5 Facts About PMDD from a Sexologist Who Suffers From It

I usually have this well managed with meds but for the last few days I've been experiencing the hell of PMDD, which is PMS' evil stepsister.

5 facts about Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder:

😡 It is a severe and debilitating disorder that, like PMS, has mood related symptoms that recur monthly during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle then cease when the period begins.

😡 It affects 2–5% of menstruating people.

😡 Symptoms can include severe irritability and overreactions (more than once I've had to buy a new phone while suffering from a PMDD mood swing because an app froze or some other mild inconvenience and I threw the phone on the ground in frustration), depression, feelings of hopelessness, conflict with other people (99% of the arguments I've had with Ryan have happened with PMDD), and intense white-hot uncontrollable rage.

😡 It was added to the DSM 5 and classified as a "depressive disorder not otherwise specified". Some were concerned that diagnostic inclusion would give ammunition to stereotypes that "women go crazy in their periods" or would pathologize the normal happenings of the menstrual cycle. Others note that PMDD is disordered PMS, and not normal.

😡 Taking birth control pills and skipping the placebo week can be a helpful treatment (because no period = no period disorders). But even though there is no medical benefit for anyone to take the placebo pills, and even if a doctor prescribes skipping the placebo pills in treatment of this disorder, many insurance companies still won't cover the extra week of active pills needed to round out the month because, as we learned in a bombshell news story that came out last week, 60 years ago the creators of the birth control pill hoped their new controversial contraceptive would be more palatable to the pope if women still bled every month.

Spoiler alert: the Catholic Church is still opposed to birth control and PMDD sufferers and others with cycle related medical issues treated with uninterrupted birth control have been needlessly in agony for the last 6 decades. Talk about white-hot rage.

Not an ad for any of the brands in the photo, just showing you how I'm getting by.