Am I a fruit loop? (My Experience of PMS)

Member Name: ickledink

Product:	My Experience of PMS
Date:	29/05/02 (203 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: you get to be nasty to everyone(ha ha)

Disadvantages: Everyone avoids you like a bad smell, it disrupts your life

My experience of PMS has been a long and tedious one.
I seemed to get narky as soon as I started my periods at 15, yes I was a late starter but then I am talking 13 years ago. I would not have said this was PMS but it was the start.

I used to get irritable, water retention and period pains (cramps) for a few days before my periods, which when you are young and going through puberty can seen like the end of the world! I am sure my parents would have told you I was more of a pain in the neck than normal when nearing my monthlies.

Lucky for them I moved out at sixteen and a half and my first boyfriend had to put up with it instead. Lol.
My periods became more regular after a few years, which gave me time to plan for my PMT as I knew when to expect it. Yeh, right like I really remembered things like that in the middle of an episode!
Then it started to get worse.

Fortunately (for me), there has been a gradual increase in public awareness and understanding of PMS in the past few years.
My PMS is easy to define -it is a collection of symptoms that occur in the run-up to my period, getting better once my period has arrived. It is due to changes in my hormone levels, which occur naturally in the course of my menstrual cycle.
I noticed changes in my physical and emotional feelings during this time, but I found it was really difficult to explain to anyone how bad I was feeling. This was probably due to the fact every woman's symptoms are different, my friends never seemed to be anything like me and then the severity also differed between each of my cycles.

I was told by my doctor, 'if your symptoms happen regularly in the same phase of your menstrual cycle, get much better in the rest of the cycle and are bad enough to disrupt your life, you have PMS.'

So I had PMS, and I dealt with all my symptoms, year in, year out. The cravings for chocolate and stodgy food, the bloating (water retention), the
period cramps that had me curled up in a ball in agony, the headaches, the backache, I could not sleep at night and then I could not stay awake during the day. I could deal with all those physical symptoms with not much disruption to my life; it was the Psychological symptoms I had trouble with.
The mood swings-for no reason, being irritable-for no reason, I couldn ot concentrate on anything for any length of time and often found myself in tears-for no reason, I felt fed up. I hated my hormones (oh and men!) with a vengeance.

Then at 25, I got Pregnant and for a whole 40 weeks I had no PMS, I was lovely to live with, (so my partner would of told you) smiling and perky all the time. I so enjoyed being pregnant.

After the birth of my little girl, my hormones went back into overdrive and everyone including me just thought it was my PMS coming back.
All I kept thinking was this seems a lot worse than I remember!
It was. I actually got diagnosed as having Post-Natal-Depression. This has now released its grip, the post-natal bit anyway!

Now to add to my previous list of PMS symptoms I have even more moodiness, with a big bit of depression and anger thrown in for good measure, oh and migraines that knock me for six!

So now that I am weaning myself off my prescribed drugs (see my Pill Popper? Op)for my PND, I have now decided to find ways of helping myself.

This is how I go about it.
- Talk to my (now ex) partner. There is a lot of evidence that relationships are more likely to suffer if your partner does not understand what is going on, mine was part of this evidence and I am now trying to re-build that relationship.
- Try to reduce my levels of stress, I chill out to music or write op's! This does not improve my symptoms, but it does make it easier for me to deal with them.
-Try to follow a healthy diet, eat small amounts regularly and not go too long without eating, which is really hard when
my body is screaming out for junk food.
- Try to cut down on my caffeine intake, which includes coke and coffee as well as tea.
- Try to cut down on salt, which can increase fluid retention.
- Try to take regular exercise - great for my general health and well-being, as well as relieving my symptoms of PMS. I like to walk a lot; this also eases any cramps that I get.
- I was taking Vitamin B6 and Evening Primrose oil, which I will start taking again. I stopped because what with my other medicine I was fed up of taking so many pills.
- I have also started drinking a sort of tea made up for me by my local Chinese herbalist, this looks, smells and tastes vile but their cures have been around for just about forever, so I'm thinking they must know what they are doing. They gave me a consultation on Saturday (25/05/02) to find out all my symptoms and then mixed up a lot of dried herbs and things; no I don't have a clue what they are. I have to boil them up and drink the mixture twice a day for 10 days then return to the herbalist for further help. Personally I am excited as to the outcome; I may even get to write an op about it one day. Lol
The good thing is all the things I am trying seem to be helping ME so far.

I have also heard that a vitamin supplements containing Zinc and Magnesium are supposed to help, as are protein rich foods when your symptoms are bad and I suppose a touch of self pampering like yoga couldn't hurt. But me being me I have not got around to trying these yet, as like I said I have only just started trying to help myself.

I am thinking this is not going to be easy, it is probably best for everyone that I be locked away while I get my PMS under some sort of control, as I find it virtually impossible to control my temper and tears and thus my depression in the run up to my period. I am a nice person the rest of the time honest!

So now I will continue on my quest for the PMS cure,
and maybe I will not consider myself to be a fruit loop when my monthlies come along for much longer.

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