I've been on four pills before. One sent me absolutely insane. One made me gain weight (boo) but my boobs got MASSIVE (yay!). One made me gain weight and my boobs stayed the same size (cack). One was AMAZING but it's so strong that you're only meant to be on it for six months or something, and I've used up my quota. Based on that sample, the doctor said that the chances were that I would get some negative side effects from going back on the pill. Plus, he reminded me, I didn't really need the contraceptive bonus since.... There followed an awkward silence as the implied 'We both know you're not getting any' lingered in the room.Great, I said. That all makes sense. Going on the pill doesn't seem to be the right solution. So, I asked, what's the other commonly prescribed medication? The doctor turned to me and winced vaguely. 'You're already on it.' Ah. My anti-depressant. OK, so maybe I should put the dose of that up? But I'm already a bit more numb than I used to be. Three weeks of increased numbness vs. one week of less crying per month... I dunnooooo. I am not keen to put up my dose. I don't know why, but I don't want to.
He printed out a printout and handed me the handout. Four pages of my options - take a drug that is quite likely to make me fatter and/or more mental, take more of a drug you're already taking, or try one of these Totally Unscientifically Proven Alternative Therapies: increased calcium, increased magnesium, increased B6, Evening Primrose, Agnus Castus, St. John's Wort. All of these have countless female proponents online saying 'IT'S A MIRACLE! It totally worked!' and just as many saying 'Nope. Still crying. Still want to stab my husband.'
What to do, what to do? I think I'll just carry on as I have been, sitting at home trying not to do anything that might upset me. It's not the most fun way to spend the week before Christmas and I'm certainly getting bored of the view from my sofa, reading about everyone else's fun parties on Twitter, but Chris has already told me off today for putting him down, so I'm clearly still being a miserable bitch and should probably avoid others. If everyone would just promise to do nothing except make me feel like a star, I'd be OK, but annoyingly Real Life doesn't seem to be like that. On the upside, it's a lot easier to stay thin at home than it is in the Outside World full of mince pies and endless booze. See? I'm focusing on the positives! I told you things were improving.
Er, I took B6 for a long time (50mg a day) and I think it helped for a while. Made my hands go pins and needles though. In my experience, all doctors are CRAP at PMT. Even the women. Or even especially the women. All pills made me mental, with the added bonus of perma-periods so I am seeing what happens if I don't do anything. But no doctor has suggested anything helpful or taken any of my womanly troubles seriously ever. The gynaes were the worst.
ReplyDeleteNot much help, sorry. Hope everything else is ok...
try Starflower oil for 'monthly hormone balance'. Supposedly contains higher amounts of 'GLA' (Gamma Linolenic acid) than Evening Primrose. Studies show that PMS suffers have low GLA levels .... it's worth a try :-)x
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, Charlotte. I can't comment on your experience with doctors, but in their defence, I don't think there's anything concrete they can say. Every pill seems to have as many different combinations of side effects as people who take it. There's no way of predicting how you're going to respond - and even more frustratingly, one that worked well ten years ago might react badly with you now.
ReplyDeleteMy mum has been suggesting B6 to me for ages so since you're on that bandwagon too, I'll give it a go.
As for everything else being OK, it's hard to tell at the moment. Everything feels pretty cack but I'm hoping that's just the hormones.
Altogether now... Sometimes... It's hard... to be... a woman.
And thanks to you too, Caroline. The doctor did give me one piece of concrete advice: whatever I decide to try, take it and it only, for three to six months - if you take two or more possible remedies and feel better, you won't know which one's done the trick. So. B6 from now til March, I think. Watch this space.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as I'm currently sitting at work vacillating between wanting to stab someone and wanting to collapse in a sobbing heap under my desk I don't really think there's any advice I can give you for how to combat PMT but I can sympathise.
ReplyDeleteAnd, going back to a previous post where you commented that men should have to experience it at least once, a few of us were saying exactly the same thing the other day. I also think that if they understood what it's really like they'd actually be impressed that we only go as mental as we do.
Anyway, I hope it gets itself out of the way enough that you can enjoy the rest of Christmas.
Thanks @Anon. I'm beginning to wonder if the P in PMT stands for Permanent. Losing my sense of humour. My mum said it might be something to do with the moon. I think she might have a point. Am going to research it on Google.
ReplyDeleteHey Jane - sorry for the delay but just had some time to sit and read back over your wonderful blog. I have suffered from depression quite a lot in the last few years but decided to come off the anti depressants and the pill (which I was on for 10 years) a couple of years ago to try and get my body sorted and in balance naturally. I am taking a few natural supplements to get my progesterone and oestrogen in balance with each other as I believe the imbalance is the cause of my terrible PMT. Also I have found that cutting out as much stress as possible - in every part of my life - from stressful foods like bread and pasta to stressful situations and increasing the exercise has really helped. I find if I don't exercise the negative thoughts start worming their way back into everything..but that's just me! Have a look at a guy called Dr Kalish - his website is annoyingly sell sell-y but I find his ideas bang on. If you're interested and want to look into getting your hormones tested and balanced over here, Kalish is in the states, I know a lovely lady called Kristie who has trained under him http://www.summitpersonaltraining.co.uk/about_us.php XX
ReplyDeleteThanks Gemma - that's really really interesting. I'm now in the post-MT stage where everything seems fine and I'm wondering what all the fuss was about and convinced I was a drama queen and made the whole thing up. And then in another fortnight I'll be back in the dumps, I bet! I'm going to carry on with the psychotherapy for now and then if I'm still getting bad PMT once my head is in good order, I think I will look into the hormone testing you're talking about. It sounds really compelling - bet it's not cheap though.
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