It is not comfortable being told that you are feeling the way you do because of your hormones. This kind of biological reductionism is not helpful to any gender but the extremely severe symptoms of Pre-menstrual Dysphoric Disorder are completely aligned to the menstrual cycle. They manifest during the week before menstruation and end when or shortly after the start of menstruation. Like a switch going on and off.
There are a wide range of physical symptoms some not usually recognised as linked to pre-menstruation – changes in vision, heart palpitations, numbness and easy bruising – along with those that are familiar. In this post I am concerned with the psychological symptoms.
The ones we might expect like irritability, confusion and weeping to excessive anxiety, deep depression and suicidal thoughts and feelings. It is the severity of these psychological symptoms, far more severe than normal pre-menstrual symptoms that make PMDD so disturbing and destructive.
Women suffering with PMDD can find themselves unable to cope with everyday life in the week or so leading up to their period. Ordinary tasks at home or at work can be insurmountable. Getting out of bed to dress and wash is impossible. The ‘personality changes’ put relationships under enormous duress. The sudden change in symptoms at the onset of a period is a relief but much of the next three weeks will be spent in repairing and picking up the pieces. It is not surprising that women can feel they are cracking up.
Unfortunately many women are undiagnosed, incorrectly diagnosed and they can feel as if they are regularly in torment for a long time until their PMDD is recognised and treated. An example of misdiagnosis is a diagnosis of bi-polar disorder. This is because the cyclical nature of mood swings is a feature of both conditions but it fails to recognise the correlation between emotional lability and the menstrual cycle. The predictability of the changes in thoughts and feelings that is a key feature of PMDD and this raises the importance of tracking symptoms. Tracking symptoms provides information over time that may reveal a pattern, in this case the menstrual cycle. Informed diagnosis leads to appropriate treatment, this means a woman will be treated for a severe problem with her endocrine system rather than a psychiatric illness. Sometimes it is your hormones.
Angela Rogers is an Integrative Psychotherapeutic counsellor working with individuals and couples in Hove.
Further reading by Angela Rogers –
New Year’s Resolutions – Why change might be so difficult?
Viagra: Some ups and downs of the little blue pill
The Menopause – Women of a Certain Age
