PMDD

I'm beginning to think my moods might be linked to my hormones. I just had two weeks of depression. Yesterday I woke up totally fine, maybe even a little hypo. Today I'm fine, and today I got my period. Out of the six times I was hospitalized in the last couple of years, at least three times I have gotten my period shortly after being admitted. Can PMS or PMDD be severe enough to cause severe depression or mixed states? I'm talking severe enough that I self harm (like this time) or end up in the hospital for suicidal ideation.

I'm sure not everything is caused by hormones - but if it's a factor, what is the treatment? Would being on birth control help? I can't remember if it helped when I was taking it before because my moods weren't as severe then. I wasn't paying attention to them.

If anyone has any experiences I'd like to hear them.

Yep. Mist of my hospitalization si started too. Not all my episodes though.

I am not sure if this is the correct way to share a thread (I hope it works). I had the same question recently and got lots of good info.

http://forums.psychcentral.com/bipol...st-ladies.html

Thank you I forgot all about that lol and I saw it too!

I've been amazed at how much better I've been as I go through menopause. It began early for me (34) and I had a lot of issues that eventually required a hysterectomy at 36. They said menopause should end within 5 years due to diminished blood supply to the ovaries.

I've reached the point where I almost never have a hot flash. In fact the other day I had the first in probably 6 months. So in theory that means my hormone levels are dropping.

Granted this nasty episode since I've been on here doesn't look like it but I truly have done better with less hormones.

Conversely I did worse with hormones. I had a Mirena IUD placed to try to reduce heavy bleeding. From the time it went in until the day we pulled in 9 months later just to see if it was causing my problems I was extremely suicidal and depressed. When it came out I felt better within 3 days. After that happened my psychiatrist and gyn started watching and found several other bipolar women not doing well on the Mirena, tiny hormone dose and all.

So I believe hormones have a HUGE effect on bipolar, one I didn't realize until mine started going crazy when menopause started when I was 34 (since I was so young I had to track it for months which made the relationship stand out even more).

My moods get really ugly and most of my episodes start right before my period too. Birth control turned me into a hormonal ***** though so I can't take it. Just have to live with it I guess.

I get a little down and *****y about a week before my period, but nothing huge. Hormonal birth control turns me into a raging ***** (like the week before my period, but the entire month instead. lol. It was horrible, and they tried me on four different kinds. All had same result).

So I can't go on hormonal birth control. My ob recommended the mirena because "there's only a small amount of hormones in it". Yeah, no.

Yeah same exact story here but I haven't heard of mirena.

IF someone wants you to get a Mirena be very, very cautious. I am very sensitive (or not at all sensitive, depending) to meds and that thing was an awful experience. It did let me delay having a hysterectomy for a year and if the hormones (which truly are almost nothing) hadn't been EVIL I might have avoided that altogether but when I had it done we'd discussed my sensitivity to hormones and decided that this was such a tiny amount that I'd be fine, plus nobody had heard of it causing problems and I was having surgery anyway so inserting it was easy. It took my extreme reaction of wanting to kill myself until it was removed and then almost immediately becoming more stable for my psychiatrist and gyn surgeon both to notice it in a few other patients, less severely than I'd reacted but enough to recommend removal.

The good thing is that if you try it and fail removal is easy but the hard thing is knowing if it is the cause of the problems. It was very hard to decide what to do about removing it; my gyn surgeon even said she had no real instinct for what to do. Ultimately we decided that since I was still having more bleeding than ideal and it could be causing the mood issue which no treatment had helped that we could always put a new one in if I felt there was no change from the loss of hormones. It came out and they showed it to me and as it became clear it was the problem it was so hard to believe something so tiny could cause so much horror.

Many people are fine with it. But I know it causes problems because "mirena bipolar" became one of the most frequently searched terms on my blog. I haven't asked my dr about finding more cases for a while. I got the impression they were considering doing a paper about it.

Oh thank God my neighbors' guests are leaving. Loud music and loud voices aren't helping me.......

I've been reading up on it and apparently if ou have a mood disorder already it is called pre menstrual exacerbation. There seems to be no treatment for pme except psychopharmological intervention, of course. I don't know, I missed a few days of meds what with moving and everything so that might have been a factor too. But I definitely think my hormones have something to do with it.mive always had problems with my period being VERY irregular (anywhere between three weeks and six weeks it will show up). And with the Invega I stopped having my period for like five months. So who knows. I'm gonna bring it up with my pdoc on June 5.

I haven't read all the replies cos I'm on my phone but pmdd can definitely give you depression and mixed symptoms. My mood charted for the last couple years shows exactly 9 days for me but once the bleeding starts I am fine again. We were in the process of analysing the cycle when I decided to get the mirena which sent me into a mixed state for 7 months, I knew it was related to the mirena but the docs said I was having a severe mixed episode.

I don't remember it being so bad on the pill but I can't take that any more and the mirena was my only bc option. I know I'm safe from pregnancy for another 4 yrs and I have levelled out some now but can still get " bad" the day/ night before I bleed (if I do it is extremely light compared to before).

I feel like pdocs should recognize when this happens and try to come up with a medication regimen that compensates for this like a higher dose of an AP for that week or a strong prn benzo like ativan.

I tried that. I tried a higher dose of AD during that time, that didnt work, tried a higher dose of AP for that time, also didnt really work but did make it less mixed and more depressive, tried ativan prn, wasnt enough, tried clonazepam for that time and that did help but he was concerned about me becoming ego dystonic from taking it like that.

My pdoc worked with my gyno and they said mirena was my best bet. When I went so badly mixed I needed to go inpatient my pdoc did suggest getting the mirena removed but the gyno had warned the first 6 months could be rough so I stuck it out. Im glad I did as I have less hormonal swings now although I can still get quite dangerous the few days leading up - it just doesnt happen every single month without fail like it used to now. So I can work on the BP stuff in therapy instead of just coping with hormonal swings.

I had a similar experience and I had posted a thread about this a few days ago. For the first time my mood has gotten really low with period (compared to irritability w period). I am on BC but through a primary (who sucks and screws everything up). I feel so awkward bringing this stuff up with Pdoc (oh my gosh I am such a child)....I don't see her for another 3 mths anyway...
I am just not sure what to do about it....like is this the sort of thing you just have to wait out??
I am not on antidepressants just mood stabilizer (ha good job their doing huh?)

I take clonopin every day and that blunts some of the emotional torment but not by much. I wish my pdoc would be open to trying another option but he is incredibly inflexible and doesn't care at all about how my cycle affects my moods. He blames every episode on meds because that's all he knows. But all of my episodes except for one have been caused by extreme stress or hormones or more often than not a combination of the two. But he doesn't care at all or listen to me.

Your dr sounds awful. Do you have to see him again before you move/ Do you have a family dr who would write scripts for you to bridge the gap?

I read that if you have Bipolar, you can't have PMDD too? But I know some people are DX'd with both.

I have all the symptoms of PMDD and I've often wondered if much of my bipolar, is hormone related. People get tired of hearing me talk about the correlation, I talk about it so much!

I'm sorry you are struggling so much. I understand and feel ya.

Big hugs,
Elsa

Really? You can't have both? That seems odd. I have wondered if some of my episodes are hormone related too. I have like a mini depressed then a tiny bit manic cycle every month and sometimes if I'm under a lot of stress it can trigger a really bad episode.

If you are concerned your "bp" cycles are related to your hormones, start mood tracking including your menstrual cycle. It'll give you a real clear picture. And you can plan!

Mine was 9 days a month of unstable then stable the rest of the month - although the relief from the depression would send me a bit "happy" . My PMDD didnt show up until almost 10 years after the bp diagnosis - My gyno thinks it is related to long term use of antipsychotics. My pdocs are sure I have BP regardless of the PMDD as my bp mood cycles are too long to be hormone related.

Technically I have also heard you cant be diagnosed with both, but I was. Although whenever admitted it was Mixed state on my admission papers because thats the closest to what it represented.

I do have to see my pdoc again before I move because I want to settle whether or not I have schizoaffective and he is the one who wants to refer me for a brain scan to rule out neurological issues so he can make a diagnosis. Honestly I don't care that I have hallucinations, because they don't bother me, but I am curious about whether my diagnosis is correct or not.

My doctor works at the same clinic as my pdoc and refers all psych stuff to my pdoc and won't/can't override him. So he's of no use. I asked him to help me go over my pdoc's head to get help with my adhd, which my pdoc refuses to acknowledge the existence of, but my doctor just told me he can't help because he has no authority over my pdoc. He already signed away his rights to treat any psychological issues for me. It's stupid, but so goes the system.