I'm kind of confused. (My brain's been pretty out to lunch the last couple of days, so that could be part of it, lol) In the thread title, what is "it"? Reading didn't really clarify. By the title, I thought you were asking if the pms/pmdd was part of bipolar. (It isn't, btw.) You have the pms/pmdd symptoms and you wonder it might be more. Here's the thing. The symptoms happening in that timeframe would be meaningless in terms of BP. In terms of diagnosing. They are already accounted for with the PMS/PMDD dx. Could someone have both? Yes. But the symptoms during that timeframe wouldn't even count towards dx'ing BP. You ask if others (specifically, given the forum, people with BP) experience it that way. Well, of course some will. But the same could be said of any forum (PC or elsewhere --- assuming women were on it, haha) The question infers a search for connection, especially given the thread title.

Similar questions often come up regarding other conditions, and because the people most likely to respond do have the given condition, there begins to be an appearance that there's some kind of connection with BP. But there isn't. It's simply a respondent skew. That said, there are some things which have a higher occurrence of comorbidity than would be expected in a random selection. Even things for which that is true does not make them part of BP.

Blah blah blah. Hope I'm not coming off wrong. It's just that it was unclear to me what was trying to be determined. From other of your threads, I know you are looking for clues to try to figure out what's going on. And because the above scenario pretty much invariably happens (not everyone comes to that conclusion of course, but enough do that I'm compelled to put it out there. Also, because I'm bored up a wall atm and probably overzealous for something to do, haha).

In personal answer to the question (finally, eh? ). No, I don't experience big hormonal issues (it was actually part of my being dx'd…an example of symptoms not being better explained by something else). My sympathies go out to those that do though, that's for sure.

(p.s. I do get the rageful agitation thing (and totally agree -- it sucks!!). The timing doesn't have any correlation my "lady cycling" though.)