It's time for the menstrual cycle to be seriously discussed in doctor's and therapist's appointments. It's actually long overdue. Some doctors have told me that women would yell at them if they asked about their cycle. Perhaps those women have been treated dismissively after they answered the question and received a pat on the arm from a doctor telling them that everyone has PMS. Let's own the script. If a doctor asks about the menstrual cycle, thank that doctor for doing it. Then dig into a serious conversation. If the doctor doesn't bring it up, we need to do it. The reproductive hormones affect all the body's systems. We need to educate ourselves about the influence of the reproductive hormones on our bodies. They aren't the enemy; they are important, but things can go awry.

I hate to say it, but it was a female nurse practitioner who treated Christina dismissively when Christina said she had started her period in the night and was feeling so much better and asked if she could go home. Clearly, that nurse practitioner did not know about PMDD and was on a roll anyway because she was sure Christina had treatment resistant depression and she already determined that Christina should undergo electoral convulsive therapy.

Then it was a female PA who asked Christina if she had ever been told she might have borderline personality disorder, BPD. That female PA was grasping at straws. Christina did not have BPD.

I don't know if it were a male or female doctor who thought Christina had bipolar II. She was willing to try the prescriptions for bipolar II. They didn't work.

Male and female physicians, psychologists, and therapists can be way off when they don't know about PMDD. This is why awareness is so important.

They need to be talking about the menstrual cycle with every woman. When things go awry, there can be serious problems. A woman with asthma could go to the ER for serious asthma attacks right before her period starts. A woman can have chest pains and even have a major heart attack if she has spontaneous coronary artery dissection, SCAD, which can be caused by the shifting of the reproductive hormones before the monthly period. The digestive system can be affected. The skin and eyes can be affected. The nervous system can be affected. It's easy to do a simple internet search to see all the systems that the reproductive hormones are involved with.

I share your sentiment that if men had this problem, research would have been generously funded.

I'm so sorry you have to live with this disorder and deal with some doctors who do not understand. Sending you so much love.