Social Icons

twitterfacebookgoogle pluslinkedinrss feedemail

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

More on PMDD - Yaz It Up!

Symbol of the planet and Roman goddess Venus, ...Image via Wikipedia
Well, I finally did it; I met my mum-in-law's doctor. The doctor seems nice enough and I found it easier to talk to a female doctor about my PMDD. Although, I did have to explain what it was - which kind of caught me off guard. You expect a doctor to just know everything which is totally unrealistic, but we still expect it. 

I should have gone in there with a definition of PMDD because I'm sure I missed something. She thinks I should be on anti-depressants, but I stressed that I do not have benefits. So, we're going to try me on Yaz birth control for 3 months. I'll go back to see her in 2 months to see how things are going. I guess she'll decide at that time if she wants to officially take me as a patient. She said she'd take me on for now. I have no idea what that means, but I'll take it since I currently have no doctor. Besides she gave me 3 months of trial packs of Yaz - free!

It still amazes me that medical professionals don't believe certain illnesses/disorders do not exist because there is no blood test to prove it. It's like Fibromyalgia - a lot of doctors still think it's in a patients head. With PMDD they think it's just PMS

I tried to explain that my symptoms are only surrounding my period. The week or so before to a few days after my period. My "normal" time I'm relatively happy and thankful for my life. How is that depression? Isn't depression ALL the time? Not just surrounding your period? 

Now, I know there's no miracle cure, but I'm feeling hopeful to actually be trying something to relieve my symptoms. I've read a lot of information on Yaz. Yes, even the lawsuit stuff about how the commercials are misleading women to think that all of their symptoms will be gone. I never expected they'd all be gone and I still don't expect Yaz to "cure" me but if it helps relieve some or most of my symptoms it's worth a try isn't it? I've also read a lot of comments on other women's success/failure with Yaz. Looking at them as a whole it seems the women Yaz didn't work for generally have problems with any birth control pill. I know it's been many years since I've taken anything but I don't recall any trouble when I took birth control before.

I've also read how many women developed PMDD after getting their tubes tied, which is when mine started as well. When I mentioned this to the doctor she dismissed it since tubaligation does not affect your hormones. Now, I admit I always had bad periods (at least at the time I thought they were bad). They always lasted the full 7 days and they were always heavy (again what I thought was heavy at the time). 

I have a theory. My theory is that it is ALL related. I mean I started my period shortly before my 9th birthday and I'm now 30. I've had 3 babies and had my tubes tied. Add to that my weight. You put all of those things together and I think the tubaligation threw my body out of whack. When many women go through similar things I don't think a doctor can discount it just because the procedure itself doesn't affect hormones.

Doctors are smart, but diagnosing an illness is not the same as living with it. Ask the husband of any PMDD affected woman and he'll tell you this is not regular PMS. Ask the children of moms with PMDD. 

- sigh- 

My poor kids. I wonder if they think I hate them. It seems I'm always so frustrated with them. All I ever do is yell (or cry for that matter).

TO ALL THE DOCTORS OUT THERE:
PMDD exists! I don't care how many of you try to pawn it off as depression. This is not depression. Anti-depressants will only help so much. You can't treat just one of the symptoms. You have to treat it for what it is. It IS Premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Try to listen to your patients. Don't roll your eyes. Broaden your horizons and maybe read up on an illness/disorder you don't know much about. That is the best way to truly help your patient.

I know my thoughts are kind of all over the place, but hey that's how my brain works. I will keep you posted on how things go with Yaz. For now, I've got to kick my butt into high gear. I've got a wedding to go to! I leave Thursday morning and I haven't started packing yet. I did pull out the suitcase which is usually half the battle. Have a great day. 

Oh and my new mantra.... Let Go - Let God. When I get super stressed out I repeat this to myself.So, my friends do not worry about anything - Let Go and Let God.Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

3 comments:

  1. Hi! me again... I would be curious to know what your symptoms the week before are. I too am having similar problems and my family Doc put me on anti depressants and that basically started my year of hell. I am just now getting back to normal.

    Just being nosy I guess! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Mar,

    Thanks so much for all the comments!
    At first about a week before my period I'd have one day where I'd be so angry all day long. Small things would just set me off, or I'd just ball for no reason. It got worse. Instead of one day before my period it was pretty much every day. Some worse than others but in general I basically told my family to go away and not talk to me or I'd rip their heads off. When it all got really bad I had about 3 weeks of this feeling angry, depressed, extremely tired and then one week where I felt great and fine. Couple of docs tried to prescribe anti-depressants but I don't have benefits at my current job so I refused. I also reminded the doctors to ask any person who has depression if they get a week off from being depressed because that never happens.
    There's a long list of symptoms of course, but for me the worst of it was the mood swings. It's hard to be a mom when you can't control your emotions at all.
    Not sure if that's similar to what you've been going through. I've kind of gone through mild and extreme versions of this.
    What's helped you get back to normal?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very great and informative post.

    ReplyDelete

Welcome and thank you for reading my blog! I'd love to hear from you so please feel free to post comments.

eLLe