Anyone else with PMDD?

Posted by rita @ritabtripp, Feb 23 4:51am

My daughter has Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and thought hormone therapy might help. She asked me to seek help and advice from this group. Has anyone been helped with it and how were you treated?

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Hello,

The only thing that helped me was going on birth control nonstop to get rid of my periods, but it may not be the greatest alternative in the long run. Also, seeing a psychiatrist or GYN might help. PMDD usually means you have a hormonal imbalance and are very sensitive to any changes in your bodies chemistry. I also just found out a few years ago that I have Hypothyroidism and it’s possible I had it most of my life. I also have depression and ADD and usually 2 days out of the month I am bed ridden from PMS due to severe depression. I would say get everything checked out before HRT.

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Hi there! I had very severe PMDD for many years. I also had a severe eating disorder (anorexia/ARFID). Nothing helped, no SSRIs, no other meds, no HRT etc....I finally had a full hysterectomy/oopherectomy when I was 36 and overnight it completely went away and cured it and I never had it again! I highly recommend this treatment if it's severe and nothing else works and esp if the person doesn't want kids (I knew I would never have kids due to other disabilities) I now can take hormone replacement therapy (low dose) but it doesn't cause PMDD at all like my periods did. I just take enough to protect my bones and heart and keep my skin elastic and other benefits. With the estrogen therapy my blood pressure is lower and heart rate lower as well despite being underweight and not having any risk factors for high BP or HR so that is all oophorectomy related but it can cause a severe situation with my heart...also bone density is a real issue especially with the anorexia. It's risky to do it in your 20s due to being so young and studies have shown high risk of cardiac complications and also possibly Alzheimers linked to the estrogen deficiency from the surgery. It's not known if being on HRT mitigates that risk or not because there's so little research on it. Still...if I could have I would have def done it in my 20s because my PMDD was that severe and didn't respond to any treatments. They now have gonatropin releasing hormones that they can prescribe to temporarily shut down ovaries and that can help diagnose it too because if it gets better with those then it can point to PMDD. Since it's reversible it's a better option especially in younger adults. I'm grateful I finally got to have surgery but honestly sad that I spent so many years locked in psych wards and no one knew what it was...especially during my teen years. Countless years of misdiagnosis and meds that didn't help and caused many side effects often making symptoms worse! I highly recommend looking into this option. There's also new treatments out as well for PMDD that didn't used to exist so look into the latest research. Good luck!

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I can attest to that. Just had a total hysterectomy 3 weeks ago and no issues with PMDD.

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