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Originally Posted by zjandosmom  I do take calcium and magnesium, can't remember the dosage and too lazy to go check. I take 2 magenesium capsules at night. My symptoms are much more severe than PMS.....thanks for trying though. I have an appt Fri with our GP.
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Oh, duh-- I don't know why I didn't think of this before --do you have PMDD? Have you heard of it? premenstrual dysphoric disorder. It's like PMS times a million.
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Here are the symptoms that make up the diagnosis of PMDD. All of the symptoms do not need to be present, and they may vary from month to month. At least 5 are required to make the diagnosis, including at least one of the first four.*
1. Very depressed mood, feeling hopeless
2. Marked anxiety, tension, edginess
3. Sudden mood shifts (crying easily, extreme sensitivity)
4. Persistent, marked irritability, anger, increased conflicts
5. Loss of interest in usual activities (work, school, socializing, etc.)
6. Difficulty concentrating and staying focused
7. Fatigue, tiredness, loss of energy
8. Marked appetite change, overeating, food cravings
9. Insomnia (difficulty sleeping) or sleeping too much
10. Feeling out of control or overwhelmed
11. Physical symptoms such as weight gain, bloating, breast tenderness or swelling, headache, and muscle or joint aches and pains |
http://pmdd.factsforhealth.org/
The symptoms need to be bad enough to screw with your life to be considered PMDD.
Use of regular birth control pills is usually a bad idea with PMDD, but there are a few types that can be used to safely keep the symptoms under control. There's also a couple of FDA-approved drugs for it. (Serafem comes to mind).
Most things in connection with this haven't really been thoroughly studied, but most clinicians tend to follow the general guidelines for PMS, since they're related. (Like PPD and PPP are related-- one is the "mild" form and the other is the "severe" form.)
There is some limited hope for nutritional and lifestyle remedies, but again, they haven't been well studied.
Many midwives will tell you to take Vit. B-6 100-200 mg, plus 1200 mg calcium plus 200-400 mg magnesium, or tell you to find yourself some Optivite. All of this has been studied in PMS, but not so much in PMDD. Additionally, there has been some suggestion that Vitex (chaste tree berry) might be useful in treating it, as well.
Good diet and exercise are also highly recommended. If you don't work out 3-5 days a week, you might want to start.
If you've never considered acupuncture, you might want to at least see if there are any practitioners in your area that you could afford/see. Some insurance plans cover it. There's not a lot of research in acupuncture specifically for this, but I've heard some good anecdata.
I hope you can figure out what's wrong and find the best way to treat it.
! I 
my dr! Never thought I'd say that!
