Connecting the Dots

Good morning, and welcome to Day 18. Kinda. Remember I am behind by two days. I’ll be caught up by the next post though.

Connecting the dots has been a game changer in my relationship with my hormones and mental health. Figuring out there was a reason why I was the way I was didn’t give me an excuse to be even more that way. It gave me a means and starting point to look for solutions. It’s been a little over a year since I was first diagnosed with PMDD. I have logged and tracked all of my symptoms since then. Like I am my own little science experiment. I use a period tracking app but what I noticed helped me even better to do simultaneously is keep a note in my phone of the days of my cycle. So I can check my tracking app for which day in my cycle I am at and then cross examine the details of what that day means for me. Which day I take certain medication, which day I don’t, which day I usually have insomnia, dissociations, exhaustion, etc… so that I can be better prepared to handle certain things. It’s A LOT. In the beginning it was super overwhelming I wanted to just give up. But I’m glad I didn’t.

I had watched other people on IG who were further in their journey and more in tune with their bodies and their cycles and got jealous and angry. I wanted someone to give me the answers. I wanted to understand what would work for my body the way other people had found that things worked for theirs. To be entirely honest (and this is pretty embaressing), I didn’t even know what it meant to be in luteal phase when I first started my PMDD journey. I am a scientist man, I should know this shit right?! But I didn’t and I blame our education system. Bare minimum I would hope all women would understand and be educated about their own health system and how it’s different, but we’re not and that needs to change.

So for those of you that are unaware the luteal phase is one stage of the menstrual cycle. It occurs after ovulation (when the ovaries release an egg) and before the period starts. During this time, the lining of the uterus normally gets thicker to prepare for a possible pregnancy. During this time the levels of a hormone called progesterone are climbing and estrogen is moving like a rollercoaster. Right now the exact cause of PMDD is still unknown but what we do know is that people will PMDD are very sensitive to the rapidly changing hormone levels that happen during a persons cycle. You might think “Alright, cool, let me get some hormone therapy.” I thought and have been thinking the same thing. However, the more I have read into this the more it seems this can actually increase the negative symptoms of PMDD and I just don’t think I am willing to risk that right now.

Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression as men. It has been proposed that the ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone contribute to the higher incidence of depression. Depression can also be accompanied by a loss of cognitive performance (Shors, 2003).

More than 1000 people die every day because of suicide, and about ten times attempt suicide, worldwide. Suicide attempts are more common in females. Suicide is a sign of psychiatric disorder in which different psychological, biological, social, and economic factors may play role in predisposing it. Considering more suicidal attempts in females, recently researchers have noted about the probable relationship between the suicidal attempts and the hormonal factors, especially female hormones. The relationship between the female suicidal attempt and the feminine hormones is a reality and cannot be renunciated (Mousavi, 2014).

This study is from 2014, and there are countless more with similar information. So why isn’t this talked about?! One of the leading causes of death in our world today and we can’t be bothered to discuss, a more than possible, big reason for it?

A substantial proportion of women with confirmed PMDD report current suicidal ideation in the late luteal phase. Results point to a need for better awareness and screening of suicidal ideation in women with PMDD (Wikman, 2022).

PMDD statistics indicate that 6 million, or 1 in 20 women worldwide, struggle with this condition.

That’s it… I got pissed and started digging more. The oldest article I could find written about PMDD was from 1966!!!!!!!!!!! The article was written by two women (obviously) Patricia Haynes, B.A. and Barbara L. Parry M.D. The article suggests the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for treament but admit SSRIs alone will not solve the problem. So we knew this in 1966. It has been 56 years since this article was published and we are still prescribing SSRIs knowing it is just a band aid.

I’m sorry. I have to cool myself down from the fury that just enraged me. Remember I am in my luteal phase right now. I am battling with the anger of women for the past 56 years in this moment. On top of that I have a partiularly terrible relationship with SSRIs which you can read more about in the next post.

Breathe.

Luckily, women in science are actually being taken more seriously these days, but we have a lot of ground to cover.

PMDD Awareness is Suicide Prevention. It’s in the science.

Shors, T. J., & Leuner, B. (2003). Estrogen-mediated effects on depression and memory formation in females. Journal of affective disorders, 74(1), 85–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0327(02)00428-7

Mousavi, S. G., Bateni, S., Maracy, M. R., Mardanian, F., & Mousavi, S. H. (2014). Recurrent suicide attempt and female hormones. Advanced biomedical research, 3, 201. https://doi.org/10.4103/2277-9175.142046

Wikman, A., Sacher, J., Bixo, M. et al. Prevalence and correlates of current suicidal ideation in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. BMC Women’s Health 22, 35 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-022-01612-5