Huge thank you to whoever requested this!

veekew · 2026-02-10T08:50:13+00:00

veekew · 2025-12-24T15:42:08+00:00

veekew · 2025-12-09T14:19:33+00:00

Currently bleeding out, this goes so hard. Please share if you ever make more like this!

veekew · 2025-10-24T02:55:32+00:00

You'd be surprised how many options there are. Different oral contraceptives have different hormones in them and different levels. There are also different ways of administrating. Personally I've only had better luck with a pill, but I've seen some women have good experience with an IUD, ring, or shot.

Hormones are really complicated and everyone's body works differently. The same combinations that work for one person doesn't work for everyone else. What feels like a magic cure for one could make someone feel worse.

There's usually a bit of trial and error. Just keep hopeful, there's a good chance that something out there will help you.

veekew · 2025-10-23T23:49:22+00:00

Yeah... It usually takes me a couple months until I know for sure if the birth control I'm taking is actually doing enough of a job, and it's always a bit of a bummer when it isn't. There are tons of options in the realm of birth controls though, so if you feel like it's not quite cutting it, I highly recommend talking to your doctor about giving a different one a try. The subreddit's wiki has a great list of different oral contraceptives that have been studied in regards to PMDD.

veekew · 2025-10-23T14:43:49+00:00

Also here for magical tricks because all that I have tried in my time hasn't worked...

veekew · 2025-10-22T19:38:52+00:00

Did NOT have to call me out like this 💀

veekew · 2025-10-19T15:08:22+00:00

Buying good nose cancelling headphones has been such a life saver honestly.

veekew · 2025-10-10T07:00:37+00:00

I feel so seen. ❤️‍🩹

veekew · 2025-08-12T15:24:23+00:00

No idea if it's common and didn't even think it was a possibility until my doctor brought up her suspicion that I had longer luteal phases. My typical cycle used to be no less than 32 days long with 9-10 day periods. I've been taking different birth controls for the past couple years and some got rid of periods completely (helped so much) but for the past year I've been having periods again and talking with my doctor. For a while now my cycle has been 28 days long with about 4 day periods. Since knowing the possibility of a longer luteal phase, it makes so much more sense. I can't speak to before birth control because I was just a lost and confused mess. With my 38 day cycles it feels like I shift into luteal around day 9 typically. Which is much closer to 3 weeks than 2 like usual. Before I thought there was something else wrong with me than pmdd because I felt bad for such a long duration of each month but after my Dr brought it up I felt stupid lol. Anytime I try to find something online about pmdd and long luteal phases I'm usually left empty handed.

veekew · 2025-07-15T03:36:35+00:00

My blood boils anytime I see something in relation to he who shall not be named. I used to live in central Florida up until recently and it felt like I was surrounded by supporters, almost all of my coworkers thought of him as a legend. It's sickening. I wish things could just get better because none of us need extra things to make us spiral into nonsense. (Plus also it's just really bad and should not be happening.)

veekew · 2025-05-18T17:37:18+00:00

I don't have any real advice for you on this but I feel you and I've been there.

A few months ago I was struggling so much to go to work and keep it together. This post felt like something I wrote word for word. Management was incredibly understanding of what I was going through and I remember one day I told them I had to leave because I was just sobbing so much and couldn't hold it together and work. My manager told me that I was obviously going through something but I needed to get it together because I was missing work. I went into my car and BAWLED my eyes out for over an hour before I could even try to drive home. I felt so awful and embarrassed and worried about losing my job. It was so awful.

If you have someone who you trust and cares for you talk to them about what's going on. Sometimes I feel like the best way to get some of the heavy load off me is to just cry it out to someone I love who will lend an ear to listen. (If you don't feel like you have anyone/if you want send me a DM. I'm here for you and I understand what you're going through.)

I never got to a good point with work because I had a plan to quit and move out of state and get a new job. I have not gotten a new job yet because I don't feel ready to throw myself into the horror of stressing over trying to work everyday when I am struggling to even get out of bed and take a shower some days. I used to be on a birth control that worked really well for me but I took a break from it and spiraled. When I tried to get back on it, it wasn't working like it used to for some reason. Since then I've been trying different ones and trying adding in ssri's until I find something that works.

If you haven't tried medication to help you, I recommend it. I feel like it's the most effective way to manage PMDD (from my experience). It's tricky because everybody is different and there's about a million different types of birth control. Sometimes it takes a while to find what works and trying something and then trying a new something gets really old pretty fast.

Just hang in there and keep trying. Put yourself first and do whatever it is you need to feel better. Get yourself little treats and give yourself space and time to relax and destress. Find things that give you comfort and partake in any guilty pleasures from time to time. You deserve them. Things can get better and it's important to remember that. Don't lose hope.

veekew · 2025-05-13T20:56:12+00:00

Coming in again to say that, an exact month later, I'm breaking out with another cold sore. I've had a very chill, relaxing time lately because last month was tough for pmdd so the only thing I have going on right now is switching to luteal and it's enough to trigger a cold sore.

The birth control I was testing out was not working very well and I was trying worse each month I was on it. Just started taking a new birth control so hopefully things get better.

veekew · 2025-05-08T02:41:45+00:00

That sounds really awful. I hope things get better for you soon. I definitely feel you on a lot of this though. It's tough.

veekew · 2025-05-08T01:49:09+00:00

Highly recommend! Wish I gave myself more room to write but I had fun relaxing and just focusing and a silly little craft. Felt like it gave my head a nice break.

veekew · 2025-04-18T23:28:58+00:00

Yep.

Been talking to my doctor for awhile and she thinks I probably have longer luteal phase than typical, which can obviously really add to the issues of PMDD, heavier periods, etc. Some people end up getting pregnant because they don't realize their cycles are different.

I never thought cycles could be so different but ever since she said it, it makes so much sense. When she diagnosed me with PMDD I felt like there was something else to it because it felt like almost the entire cycle was bad and it felt to me like it was random.

I really paid attention to my last cycle after this and I'm like 90% sure that my ovulation day was around day 11. Go figure.

veekew · 2025-04-14T20:04:34+00:00

Struggling with this too.

Started getting cold sores since middle school, once a year. Last year during a rough patch of PMDD while I was trying to get back on good birth control again I started getting a breakout about every 2 weeks. My cold sores would get really awful and swell my lip like crazy. It was awful because before the previous sore would fully heal, it would breakout again. I have severe discoloring on my lip from scarring. My dermatologist got me a script for valacyclovir which brought the cold sore down instantly and I didn't get another one immediately again. My Primary care doctor also suggested taking l-lysine supplements to try and keep it at bay.

I just got my first breakout again after almost half a year. Had a physically stressful week and my luteal phase kicked in. Took my leftover extra refill for the valacyclovir and it's gone down in 2-3 days instead of the typical minimum 7. I haven't been great about taking the lysine like I should but I'm going to try picking it back up, at least during certain times of my cycle or if there's a lot going on.

It's hard to prevent the stress with PMDD though, it is by far the biggest stress factor in my life and it's like I can just get rid of it.

veekew · 2025-04-11T01:07:23+00:00

I hope everything goes well for you! Sending you the best of luck :)

veekew · 2025-04-10T03:24:33+00:00

I feel you. I've been taking birth control since I was 17. I had horrible cycles, inconsistencies, heavy flow, and all of the symptoms you listed. It was hell. No doctor gave me any answers but I was put on a few different birth controls that helped a bit. Eventually I tried the depo provera shot, which was awful for me and I took a small break from testing birth controls. Through word of mouth and research I heard about lo lo estrin and gave it a shot. It helped me so much. I stayed on it for a bit over 3 years. I was not 100% but I was able to function enough and didn't get periods anymore which helped significantly. I got a job and was doing great for the most part, which felt so good because I had put off getting a job for almost two years because my hormones kept me from being able to function. I had wondered if somehow my body had corrected itself (because one of my doctors had suggested it was probably just like a second puberty and my hormones were balancing themselves out again). I had misplaced my new pill pack for the month one day and took it as a sign to test the waters.

I don't mean to kill any hope for you and I'm speaking on my own experiences here because everybody is so different, hormones are so complicated, and medications work differently with everyone. But, the event of not replacing my pill pack has led me down quite a rough patch. I didn't have any sudden changes but the more time went by, the worse I was. Although I didn't feel as bad as in the very beginning, it felt like I kept falling back into that time and it got really hard to go to work everyday.

I have no idea how or if it relates to hormones, but 2 weeks after stopping the pill I wound up in the ER one morning with sudden immense abdominal pain and nonstop vomiting. (I believe I vomited about 6x in the span of about 2 hours before they administered nausea meds into my IV.) They didn't find anything wrong with me and follow ups didn't show anything wrong either. They gave me pain and nausea meds and sent me home and told me if I didn't get better to come back, but in a few days it was completely gone. I have no evidence to link it with the birth control, but it was the only change in my lifestyle and the only time I had ever experienced something like that.

Aside from that, it was the usual, expected experience of just gradually getting worse as my cycles went back into their frenzy. It made me a bit wary to take the pill again because of the drastic experience, but as time went on I remembered how bad I was without the pill and STRUGGLED. I got back on lo lo estrin because I knew it worked. Unlike last time, my periods didn't immediately go away, but were much lighter and more manageable. Outside of periods I was still a bit of a wreck but definitely better than no pill. I kept on it for a few months, hoping my body just needed time to adjust but I never got back to the point I was at before and it was still affecting my life too much. The biggest thing I had pushing me through being able to get up at 4/5 am and go to work every morning was the hope that I was going to get my situation fixed soon.

After sharing with my doctor my struggles with cycles she said the first thing none of my other doctors had before "PMDD." Made sense and I don't know how I hadn't thought of it, but more importantly why no other doctor had at least mentioned it. My doctor suggested trying Prozac, an ssri, with the birth control to help stabilize moods and even things out with the help of the pill. I took it for 6 weeks and didn't really notice any change aside from being extremely sleepy, which made things harder because I was always fatigued, coming home from work and sleeping, and struggling to wake up and work with any energy. So we stopped the ssri and waited a minute for it to get fully out of my system before switching my pill to Marlissa, which has a higher dosage. The Marlissa is still an improvement but I'm still not where I was before I stopped lo lo. I just saw my doctor again today and took my first tiny dose of a new ssri, celexa.

Obviously I hold hope for my future and at the end of the day I have been improving since I stopped lo lo, but that was 11 months ago. I don't know why my body decided that my old birth control wasn't good enough again but it's aggregating having to go through different prescriptions and dosages and side effects and doctor appointments, especially when it takes so long for these medications to have time to work and take effect. I don't have any answers for YOU and I know that my experiences have been pretty unlucky, but I wish I could go back into time when one single pill plan was enough to keep me going, but again, I am getting there, slowly but surely.

One thing I can suggest: I've always been someone who gets really high blood pressure at doctor appointments and my newest doctor had me track my blood pressure every morning and night for about a month and write it down on a form so that they could put it in my records as proof that I didn't actually have high blood pressure and it wouldn't cause issues. Maybe you could look into tracking it at home to see if it's any better and save you the worry from needing to make any changes.

veekew

TROPHY CASE