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Cathy was stunned to learn that PMDD could affect her for decades<\/p>\n
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Recent scenes in Emmerdale highlight issues surrounding Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). This can cause a range of emotional and physical symptoms, which manifest during the \u201cluteal\u201d phase of a woman\u2019s cycle \u2013 the two weeks between ovulation and menstruation. Awareness of PMDD remains low, even though it can wreak havoc on the health of those suffering with the condition. Here Closer speaks to Amy Hardy, who is one of the 80,000 women in the UK with the condition\u2026<\/p>\n
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Soap character Cathy\u2019s friends were left worried about her mental health<\/p>\n
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It was a chance conversation with a friend that finally revealed to Amy Hardy why she\u2019d spent over 20 years suffering frightening symptoms, including suicidal thoughts. Amy, who is 39 and lives in St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, with her husband Kristian, 40, says, \u201cAs I listened to my friend talk about being diagnosed with a hormone-based mood disorder called PMDD, it felt like a lightbulb switching on in my mind. So much of what she was describing resonated with me, from the extreme mood swings and dysphoric thoughts to the physical aches and sensitivity to sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor over two decades, I\u2019d suffered with these symptoms, and had even considered ending my life at times. But despite seeing numerous health professionals, nobody had connected it to my menstrual cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amy\u2019s symptoms began in 2007, when she was 24. She says, \u201cMy periods had always been heavy and painful, but from my mid-twenties things escalated. It started soon after I had the contraceptive injection, but I\u2019ll never know for sure if that triggered it.
\u201cFor the next 21 years, I experienced a raft of symptoms. Physical ones included fatigue, muscular pain, and sensitivity to light and loud noises, while mental ones ranged from panic attacks and crippling anxiety to intense rage and suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember driving on a motorway and thinking about crashing my car, because I just didn\u2019t care if I lived or died, and also fantasising about being homeless so I could escape my life. In those lowest moments, I just didn\u2019t want to be here. Yet on some months nothing happened, and the unpredictability meant I never spotted a pattern.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2009, I was diagnosed with ME, but I didn\u2019t believe I had it. I wondered if it was a delayed reaction to losing my mum aged 20, or whether I had a mental illness, like bipolar. It was scary not knowing.\u201d
Amy says living with undiagnosed PMDD affected her work and relationships. She says, \u201cI had to leave my job as a lettings agent because the stress exacerbated my symptoms, and there were days I couldn\u2019t work as I was in pain or too anxious to leave the house. Instead, I started a small property inventory business so I could work around my health.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2012, I married my husband, who I\u2019d been with since we were teenagers. He had to live with someone who could be unpredictable, anxious and volatile \u2013 when I was in the grips of symptoms, just the sound of him chewing food could make me furious.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost friendships because I\u2019d cancel plans, or leave a night out because I\u2019d start crying uncontrollably and not know why. I wasn\u2019t a reliable friend and because my symptoms were invisible, I felt there was often less sympathy.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFor years, I went back and forth to my GP, who prescribed vitamin B injections and offered antidepressants, but I wanted to get to the root cause, not mask the symptoms. Hypnotherapy did help me manage my anxiety and stress levels better though.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Amy\u2019s friend opened up about her own struggles with PMDD, it changed everything. She says, \u201cAfterwards, I spent three months tracking my symptoms and realised they flared up before my period. In May 2019, my GP referred me to a consultant gynaecologist, and while there are no specific tests for PMDD, he confirmed I had the condition based on my symptoms. There was a huge relief in knowing what was wrong, but also sadness it had taken so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
After her diagnosis, Amy decided against taking HRT, one of the treatments offered to women with PMDD. She also ruled out having her womb and ovaries removed, because, at 35, she was undecided about having children.<\/p>\n
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Cathy was stunned to learn that PMDD could affect her for decadesRecent scenes in Emmerdale highlight issues surrounding Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). This can cause a range of emotional and physical symptoms, which manifest during the \u201cluteal\u201d phase of a woman\u2019s cycle \u2013 the two weeks between ovulation and menstruation. Awareness of PMDD remains low, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"FlatPlan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}