oh my gosh I am almost in tears at finding this thread. I just joined this website today to see if I could find anything on this exact topic since google was not very helpful for me.

I have had very typical PMDD since I was in my early twenties, I have also always struggled with anxiety and depression. I have always had "bad pms" even as a teenager. So do my mom and sis. I wasn't diagnosed until 27 or so, when it got really bad (like I couldn't get out of bed sometimes to go to work the day or two before my period), at one point I was feeling suicidal so called my gp who immediately started me on 10 mg of prozac daily and that really helped even me out and while it didn't stop my pms symptoms it made them a lot better. like others have mentioned I would be at my worst feeling right before I started and seriously as soon as my period started I would feel normal again. it seemed to get worse as I got older.

prozac worked for me for about a year and then I got pregnant with my son. I stopped the med while pregnant and was fine, which to my gp was a clear sign that it really was PMDD. I was fine while nursing too but as my son started to eat real food I noticed some of my symptoms coming back, though they were still milder than they had been pre-baby. however, once he weaned all hell broke loose...I was now having mood swings all month long! not just right before my period! specifically I would have a bad one around ovulation and again right before my period and also often in the few days following. my doc put me on prozac again, 20 mg this time since the PMDD seemed worse than pre-baby and that was a big mistake. it helped my depression symptoms (mainly fatigue and lack of motivation) but made my anxiety worse and I think I started rapid cycling on it too - I found myself having horrible mood swings of anger/irritability/crying out of nowhere and for no apparent reason. it was really affecting my job and my relationship with my husband but I didn't want to stop the prozac because my depression seemed better...anyway one night I found myself having suicidal fantasies and thoughts of self-harm and that wasn't something I had ever thought about before so I called my doc immediately and she started me on lamictal and cut the prozac slowly down to 5 mg for the PMDD. we're still adjusting meds so I'm not sure what will happen but so far the lamictal has been a godsend. I wish I would have tried this years ago. I *think* I probably have bipolar II that's exacerbated by the hormone fluctuations around my period because my mood swings are definitely at their worst during that week. I don't have an official diagnosis yet although my doc thinks bipolar II or at least cyclothymia. she thinks the bipolar spectrum symptoms and the PMDD symptoms are two separate things we need to treat but acknowledges one can make the other worse, if that makes sense.

apparently it's common for bipolar mood swings to be triggered by hormones and there is even research to support the idea that childbirth can trigger bipolar in women who already struggle with depression (I will try to find this article, it was from a canadian university if I remember right).

anyway...thank you for posting this! I have had such a hard time finding research on this topic. I will keep checking this thread, I am not super familiar with how this all works...thank you again for sharing.