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[sprinklethief]

i'm seriously starting to think i have PMDD. PMDD and PCOS? would god be that cruel? to me? probably... that's exactly what i need. anyone have any experience with this?

Comments

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

While I've never been diagnosed, PMDD is pretty much what I feel like I'm going through this past week. Then again, I always attributed it to PMS - I didn't know the name had changed for more severe versions, but the symptoms I'm seeing can be checkmarked to everything I've experienced in the last week. :( No experience with PCOS, though.

[shadowsound.livejournal.com]

Yep, I was diagnosed with PMDD before the PCOS. I kept a detailed calender at the time with my symptoms and showed her (my doctor) the 3 months prior to my visit.
Her suggestion was to start taking ibuprofen daily one week before starting - I don't remember the exact dose, but it may have been 800mg daily, and to try to get more vitamin B.
The combination of BC and Celexa seemed to help take the edge off it as well, but some times it is worse than others.

When it gets super bad, I pretty much hide in my room, tell Beck I need alone time, and sleep.

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

what do you feel is different symptom-wise from regular ol' pms?

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

i was thinking about hittin' up some B12, maybe some D (since i obviously don't get much from the sun...). what kinds of symptoms do you get? what kind of time frame?

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

i keep reading that they like to give SSRI's for treatment, but i can already cross that one off the list. a lot of us bipolar I freaks can't hang with SSRI's or else we end up with a blurry memory and a lot of explaining to do (i.e. massive mania or worse - mixed episodes where everyone near you fears for their lives, lol).

[greyyguy.livejournal.com]

My wife was diagnosed with that a little bit ago. But her doctor changed her birth control and that cleared up most of it.

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

what were her symptoms? which birth control did they give her? i've been on the same one for almost 11 years, maybe it's time for a switch...

[greyyguy.livejournal.com]

She would fly off the handle really easy, and have worse than usual depression. Her doctor switched to to lo-estrin, and it has been working very well in fixing the PMDD.

[shadowsound.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. It seemed like 'normal' PMS would start 2 weeks prior to my period, but the week before was like PMS on crack- all the usual PMS fun amped to hell.
I think one of the worst bits was that I was just awful to Beck, I'd become extremely critical of every little thing he did, pretty much bordering on verbally abusive. It was like I had no "wall" for my emotions - I'd be saying something mean, before I could stop myself. When talking about it with my doctor, I described it as Dr. Jekyll/Mr.Hyde sort of thing.
But apart from that, thoughts of self harm, worse than usual depression (and you know how my depression is), felt extraordinarily lethargic, very strong cravings, bloating so much that it gave me new stretch marks and I looked preggers, irregular spotting, and roller coaster mood swings.

With the birth control and celexa, the symptoms seemed to have been tamed a bit, but get worse if I don't keep up with the vitamins or if I eat crappy food.

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

if you change the "beck" to "justin" and took out the spotting (prolly cuz i've been on birth control for 11 freaking years so i'm like clockwork) i could take that description to my doc and pass it as my own... i did actually get a couple new stretch marks this time around, and a few old ones HURT.

now that ye olde hormones are back to earth i look at poor justin and want to just pet him and say i'm sorry 98743678235643589 times. he's so used to my insanity that he just takes it, and that's not right. it's like the last 5 or 6 months it's been getting steadily worse. this last time around i had some sort of weird flu thing and the blood pressure thing i was having when you guys were over that makes me turn blue, so i was very unpleasant. he just stayed downstairs and hid, poor guy.

so which kind of doc would you suggest? a shrink, obgyn or gen prac? why would it just kinda show up like this? i thought my bipolar was out of control, but now that aunt flo is... ahem... here... i feel totally balanced and normal. even shittier, i can see clearly what a fuckwad i've been and i want to stop that before it happens again.

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

was it having the kiddos that triggered it? or was it just a life cycle thing? i feel like this is just coming out of nowhere, and i feel so horrible for my husband. it's like these terrible things come out of my mouth and before i even have time to stop them he's got this hurt look or a look of sheer terror or the husbandly "oh fuck, do i run, tell her she's beautiful, clean something or say i'm sorry..." look.

and i already have such a battle with depression, this certainly isn't helping. it's like all i want to do is hide under the covers and sleep so life stays away and everything is the most horrible thing happening ever. i mean, i have major depressive episodes with my bipolar, but this last one scared me...

stop me if i'm getting TMI

[greyyguy.livejournal.com]

I don't remember her being that bad before Liam was born, so I suspect that it was the last pregnancy that gave her that little present.

That does sound a lot like what she would go through. Just out of the blue she would turn from sweet to bitch at the drop of a pin, and then tears and then normal. Or not. Far worse than any PMS I had been on the receiving end of.

And not TMI. Though it does make me glad my plumbing is on the outside ;)

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

a really appreciate having a guy's point of view. i think justin is still a little jumpy from the fallout last week so i don't want to lay too much on him. i feel like he'd be afraid to tell me what he really thinks in fear of the fangs and claws coming back out even though i'd assure him they wouldn't. i kind of eased him into it a little last night and he was like "it was a bit much... and a little scary sometimes... but i'm totally understanding and i'm a very patient man so don't worry ::shakes in fear:: ::pees a little::" obviously that's a little bit of a dramatization but i'm sure you get it.

what birth control was she on before? when the PMDD week(s) were over was she perfectly normal sane wifey again like nothing happened? how did she figure out that something was up? or were you actually brave enough to suit up in some chain mail and a cup and bring it up to her?

again, i'm sorry i'm all 20 questions, i'm just trying to figure out how to best approach this and with which of my doctors (yanno, shrink, girly doc or gen prac).

[greyyguy.livejournal.com]

I was not jumpy so much as pissed off about how she treated me at the time when it started. And I don't think she realized just how bad it was for the first month. But after that she figured it out, and I was able to mentally give her some space so any reactions didn't bother me as much. And I made sure to have a supply of chocolate on hand for the next time since that seemed to help. After it was over she went back to normal. It would usually only last a few days.

Before she wasn't on birth control. Everything she had tried played havoc with her system, so we using condoms. But she tried this out when her doctor suggested it and it has been fine. It is a low dose (I don't remember what off the top of my head) but it seems to be enough.

And not too many questions. I'm glad to help with what little I know on the subject.

[shadowsound.livejournal.com]

yeah, my spotting could have been due to my body deciding it didn't want to create estrogen anymore. :P

It really does sound to me like you've got it, and I'd definitely see a doctor. Tell them you've got a friend who has it and is convinced that you do to.

I'm thinking that a GP should be fine if you're comfortable talking about it them.
My doctor also performed the "women's wellness exam" on me, so she was apparently in the know about this sort of thing. I'm thinking that if you make sure to write everything down that you're going through around your time (pretty much everything you've said here!) and show them the list that they'd be able to see that something is up in hormone land and hopefully have some useful info.
I'll definitely be doing some more research too and will report back anything I can find out.

Let Justin know what you think is going on and assure him that you want to get it checked out. You can tell him that Beck and I went through a very similar time not so long ago. He pretty much tried to brush off most of my nastiness, and I tried to avoid human contact as much as possible until things started to even out and get back to 'normal'.

[paroxysm-cycle.livejournal.com]

you've been immensely helpful issmonster. i need to get this under control before people die, lol. it helps to have someone close to me that's gone through it to give me pointers, so many of my medical anomalies i've been the only person i know to have it or they're rare so even the doctor doesn't know what to tell me to expect, it's nice to have support :).