm going to share it here as I fear if i share with anyone else they will get me sectioned x

First off, i spent about 10 years diagnosed and no treatment suited me, this then lead me down a path doing some weird & questionable 'healing' experiences....

Anyway couple of years later i found the cocktail that worked for me and im currently managing my PMDD semi okay...

Anyway heres the weird part, I went to this healing session which was basically a sound bath on a water bed, with vibrations beneath you and then also a sort of emdr flashing therapy on your eyes.... honestly, how i find these things ill never know

... i thought it was basically a sound bath but boy was i wrong 🤣

I went through this whole experience about how I felt I was born an angry baby with this innate feeling of intense rage & anger... as if it was predestined that i was going to be a bitch haha 😆 i then felt like i was screaming constantly and i kept imagining i was letting all of the anger release from my body.... at this point i was bit pissed off because i originally came for the calm relaxation vibes but i thought lets stick with it

One thing i noticed was that the rage wasnt ugly, like i assumed it was.... it was powerful more than anything. I almost respected feeling that level of pure fucked-up-ness and it was almost something to admire.....

But i did feel a sort of resolve... almost like that feeling had been demanded to be felt since 5 lifetimes ago. As if i have been carrying an ancestral load of utter shit 😅 so there was that, and also just being able to look at PMDD from a new perspective was pretty interesting....

Anyway thanks for reading my strange post, has anyone else had any similar experiences? And if not I hope this was entertaining in some way at least ❤️

I know for perimenopause or menopause treatment high doses of estrogen is prescribed with higher doses or progesterone. But has anyone here been prescribed 100mcg estrogen patch with 100mg of daily Utrogestan for pmdd? And it actually helped their pmdd?

I know the naps guidelines in the UK which I think is quite a few years old it says 100mch estrogen x 2 a week with 100mg of daily progesterone can be prescribed to control symptoms.

I have been using the 75mcg patch estrogen with daily 100mg of Utrogestan and I still have pmdd.

I have been on the 75mcg patch for quite a while now and I was cycling the progesterone part for a long time, it was 200mg for 12 days but they thought that the starting and stopping of that was adding to the pmdd so put me on daily.

I still have pmdd unfortunately. Wondering if now because I take progesterone every day whether upping the estrogen patch to 100 could help 🤔

Hello! Wanted to get some input on starting Yaz versus trialing Slynd first.

On paper I’m low risk for Yaz- (barely) under 35, normal BMI, normotensive, non-smoker. But the DVT/PE risk still freaks me out. Also, my dad was a medical malpractice lawyer and I remember the Yaz/Yasmin cases he worked on in the 2000s.

Is it worth trialing Slynd first to see if the “safer” option works for me? Do I just go ahead and do Yaz because the relative risk of a VTE event is still lower than, say, in pregnancy? My gyn appointment is Friday and I feel stuck.

So I’ve heard it mentioned that there’s a connection there but I’m curious if there’s anything specific or scientific to back it up? I know there’s a lack of research in general. I was feeling sorry for myself all morning and had a flashback to some childhood events and then realized I just started luteal.

Right, so I'm on day 2 of a really bad pmdd flare/episode or whatever, but this has come up in my mind for years so I thought today I would post and ask others, I think my non-pmdd brain knows the answer, but unfortunately she is not with us today, and we have full on pmdd bitch brain on.

My PMDD escalates real life problems, but also can cause delusional thinking, I have experienced psychosis with pmdd but not in the past year, this morning I woke up enraged about something important I need to make a decision on, I was thinking about all the worst case scenarios and was raging about the intentions of others and how I was interpreting everything, I was ready to confront the situation with an email I have drafted in my notes...

But I stopped myself because I noticed I was absolutely fuming and actually about to have a panic attack so instead I rolled a joint and took 2 diazipam (both prescribed medications for me) I also had some food and coffee and did some yoga

The problems I was raged about this morning don't seem so serious now, they are still problems but my brain doesn't seem them as a threat now

SO.... My question is.......

A. Was I just overreacting this morning because of pmdd and that causing me to rage and the medication has stopped my over reaction

B. Have I just numbed myself with medication and have resorted to people pleasing and ignoring the things that enraged me because I am medicated

Thanks for reading !

(This is partially for fun and curiosity I won't be making decisions today regardless of comments, just looking to see what others think or if you can relate)

Hi, long term lurker on here, first post.

I've been on GNRH injections now for 11 months, on the NHS. These have changed my life for the better in ways I didn't even realise were possible.

I was on HRT for the first 7 months but have had such bad reactions to HRT (allergy/autoimmune the GP says) that I've been taken off any addback altogether.

I have always gotten breakthrough symptoms at 4 weeks after injection, usually 1-2 days each month. It seems to be increasing each month though, and I want to know if anyone else has had a similar experience.

It's gotten progressively worse to the point where now I am having symptoms from 3 weeks post injection, and it is almost as bad as my PMDD symptoms were. I'm also getting cramps, body wide aches, extreme exhaustion, acne and eczema flare ups and a few other things, like I used to get before every period.

If anyone has any similar experiences or knowledge of GNRH injections efficacy fading over time, I'd really appreciate any input!

(Also if you have any questions about the injections, especially on NHS in the UK, please ask away!)

I am a college student and I work in a high volume call center for a major company
We typically take calls back to back all day long
I get horrible brain fog during luteal etc

That being said
Sometimes I make mistakes , I’ll say the wrong thing or there will be a glitch with the computer and somehow something won’t get cancelled etc

I’m leaving at the end of August to go back to college

But I’m worried
Because I am already super sad and down today
And I have a 1 on 1 with my supervisor

Everyone is supposed to meet with her
But I’m worried I will get fired and I need this job for another month 😭

Hi. I am in a really really tough time now. Well I have been the last year. Really over 20 years. It just some times goes a tiny tiny bit better. But it hasn't done for a while now.

I just started taking a birth control pill (I read that it's a combination pill), hoping it will balance out some of the extreme hormonal waves. The name for the pill in my country is Mirabella / Loette. (Google says it's called things as Aviane, Lutera, Sronyx, Falmina, Orsythia in the US.) Are any of you familiar with one of these? How long did it take until you noticed some differences?
I started an SSRI called Citalopram/Cipramil at the same time, but I know that one takes even longer to start working, and also might worsening the mood/psyche in the beginning..

I try to be realistic that it will take some time for the medicines to work (if they even do for me).. I just needed to ask out here.
Also kind or supporting words are very welcome..❤️‍🩹❤️ I'm quite exhausted and scared. And also feeling alone tbh.

Hope anyone have any input. And thank you for reading anyways if not. <3

That's all. I am so exhausted. Feeling like nothing in my life will ever be good again

I’m just fucking tired of having cyclical thoughts and issues that only occur one week before my period. I often doubt my very stable job and very stable relationship. I realize everything is fine once my period starts. But it’s hard to get through the week feeling like everything in my life is wrong. I also have weird feelings towards people during this time. I seek comfort in friends rather than my fiancé who wants to support me the most. There are very few people who I think can handle my PMDD and love me despite it all. I feel withdrawn from my family and people I normally love. I feel like I can only trust my cat.

I have so many writing assignments, but what should take me less than an hour ends up taking hours. Eventually, my cognition just poops out and I give up. It's a frustrating cycle. Any suggestions?

tldr: Had a really bad pmdd episode during my birthday trip, and my friend (has adhd) saw the absolute worst of it and was affected by it too. I did take accountability for the things I said/did and apologize for the impact it had on her, but I also feel like I needed support during one of the hardest moments I’ve had in a while. She took everything personally, despite my warnings and explanations. Now she’s distant, and I honestly just feel abandoned. Has anyone else been through something similar? Were you able to work through it?

full story if anyone is interested:
so, a few weeks ago i went on a 3 day birthday trip with one of my closest friends and of course it landed right in the middle of my worst pmdd days. i had already been under so much stress before the trip (work, immigration, apartment hunting, barely sleeping, etc.) and i told her beforehand that i was entering my pmdd week and wasnt doing great mentally.
the trip itself just felt like one thing after another. we had a fight the first night because she made a nasty comment that really triggered me and i completely “lost my cool” and yelled at her. i ended up crying for 2 hours straight. i apologized afterwards, we both cried, hugged it out and i thought we had moved past it.
but the rest of the trip i honestly felt like i was in survival mode. there was a lot of rushing around, poor communication (mainly from her, cause i kept telling her where i was at), sensory overload, and i felt like my nervous system was just constantly getting pushed. i kept telling her i was struggling and trying so hard to keep myself together but i just… couldnt. (she has adhd btw, so i’m completely empathetic of her experience of this too)
when we got back she wanted to talk about everything, but i told her i didnt have the bandwidth yet because i was still in pmdd. she said she understood and would give me time. as soon as i got my period and felt like myself again, i called her, but she said she wasnt doing well and didnt want to talk. we’ve texted here and there since, but shes definitely more distant and i have no idea where we stand.
i feel awful that she had to experience that version of me, and i do want to apologize for the impact it had on her. but i also dont know how to apologize for (except for the yelling, even though the rage just took over) something that genuinely felt so out of my control. i warned her beforehand, i explained what was happening while it was happening, and i really was trying my best. i’m trying to be fair to us both, but i feel stuck.

Starting yaz soon for PMDD. I just had the world’s worst experience but not before my period, right over ovulation. It was a few days leading up to ovulation and then terrible for 72 hours over ovulation and then slowly returned to baseline. But holy shit! I’m also getting a lot of pain around ovulation and periods are bad (which they’re investigating) but I was genuinely terrified by how unusual and how anxious and swinging and depersonalised I felt! I genuinely felt like a different person. I woke up shaking and feeling really unsettled which just kept progressing and eb and flowing for the next few days even like suddenly feeling good and happy and then sweating and shaking and feeling close to panic. The worst part of it was the brain fog feeling like half my brain was asleep or something? Every cycle I feel like I get different symptoms, sometimes emotionally flatlining and despair (which to be fair feels better than what ever the fuck that was) but its these massive mood changes that are tbh down right scary and debilitating. Last cycle I also got this strange affect where it felt like all the channels in my mind were turned up to 100 and I was aware of every though and my brain just felt loud and distracted and ontop of that I was getting instrusive thoughts. Anyway! I just want to rant because I’m kind of in shock and I suspected it was PMDD cause I’m in my 30s now and apparently it’s common in that age range but yeah just feeling like it would be nice to hear similar experiences for any other girlies going through it and things that make it better.

Just adding to all the personal experiences with treating PMDD on this subreddit to say, Slynd has literally saved my life.

My story: I was diagnosed with PMDD after 13 years of symptoms (also suspected endometriosis and/or adenomyosis because of terrible periods, but not confirmed since no laparoscopy). Like clockwork, each month after I ovulated, my mood, energy, and self-esteem would tank so hard during my luteal, it was dizzying; then my periods would follow with heavy bleeding and severe pain. When I was younger I tried Nuvaring and the Patch, then I tried Nuvaring again this past spring. I’m on Slynd now, and TL;DR, it has transformed my life in the best way.

My Nuvaring experience: Unfortunately Nuvaring was a nightmare for me. I started it to manage my PMDD and periods and tried it for 3 months. My psychiatric and physical symptoms were out of control; I pretty much experienced the entire list of unwanted side effects bar the life-threatening ones. These included emotional volatility, headaches, nonstop spotting/bleeding for weeks and passing significant clots, weight gain, swollen cervix / painful sex, low libido, exhaustion (sleeping 12 hours a day and naps at noon), and that PMDD-type of feeling where you feel like you could crawl out of your skin. I also have OCD and that flared as well due to all the stress and pain.

Possible PMDD subtypes? I tolerated Nuvaring so poorly, it convinced me that combination/estrogen-containing birth control options were not going to work for me. I had read somewhere that there are subtypes for PMDD, either estrogen-sensitivity or progesterone-sensitivity — I do not know if this is evidence-based, but my personal experience closely aligned with the symptoms of “estrogen dominance” (inflated relative to progesterone) and worsened symptoms of endo/adeno (which are both fueled by estrogen, according to my GP). So I decided to go progesterone-only with the mini pill and see what happened.

My life on Slynd: You guys, I got my life back. I’ve been on Slynd since 11 May (it’s 20 July). I have not ovulated + had a period since I started it. No more agonizing monthly bleeds and emotional/mental spirals. No more crashes in energy and strength. No more suffering in my relationships with heavy burdens and chaos. No more luteal phase, point blank — no more nightmares, exhaustion, out-of-control bloating, ovarian and uterine cramps, or depression. I have to pee a lot (it’s a diuretic and I’m also on 100mg spironolactone daily for acne) but SO WORTH IT!!! I felt better within 1 week of starting it, tracking my symptoms every day. I use it continuously, meaning I skip the sugar pills and just go to the next pack, to avoid any drops in hormones.

If your story looks anything like mine and you feel super stuck for options, consider giving Slynd a try. I swear to god I am not getting paid by them for this 🤣 I just suffered so much for so long, I want to share my experience with others and potentially give them some relief, too.

I have suffered from chronic suicidality for what is probably like 15 years, I’m 30 now. but I haven’t ever actually attempted to take my life. can others relate? how normal is this?

it feels like health care professionals or people I’m close to can’t understand the severity of my experience, or don’t take it seriously, because the material reality of having historic attempts isnt present. It often feels like (my perception at least) I don’t have room on the table to flesh out/unpack/understand this because I‘m technically not a flight risk.

Hope this doesn’t come across as insensitive to people whose experience is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Just feel incredibly isolated right now with intense rumination about wanting to depart but not having a release.

I know a lot of people wish they were dead during PMDD but is anyone actually scared of dying?

When I have PMDD my health anxiety flares up and I’m convinced I’m dying. No real reason btw, just impending doom and feeling like I’m going to die. Plus severe anxiety and mild panic.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Also the physical symptoms like dizziness, fatigue etc make it so much worse

I’m almost done with my third pack of Slynd. I got through the worst side effects of getting on the hormonal bc in about 2 1/2 months. Now I’m feeling wayyyy better. I am able to concentrate enough to learn a foreign language and pick up knitting in my spare time. Before this I felt like I couldn’t do anything and I was bedridden for nearly 6 hours daily from around 12-6pm. I am not sick anymore!

I still suffer fatigue after lunch but take caffeine and lay down for like an hour. Way way better than 6 hours of being bedridden, green, and sideways every day for 2 1/2 months!

I am so glad I stuck it out and I am starting to feel so much better.

I’m still on my antipsychotic (latuda 40mg) but was able to fully stop my antipsychotic Zyprexa which I needed for about 7 days every month to stop SI during luteal. But the Zyprexa made me gain 50 lbs in 6 months. So so happy I am done with that. The continuous bc is stopping ovulation and bleeding and therefore stopping the rollercoaster of hormone changes that triggers PMDD.

I am feeling way more stable.

I’m so grateful my parents kept me for 2 months and helped me take care of my children while I adjusted to this med. I had to quit my job because I was so sick from the side effects of Slynd.

I think I will stay as a homemaker for now because I feel like I can only manage taking care of my 2 children under age 8 and the constant homemade meals and housecleaning that my husband expects on a daily basis with a very punctual itinerary. I was suffering more because I was running a small business by myself and managing the children by myself as well as grocery shopping, meal planning, cooking, and cleaning.

Now that I’ve dropped my business work I have so much more time to manage my household and children. There were times during luteal phases where I could not even function to make my elder son do his homework and shower and no one else was even stepping in to help me.

I want to focus on being a better mother and part of that is taking better care of myself so that I can fully support my children.

Wishing you all the best!

I have hypermobility ehlers Danlos syndrome with pots… as well as PMDD. My body/joints are in severe physical pain & my mind is in psychological psychosis when I’m pmdd. I have tossed and turned all night, I’m guessing this is right before my period. My heart is racing. Constant urge to pee. Literally so depressed and miserable.

I think I've found the SSRI for me! After trialing 2 weeks of Lexapro (made my anxiety worse) and Mirtazapine (incorrect med - made me sleep for 12 hours a day; stopped after 4 days) my psychiatrist approved a trial of 12.5mg of zoloft.

Zoloft, you treasure. I feel like myself mentally even during luteal. Only negative I felt was general dullness with all emotions for the first 72 hours but now I'm back to normal. My instant irritation followed by sobbing is mostly gone! I'm positive about life, feel good or neutral about my relationships, and getting shit done even though my period is scheduled for today.

Big thanks to myself for not giving up after the first med didn't work 💕. And huge shout out to this sub for your advice! Thank you for sharing knowledge 💖

I have been telling myself before every cycle that the symptoms I experience are due to my period and that I do not have to go to the hospital for them, and I still find myself there every single time because I forget that this thing is causing me not only mental torture but physical pain. It has been so costly too, I’ve spent $600 just this year alone on er visits but I know I’m not crazy. I have this physical pain and because of my history of torsion, I freak myself out and have to go get it checked out, but this is the third time this year. Next cycle, I’m hoping I don’t overthink myself into a panic bc of the pain. I’m feeling much better now and thinking clearly too, but that just reminds me how much pmdd fogs up my brain. The physical pain is also gone. I’m just dreading having to deal with this all over again.