Hey! I was diagnosed with PMDD earlier this week after suspecting it for a while. However, my doctor didn’t really even ask me about my symptoms. I just told her I suspected I may have it and she just instantly went straight to Prozac, no questions asked.
Outside of the PMDD symptoms, I have had several issues and symptoms the past ten plus years but things have gotten much worse since I opened my own business and am now burnt out. This includes, but not limited to, hair loss, fainting, flushing, dizziness, mild skin issues, joint pain/body aches, etc. These symptoms seem to come and go and as far as I can tell, don’t seem to have a known trigger. They don’t occur all that often, and really only happen all at once (except for hair loss)

So, how do I know if I have PMDD or if I should keep looking and trying to figure out if there is more to it and it is actually PME?
(hopefully this made sense)

Ok, I am new to even knowing of PME, let alone knowing I have it but is constant nausea and fatigue common for any of you?? I just don’t get a break 🤦‍♀️ It is worse when I am hungry but I guess that would be a normal factor to worsen it.
It is still awful if I am not hungry.
Idk. I’ve been sooo out of it lately 🤦‍♀️

i feel so empty and lost right now. i had the absolute worst pme symptoms this past saturday. like i got in my car and cried because i was so appalled by my own behavior and was suddenly like 'who was that??' 'why did i do all of that??'. i knew as i ruminated that i probably lost some of my oldest friendships that day.

just spoke to one of those friends and yeah... she doesn't want to be close anymore. i'm so frustrated (inwardly, not at people) trying to explain my PME without it sounding like an excuse. but this coupled with how sick endometriosis makes me has made me into someone i completely understand people not wanting to be close to. also, it kind of sucks to tell people i am in constant pain and feel like i'm not myself half the month and know it's normal for people to not be able to hold space for that... i'm trying so hard to control this bullshit and be more like i used to be so i can be a good friend again... but i fear i have lost all of my friends in one fell swoop.

i needed to rant, idk:/

I’ve been struggling with social anxiety, ADHD, autism and CPTSD, OCD, and I suspect I may also have PME. My symptoms seem to worsen throughout my menstrual cycle, not just before my period.
I’d really appreciate hearing what treatments or medications have helped others manage their symptoms, as my current medication no longer seems to work as well as it did when I first started taking it. Has anyone experienced something similar and found anything that’s made a noticeable difference?

I feel lost. I’m 32 and going through what feels like an existential crisis.

In 2024, I remember thinking, “If I died tomorrow, I’d be happy with the life I’ve lived and everything I’ve built.” Just a few months later, I found myself questioning almost every major decision I had ever made—including my beautiful, stable relationship of 13 years.

This shift started around the time I stopped taking hormonal birth control. After that, I developed severe PMDD symptoms and was diagnosed with OCD (I guess i have PME??). It’s been about a year now, and even though medication has helped a lot, I still feel like a different person.

I’ve become extremely obsessive and doubtful, especially about my relationship. I’m unhappy with my work and have lost almost all the passion I once had for it. I used to be incredibly disciplined and motivated; now I struggle to care. I constantly daydream about “escaping” my life—moving to another country, going on trips, starting over somewhere new.

Even my lifelong friendships feel different. These are people I used to deeply cherish and value, and now I sometimes find them boring or unfulfilling. I even catch myself complaining about them to my husband or newer friends, which feels completely unlike me.

It feels like I’m constantly searching for the next high—something new, exciting, or different. I’m restless. I can’t seem to find peace or feel the gratitude I used to have for the small things in my life.

What scares me most is that I genuinely don’t know how much of what I’m feeling reflects something true about my life and how much is being filtered through a mental health crisis.

And I want to be clear: this isn’t simply a case of coming off birth control and not being able to accept who I am without it. After stopping hormonal contraception, I developed severe PMDD symptoms and was diagnosed with OCD. Both have been relentless at times and have profoundly affected the way I experience my own mind and my life.

Before this happened, I felt very certain about the major decisions I had made. I understood that every choice meant giving something else up, and I made those trade-offs consciously. I trusted myself and felt confident in the life I had chosen. Now, after a year of obsessive doubt, intense hormonal mood shifts, restlessness, and periods of depression, I don’t know which thoughts and feelings I can trust.

I’ve been on antidepressants and mood stabilizers for about a year, and they’ve helped tremendously, but I still don’t feel like myself (but what is "myself"?). At this point, going back on hormonal contraception feels less like an attempt to “become my old self again” and more like another treatment option. Living indefinitely with PMDD at this severity does not feel sustainable for me.

So I’m considering going back on birth control (I was recomended Slinda by my doctor) to see whether suppressing my natural hormonal fluctuations helps with the PMDD and, indirectly, gives me a more stable baseline from which to deal with the OCD and figure out what I actually feel about my life.

The frightening part is that I know there’s no guarantee. Maybe it will help enormously. Maybe it won’t. And I think part of what I’m grieving is that, before all of this, I trusted my own mind. Now I’m trying to find my way back to a place where I can trust it again.

Does anyone in the US see a holistic doctor virtually who helps with hormone stuff/managing PME. I always see so many advertised but not sure which ones are scams or not. I’d love someone who would do a DUTCH test and help with prescribing bioidentical hormones or supplements but also goes deeper and looks into various conditions (I struggle with endo, pots, and MCAS)

I’ve been struggling with existing mental health issues & PMDD/PME issues for half of my life. This has led to multiple hospitalizations, has held back my life immensely, and has also been life threatening at times. I have made an appointment with a specialist (who was IMPOSSIBLE to find).

I have been working with providers from all adjacent disciplines from a young age, but have found no success. I have tried all traditional and even atypically available treatments (along with intensive therapy/psychiatric intervention) but am quite limited as another medical condition doesn’t allow me to estrogen. I have also never had a consistent, predictable cycle.

After my most recent hospitalization the idea of surgical intervention was discussed. This was two years ago now, and the idea has been batted around like a ball of yarn since. In this time I’ve tried other treatments again and again with little resolution avoiding the scary option. Because of my age and the challenges surgical menopause would bring without typical estrogen HRT, it’s hard for most people to understand why living a manageable life outweighs keeping my reproductive system (though children have never been a part of or factor in my life plans) and enduring the medical challenges it may bring in the future. I’m willing to struggle a bit more physically and stay on top of my health more if I get to experience joy, hope, and purpose in exchange. My life as is, isn’t a life at all.

I keep invalidating the relief I feel when I think of a life with both feet on solid ground. I have left school multiple times, lost jobs and relationships, have nearly taken my own life, have had few personal accomplishments, and am wary of my future no matter how hard I work in therapy if the unpredictable tsunami of hormones keeps destroying all I build. Some people might view a permanent solution like this as an immense loss, but I see it as a first step to finally experiencing happiness and looking forward to the future.

The conversation with this doctor may bring forth options that haven’t been tried. It would be wonderful to discover a simpler permanent solution, but I would appreciate having your courage and support to swing for the fences if that’s what’s best for ME. After many years of making somewhat conservative efforts influenced by the opinions of others, and never making much progress towards my own goals. I know this is a sensitive issue for many, so I ask that only constructive or positive feedback be given. I could use a few cheerleaders in my pocket. Thanks for your time :)

Hi there - mods, please feel free to delete if this isn't an appropriate post, but I think this is useful to share. I am unaffiliated with Samphire Neuroscience.

I'm a new user of the Lutea, which is Samphire Neuroscience's US version of their headband intended to help treat conditions such as PMDD, endometriosis, dysmenorrhea, perimenopause, and migraines. I believe there may be significant overlap here with PME. I noticed there wasn't a subreddit dedicated to discussion for this device, so I created one at r/SamphireHeadband. Please feel free to post questions about the device or information about your own experience using it.

I’ve been consistently ovulating around day 7-10 of my cycle and it’s hell. I immediately enter luteal and stay there for almost 3 weeks (my period doesn’t come any earlier with early ovulation😫). I’m worried I’m entering perimenopause or something (I’m only 23), but that’s the main thing that causes early ovulation according to the internet.

Has anyone experienced this and found something to help? I’m taking DIM for estrogen dominance but it’s not helping yet. I suspect it’s a hormonal problem because I also started getting night sweats and other symptoms when I started ovulating early. I just have no idea how to go about treating that.

My PMDD diagnosis was updated to PME and it has made so much sense. I'm just not sure how to get stable again after a major breakdown and hospitalization for SI. I am currently dosing up on Prozac and Lamotrigine, but the steven johnson syndrome possibility always freaks me out. I just read about natural progesterone. Has anyone tried this and could you share if it helped? Also open to hearing what other treatments people have found. I've been on yaz (blunting) and junel fe (increased anxiety, irritability and SI). I'm just trying to get back to living a life for longer than 4 days each cycle.

I promised a followup from my original post on trying the Flow device for depression so here it is. Apologies that this is a bit long but I have quite a revelation in my treatment these past few months and it has been a bit crazy for me.

my TL;DR is Flow did not work for me but I also realized that I do not have depression....

original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PMEtheMRMD/comments/1rhd13u/flow_first_impressions/

Flowy Flow:

I started using the Flow device around this past February as advised.

First, there is the "activation" period where you need to do five stimulations three times a week. Then there is the strengthening treatment of doing stimulations two times a week. However, sometime a few months ago, new research came out and now the ongoing treatment phase is three stimulations a week. The app keeps track of this (with a calendar) so you don't have to.

My personal experience with the stimulation:

The stimulation was never super comfortable. The current goes from the left side so I can feel small tingly shocks. It was not great but it was not bad enough to stop the treatment. You are told to wipe/clean your forehead before the treatment but it did not help too much.

My experience with how I felt:

I felt that it was initially working after a few weeks but I am not sure if that was a placebo effect or what.

The app makes you do weekly check-ins with questions and a rating of your depression and the numbers did not change much so I was still not generally feeling better. However, I did not necessarily want to stop it just yet.

My revelation:

However, I got to a point (this has happened a few times now) where I just quit everything (I do not advise this). I just forget my ground state and want to understand how I feel without it all of the things I am doing. It has been hard for me to understand if the medicine or other treatments and therapies are actually working or not.

So...I stopped the Flow treatments as well as my Wellbutrin for a few weeks. After a few weeks, I got back on the Wellbutrin (but not the stimulations), it worked super quickly and I felt better almost immediately (within the day or so).

I was not feeling 100% but I definitely felt better. I went to my psychiatrist and discussed with him and he told me that it sounded like ADHD which was super surprising. For those who do not know, Wellbutrin is also used to treat ADHD, alongside depression, which is probably why I felt so good so quickly.

After talking with him a bit we decided to try ADHD medication (Ritaline). The idea was that if it worked, I would feel "calmer," etc and that would indicate that I indeed have ADHD. Otherwise, if it was super activating, etc, I probably do not have ADHD.

ADHD?!:

Once I got to the correct dosage (I went up slowly), I felt so calm. I felt my brain was empty almost?! I was able to focus on work and things I needed to do. It was amazing! I never even realized that my lack of focus was so bad or that I was clumsy because my mind was always racing.

So now I am revisiting my diagnosis of PMDD and PME of depression. I am unfortunately in the middle of a move and I have to change psychiatrists but I am now more certain that ADHD has been the underlying cause of a lot of my misery.

For this reason, I decided to stop the stimulations because I think the depressive symptoms (and PMDD symptoms) may all just be coming from my ADHD.

Some final thoughts:

As someone who is in their 30s, I cannot believe I am just now learning this about myself. It has been quite mentally challenging for me to accept because I have had one of my therapists in the past even tell me I have the textbook case of PMDD.

Lesson learned: don't make PMDD part of your personality! I never really did that but I do think I may have held on to that diagnosis stronger than I should have, although I (and all of my doctors) did not know any better so I can't blame myself too hard.

Anyways, I am indeed happy about this revelation but I am still trying to figure things out. I think though a more correct diagnosis for me is ADHD (with PME).

I am happy to answer any questions about the Flow device and/or write another followup post after I figure things out with my new psychiatrist!

And to anyone who is reading this, hang in there. ❤️❤️❤️ ❤️❤️

Has anyone in the UK been treated/not gaslit for mentioning this to their Doctor?? I know at this point I have a serious histamine issue and can see clearly that it is linked to my cycle, it’s particularly bad around my luteal phase! The depression, anxiety and gastrointestinal symptoms I have during my luteal phase are awful. I really just want to treat it asap and don’t want to waste my time being fobbed off by the NHS for months! Has anyone else found a link and how have you been treating it with/without Doctors input and what’s helped!!

During luteal I get the worst sleep OF MY LIFE. I’m talking like 45 mins total for the night in 5 min bursts. Wired nervous system causes me to wake up or not sleep in the first place, and sleep apnea causes it too. Brutal. & then when I am jolted awake I’m tortured with trauma memories about my mom passing! Fun Times over here.

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if more people struggle with this. It has been a year since i experience a really itchy neck that results in a rash and bumps wheter or not i scratch. I seem to have find a pattern that this only happens a few days before my period. The itchiness stays for a few days and its so severe that i sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and the itchiness gets worse if i get hot. The bumps stay a week and then they gradually fade away. I went to the doctor and she doesnt think its a hormonal issue (which i dont agree with) and i got a cortisoid creme which i have been using for 5 weeks!!! 2 times a day. She says i have to use it for 8 weeks but this just has worsen my issues like i suspected it would. Now i have had bumps for 2 weeks that also look different than the bumps i used to have, these look more like pimples and the itchiness has just came back.

I am going absolutely insane and i find it so weird that its just my neck that has it, its seems like my body is trying to tell me something. Anyone knows what it might be???

SUFFERING

(tw: mentions of thoughts of sui****, emojis indicating g*n to head)

Is this enough space between the tw and the post??

.

Idk

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Maybe a little more

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Teenager here. Found out that the girl who bullied me at my old school posts videos about "kindness" and "never knowing what someone is going through" on her tiktok(she's blocked now, ruined me day though) AND ON TOP OF THAT my period is trying to start 😁👈 CAN I JUST GET THIS STUPID ORGAN OUT OF ME?!? I'M AROACE AND HATE KIDS WITH A BURNING PASSION 😭😭

I wanna jump into a grain bin or get mauled by something right now

Maybe having an allergic reaction might be nice

Birth control doesn't do 💩 for me besides extending how long in between my periods are. Is there a single doctor in the world willing to do a hysterectomy on a 15 almost 16 year old??

I’m 31 years old, and I have both PMDD and bile reflux (alkaline reflux gastritis). About two weeks before my period, my bile reflux symptoms get much worse. I lose my appetite, have indigestion, and develop a horrible taste in my mouth. Both conditions affect my quality of life on their own, and having them together has left me feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do.

For PMDD, SSRIs have been difficult because they upset my stomach. Under my psychiatrist’s supervision, I started fluvoxamine two days ago. I previously couldn’t tolerate fluoxetine because it caused severe nausea. I also took paroxetine, which helped my PMDD to some extent, but I gained weight, and I worried that it was contributing to insulin resistance and changes in my thyroid hormones. I’m not sure if those concerns were actually related to the medication because I also struggle with health anxiety.

What bothers me the most is that my stomach symptoms become much worse during the two weeks before my period. Around that time, my sleep also gets worse, I have no motivation to do anything, and I feel exhausted.

Is anyone else dealing with something similar? I feel like the combination of PMDD and bile reflux is especially difficult to manage. I would love to have children in the future, but with how I feel right now, that seems almost impossible.

Hi all. I really, really, really need some help to get steered in the right direction. ANY clues would be helpful.

I have a debilitating health experience that I don’t understand, seems very atypical, and don’t know where to seek help. I have no idea if other people experience this.

What I experience is severe PMS episodes (something like PMDD or PME), but it is not actually typical to those diagnoses at all.

I was recently diagnosed with endometriosis, which is why I’m asking here. And I suspect that inflammation has something to do with it.

—

I experience severe PMS episodes during ovulation and on day 4 - 5 of my period (the heaviest day / right before the heaviest).

They last approximately 36 hours. These episodes are cyclical, completely predictable, and debilitating.
Typically I sob for 36 hours. It comes on quickly and ends quickly.

I cannot eat or sleep or move for 36 hours. Just sob as if I were experiencing the worst grief in the world out of nowhere.
I experience the worst feelings of despair (severe anxiety and depression together) that I have ever felt — as if I just found out my mom died. But nothing has happened.

—

I do not have any kind of diagnosis of psychosis or bipolar. I have been diagnosed with depression and general anxiety disorder, however.

—

Some months are better than others.

I have found that taking NSAIDS (ibuprofen) every 6 hours a couple of days in advance of my period and during the first few days will lighten these spells quite significantly.

Steroids also help (I had some incidentally for my asthma and it temporarily “cured” my PMS problem.)

It’s like if I block the production of prostaglandin (that most people use just for Endo cramping and bleeding) that it will help my PMS episodes too.

I do also get these episodes sometimes with “bad ovulation” times that are very crampy. These episodes last about 36 hours as well, though are typically less severe. Idk yet if NSAIDs will help this or not.

—

I don’t know if I have a severe sensitivity to inflammation or prostaglandin. Maybe it’s autoimmune. Maybe there is inflammation all over my body and it’s extreme. I don’t know.

Does *anyone* experience anything like this or have any idea what this could be?

It’s been occurring at varying levels since the onset of menses and I think getting worse. It’s debilitating and I don’t know what to do.

So, 19f, I have been stressed for the past 5 months because of studies college and counselling; it has been affecting me a lot. I was stressed due to exams, and then i started have irregular periods. I normally have 28-30 days, and it almost aligns with my tracker, but this time i had periods in a 25-day gap, not this month but like March and April, and then next was 34 days, and now too they are like, okay, 27-30 days, but the cramps have become too extreme, like i feel like fainting. I take painkillers, but they harm the body too if you take them regularly, and weak painkillers don't work. My gynaecologist said you are stressing a lot. i went for a second opinion; she said the same. Now for a few months my hairfall has been stressing me more, and i got acne this week, and I accidentally burst one of my pimples because it was fucking itchy, and it caused a minor bleed. Now i feel like this has become a cycle. I started stressing due to studying, but now hair loss is stressing even more, causing me to lose my hair even more, and recently my scalp has gotten itchy. I have to see a dermatologist, and any home remedy advice you have is welcome.

I’m considering a hysterectomy but I’m anxious about the ovaries aspect. I’m 29 so I am not sure about going into early menopause 😅 especially because my body doesn’t appreciate hormones being messed with even from within. But I haven’t had luck with any birth control, I react horribly to all the ones I’ve tried post covid. And even having my endo excised my period still comes with discomfort, exhaustion/whole body fatigue, joint pain, queasiness. And I just feel traumatized by periods past that wrecked me, I get anxious looking at my tracker app and I dread the days counting down to my period. I also have fibroids so it’s entirely possible that my remaining symptoms are related to that. I’m also anemic with a ferritin level of 6 🧍🏾‍♀️ so it’s not like I just want it out, I feel like there’s valid reason.

But I would also love to have relief from the PMDD/PME aspects as well bc psych meds mostly help but not 100%. However as stated above my body is very testy and finicky. I am going to pursue it regardless, especially since symptoms are looking like the fibroids and will work with my doctor to decide what’s best ofc . But I’m just wondering if anyone who’s had a hysterectomy and also had bad reactions to birth control- what kind did you get & has it helped you?

Hi there, this was posted in thr PMDD whatsapp chat, and we thought it could be userul here 😁

https://www.rthm.com/resources/blogs/long-covid-treatment-guide

(I'm going to go ahead and put a trigger warning/NSFW for mentions of suicidal thoughts and wants because it is in the linked post. Please let me know if I don't do so correctly. I very rarely use reddit and have posted more today than in all my years on the site. Also, I'm on mobile.)

Ok, so this all started earlier today when I posted in r/WomensHealth and then r/hysterectomy. I'll try to link the latter post. Several people kept mentioning PMDD in regards to my symptoms. As much as I would like to, I don't normally do a lot of searching online about conditions I have because that typically leads to me learning too much or about a very rare side effect and my anxiety to spirals into a panic attack. That being said, curiosity won out and I did do a little research. And wow do most of my symptoms line up perfectly.

I was going to post on r/PMDD for advice, but as I was reading the rules and their wiki, PME kept being mentioned and based on both descriptions and symptoms of the two disorders, I do not know which I should be asking my doctors about. So I'm posting here for advice.

I am 33 and, after fighting for 10 years, I am finally scheduled for a hysterectomy in the middle of June. They will be taking everything except my ovaries at this time. This is making me unsure if I made the right call on deciding to leave them as I thought they were the cause of most my grief. But, thanks to today, I'm more secure in my decision.

I want to ask for more information with both my gynecologist who will be my surgeon and my psychiatrist to see if it even matters diagnosing since I will be removing most of my reproductive organs. Where I am getting caught up is that PMDD symptoms ONLY happen in the luteal phase while PME worsens existing conditions so they are worse during the luteal phase and then return to baseline. Cause the problem is that I've had the majority of the listed symptoms that I've found for PMDD since I first got my period when I was twelve. So that should point to PMDD, right? But I was diagnosed at 30 with ADHD and I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder so long ago and they were definitely around when my period started so that could have been what was exacerbated with PME, right? I was also diagnosed with PCOS when I was like 28 so maybe that points more towards PME as well?

I think PME fits better but some things make me unsure. WThese are all the things I'm getting hung up on.

1. I had always been an extremely anxious child. My mom would actually warn people beforehand that I would burst into tears if you looked at me wrong. And she was not exaggerating. I remember when I was like 4 or 5 and I was meeting one of my dad's friends and the guy just had an angry resting face or something. I thought I had done something wrong to make him mad before even meeting him and just broke down. I don't know if this sensitivity was due to the ADHD or if I had anxiety all the way back then. Can you have actual anxiety that young? It sure felt like it but there was never any cause. And I was also easily spooked too and getting me to try anything out of my comfort zone always led to panic attacks until I reached college and got treatment. It was because my brain always thought something was going to go wrong.

2. Like I mentioned earlier, I got my period when I was 12. After my third or fourth cycle, all the PMDD symptoms started showing up. Plus, I was already dealing with everything in #1, but that was around the same time that I usually pinpoint as when my depression started. From 11 to about 15, there was a lot of upheaval, loss, and change in my life that I just couldn't deal with. So I know that both showed up around the same time. The thing is, I don't know which happened first. Cause if my depression fully settled in first, maybe it's PME. But if my cycle stabilized into having two weeks out of every month where I had no control over my emotions before my depression really took form, isn't that a point for PMDD?

3. At the same time as all of that, I also have PCOS which has been such a "joy" to live with. If you have PCOS, does that mean that it is improbable to also have PMDD?

4. I know that one time I had tests done to check my vitamins and stuff and found that I had vitamin D deficiency. But after I took the prescribed supplement for the alloted time frame, I haven't fallen back down to that level.

I just have so many questions and I'm terrified to look up more because I know my brain. If I wasn't personally possibly dealing with these, I could look it up well into the night. I love to learn about anything science, medical, or history related. But I just can't do the same kind of research I want to if it is something I have to deal with in my actual life. It'll somehow get twisted in my head because that's what always happens.

Finally, is it even worth bringing up to my doctors if I'm scheduled to have a hysterectomy in just under a month and a half? What actual difference would it make to be diagnosed with either when it may not matter soon?

I'm sorry for rambling on so much. Writing it out for others to see kind of helps me sort out my thoughts and I genuinely would like to hear from others on their thoughts. I've just been miserable for most of my life and finally having an answer as to why is so tempting. But if it isn't really going to make a difference, maybe I shouldn't find out so I don't get hung up on it.

i feel like the more time goes, the more the accumulation of all of the blows i take from life, my health, this dystopian world are just eroding me to the point where i've become a zombie and can't recognize myself. i realized i have PME several months ago because i have MDD, GAD, ADHD and these don't go away once my period is done. but the 10-14 days before my period are so unbearable and i feel like with time and all the things that keep happening to me and in the world it's getting even worse and i feel like i don't have control over my own body/ life/ emotions/ the decisions being made about my own life. i also recently got diagnosed with endometriosis.

im in an extremely toxic stressful job i can't leave because i have no backup even though ive been trying to for years. i have gone thru a lot of chronic trauma since i was a child. the global violence ive witnessed in the past few years especially makes everything feel so utterly bleak i feel like i am grieving all the time. the unending genocides. epstein. i learn about the most unimaginable horrors everyday. i cannot bear this anymore. the only thing keeping me here is my cat who is my whole world. otherwise i am losing my sense of self. i hate the word resilient. i dont want a reward for having to go thru things no one should have. i dont believe you overcome certain things they just become a part of you and you do the motions to continue with life with even more to carry and a soul and spirit that's just chipping away. i've just been so tired for so long. thank you for reading and for letting me vent .