Freedom from PMDD

An Advocate for PMDD Sufferers

April is PMDD Awareness month! As someone who has vowed to be an advocate for PMDD warriors, now that I am cured and have more space in my life, I felt it was time to finally do more, share more and push more for change when and where I can. Those darkest moments don’t haunt me, they motivate me to be there for those who are still in the dark, still struggling, still trying to figure out what will fix them. My hope is that you read my story and get what you need out of it. That you see my art and know that I understand where you are, view my infograph and share it where it will be helpful.

My PMDD Story

“I’m CURED,” I announced recently to a friend I’ve known since middle school. With her confused look I realized I should explain PMDD and my story again. She told me she had no idea I was going through what I was going through. As someone who has been trying to spread awareness about PMDD, I felt like I had shared this vulnerable part of me with the WORLD! Her confusion reminded me I played normal and isolated during the dark times well. It reminded me people will forget what you share, and some won’t hold it against you. Although I had another career minded friend ask me, in a concerned tone, do you feel sharing about this subject ok? I realize I am far beyond  presenting the perfect package. If I am hired it will be because they want to work with me for being me. So, I conclude, I need to keep sharing to reach those that are in the trenches with PMDD and need
my story.

The IAPMD Definition of Premenstrual
Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is “a cyclical, hormone-based mood disorder with symptoms arising during the premenstrual, or luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and subsiding within a few days of menstruation. It affects an estimated 5.5% of women and AFAB individuals of reproductive age. While PMDD is directly connected to the menstrual cycle, it is not a hormone imbalance. PMDD is a severe negative reaction in the brain to the natural rise and fall of estrogen and progesterone. It is a suspected cellular disorder in the brain. Symptoms can worsen over time and or around reproductive events such as menarche (the first menstrual cycle), pregnancy, birth, miscarriage, and perimenopause.”

I realize there is a lot of information here and people are busy, so I’ve titled each section so that you can jump to the section you need now. For instance,

• ·    if you are in the dark and unsure if you have PMDD, Living with PMDD might give you more clues.
• ·    if you have been diagnosed, but are in seeking solutions mode, After Diagnosis would be good to jump to. Or,
• ·     if you have gone through PMDD for too long and just want out, Wits End and Resistance before Breakthrough will tell you why and how I finally broke free from PMDD.

And, on that note, I wrote this for you with a big hug from me.

Living with PMDD (from the age of 12 – 46 years old)

At an early age I learned, when I was scrambling for answers to the questions, I had about what I was going through, that friends don’t like to talk about anything related to their periods or PMS. And the whole idea of PMS was defined as the crazy women that doesn’t have control over her emotions. I wanted nothing to do with it myself. Extreme periods were chalked up to the idea that I just need to “suck it up buttercup.” Those ideas surrounding what I was going through, couldn’t have been further from the truth.

With my first period came the oddest feeling of what I will refer to as dysphoria (Something like the opposite of euphoria. But even the definition of dysphoria ‘a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life,’ doesn’t capture the woozy drunken dizzy feeling). I can remember whining to my mom about how I couldn’t handle it and she didn’t know what to do for me. She was perplexed and chalked it up to me being dramatic which made me hate myself for my behavior. This was not my personality to that point. *I had always been the good little girl trying to make things easier on my mom. She had to take care of me on her own basically. My father didn’t pay child support which made me the **biggest burden. I think I yelled at her for not coming up with a solution. She had gone through ‘periods’ for years how could she not know what to do? It was at about that moment that I began spinning my body on the walls. Visualize spinning like kids do to feel a dizzy sensation. It felt like my ovaries were radiated a dizzy spell and spinning made it feel normal. My body was weak, so the wall held me up while I spun. I felt extremely dramatic but couldn’t help it. I remember my uncle came into the room and I couldn’t act normal or presentable. My mom was so confused. “So, you feel cramping?” “Yeah, I guess, but it’s a weird feeling all over and in my head too.” I still to this day couldn’t describe it, maybe “a dysphoric and drunken feeling that radiates from my ovaries that makes me want to curl up into a ball in bed and shut everything out while being completely upset that I can’t go on with my day.” I don’t remember it being that bad after the first period. I never missed school due to my cycle. I had heavy periods but figured that was the sad luck of the draw.

In my teens PMDD showed up as self-diagnosed depression. I remember relating well to Silvia Plath’s book. But since they made us read it in high school, I figured that meant that every teenager felt the way she did. Only to find out later that they think Silvia had PMDD before it was discovered. And, in college, to avoid overwhelm from PMDD combined with life, I started cutting people out of my life. Life would take me to exciting new adventures but would require keeping my circle small.

In my twenties, PMDD would show up as issues with roommates and relationships. Things would be great and then out of the blue they turned into people I could not deal with – in my mind it was clear how horrible they were as human beings but in hindsight I know my PMDD mind played a major part. I became baffled at how people could remain longtime friends with their roommates. I did manage to turn one of my roommates into a lifelong friend, but she was an impeccably great friend. She also smoked, drank, and cursed which matched my PMDD mindset. So, I think if anything arose PMDD wise, we would just drink, her cursing made my PMDD feel normal, and we would laugh about everything until I was through it. Drinking with friends was common among all twenty somethings and I found it soothed physical symptoms but only increased my depression. Eventually I would learn to never confirm plans or RSVP to events until I knew where I was in my cycle or how that month was turning out. But I still wasn’t make the connection with my overall well-being.

I would not learn about PMDD until I was diagnosed with it in my thirties. At the time, my personal situation had extreme highs of being at home with my new baby and extreme lows from other issues. So, who is to say where my situation ended and my PMDD started but I noticed my mood and emotions were all over the place in an extreme way. My husband worked and had other responsibilities he had to attend to. I hadn’t felt safe getting a babysitter to watch our son at such a young age and my mom watched him once when he was 20 months old (only because I was taking her son/my half-brother to a concert.) I was mom 24/7. Extreme fatigue would have me nearly debilitated on the couch unable to move for days (fleeting thoughts would help me realize it was connected to my cycle but then I would get distracted and mommy brain would take over). I wondered if it was post-partum depression, fibromyalgia, or Lyme disease.

Eventually I found a playschool, I felt comfortable with that would take him for 3 hours twice a week, so that I could start to build my business. Unfortunately, however, he continuously brought bugs home to us and the whole house would get sick. Illness meant no playschool, and constant cleaning the house of germs while trying to get better. But once we would get over one bug another one would come along. I was barely getting by not to mention the same vivid dark thoughts kept circling my mind. I would take our son to the doctor when he was sick but avoid it for myself because I wanted to avoid antibiotics. I finally decided I needed to go to a clinic and have them check me out and see if they could get and keep me healthy.

I felt confident the doctors would have a solution. Of course, she put me on antibiotics but at this point I didn’t care. “Can you give me a referral to someone that can help me with my depression” I asked casually. The story that follows is one that I don’t share for important reasons. Eventually, I will but now is not the time. Long story short, I was diagnosed.

After diagnosis

With a diagnosis, I was able to put a name on the symptoms I was experiencing and seek the appropriate solutions. But it was still an expensive and time-consuming journey, as doctors either hadn’t heard about PMDD, heard about it but were dismissive about the condition, had the wrong information about or didn’t know enough about what to do for PMDD. And while trying to find my fix, I would say symptoms only got worse as I aged.

I sought out all the doctors, tried all the supplements, switched up my nutrition and fitness thinking ***if only I worked hard enough at this and did everything right, I would fix this problem I had. I
would think I was making progress, but it would only work temporarily like 5Htp or only let me realize I had to give up certain things like caffeine.

The Symptoms I experienced in my luteal phase were apart of the fight, flight or freeze nervous systems:

• ·    extreme fatigue/exhaustion,
• ·    negative thinking that spins out of control,
• ·    irritability and moodiness,
• ·    sore all over, mainly on my back side,
• ·    brain fog that would disrupt my workdays,
• ·    extreme water weight gain,
• ·    a woozy, dizzy, drunken feeling,
• ·    sensitivity to caffeine, and even
•           sighs (I learned about this one at the IAPMD conference. My husband had been teasing me about my sighing and I was so relieved to find out it was a PMDD thing, not a me thing.)

When my marriage became shaky due to my moods, I knew it was time to do what I didn’t want to do and try a birth control pill. My aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, so I wanted to avoid the estrogen in birth control. I was also sensitive to estrogen. Finally, in working with a saint of an OBGYN we found the Goldi Locks right fit for birth control. Lo Loestrin FE, with the lowest dose of estrogen in a birth control pill was my solution. It lifted my symptoms and made me somewhat symptom free. The only downside was the weight gain but as my husband says,  “I’d rather have a chunky happy wife than a skinny raging wife.”

Then perimenopause hit at the age of 40 and it seemed my birth control didn’t have the same impact that it had originally. I scrambled yet again to find solutions…doctors, supplements, and exercise…yada yada yada!

Another ‘Seeking Answers’ Journey

While birth control had given me some of the best symptom free years of my life, perimenopause stepped in and said, “time to mix things up again.” Peri showed up around my 40^th birthday with little hints of symptoms that I tried to get help by enlisting the best pros in the business to help. I
researched all the best hormone replacement ideas on the market, I used a raw vegan diet to cure my insulin resistance and help with weight loss, I increased my exercise, etc. One nurse at the renowned local women’s health doctor’s office in town said, “so you have really bad PMS?” “NO, you don’t know what PMDD is?,” I asked. I’ve educated and paid for the training of more doctors than I’d like to remember. She put me on bio identical progesterone, and it was great at first and then made my PMDD worse which boggled her mind. But of course, it would, she didn’t know what PMDD was! “Thanks for wasting my money and my time, well paid specialist for women,” I fumed to myself!

The symptoms that arrived with perimenopause were:

• ·    hot flashes,
• ·    monthly migraines,
• ·    insulin resistance,
• ·    more weight gain,
• ·    anxiety attacks,
• ·    muscular skeletal issues,
• ·    bladder issues,
• ·    lower libido,
• ·    plantar fasciitis, and
• ·    intolerance to heat.

I once went to an OBGYN that told me, with arms crossed in the closed off stance, these were not perimenopause symptoms. I thought, “then why do all the books and all the articles on the internet say they are the symptoms of perimenopause.” It boggles my mind why there isn’t a protocol for women to follow when the enter this phase of life!

With my 44^th birthday came an increase in symptoms. A bout of extreme fatigue led me to my general practitioner who had PMDD herself (or so she said). She put me on the generic Prozac which immediately cured the fatigue, but I gained a good 15lbs with that and when I asked her what I could do to lose that weight she said, “just remember it’s calories in and calories out.” My jaw dropped to the floor. Do doctors still not understand that the meds they put their patients on affect their weight? Like, the weight gain was immediate, and I hadn’t changed anything except taking that pill temporarily. I would read during that experience that Prozac changes the microbiome in the gut. If you have depression is takes two weeks to work but if you have PMDD it is effective immediately like it was for me. I was so impressed with how quickly it worked for fatigue but not sure I would recommend it due to the weight gain. Of course I couldn’t have gone on with the level of energy I had either, so I don’t’ know.

Ok, back to the progression of symptoms. I was consistently doing a workout at a place called Orange Theory which mixes HITT and Strength Training and it felt great until I injured myself. Something was wrong with my hip again which made walking difficult at times. (Plantar Fasciitis and a hip issue first showed up when I turned 40 and was training for the River Run – a 15K I planned to do for the third time but had to cancel due to this injury.) Well, I was 44ish and had to stop my training if I wanted to walk properly again. I went to a PT and eventually found a chiropractor. The PT said I had one leg longer than the other and the chiropractor said I had scoliosis. I went into their program to fix my scoliosis and then the global pandemic hit, and I had to cancel the appointments. All of that to say, it was a muscular skeletal issue brought on my something that happens to us perimenopause but no one warns women about this or makes the connection.

I would eventually take up other lower impact classes at The Y. I figured even if I’m not seeing result, I’ll do it for the fun of it and endorphins. Still my prolonged use of birth control pills were showing up.

The symptoms of prolonged use of birth control (that went away when I stopped taking birth control pills were:

• ·     extreme bloating,
• ·     swelling and water weight,
•  premature aging,
•  lymphatic system backup,
• ·     stiffness in joints,
• ·     histamine intolerance (only during my luteal phase) with:
  • o  shortness of breath, (struggling with this this week)
  • o  puffiness in my face when drinking, (gone, I think)
  • o  sweats when drinking (this is still strong, so I don’t drink often)

Studies have pointed to the use of EMF (electromagnetic frequencies, as another possible cause and I was wearing an apple watch when I read the study. My watch was unique in that I it was cellular as well which I would assume had me surrounded in more EMF than the
regular watch wearer. I immediately ditched my watch. I limit histamine rich
foods during my luteal phase as well.

PMDD, prolonged use of birth control pills and histamine intolerance was taking it’s toll. One glass of champagne caused made my face and neck to swell beyond recognition.	Photo taken recently. After The Red Tent Program and RTT. My normal healthy look.

A Holistic Approach

I worked with my holistic doctor years earlier to try to figure out PMDD but only found supplements that eased symptoms a little here and there. I went back again when symptoms had increased again. My holistic doctor was so reassuring. There was no dismissing of what I was going through or my thoughts. She was the one to recommend most of the items below but not the birth control pill or magnets. She would have preferred me off of birth control (me too) but I knew it was the only thing that made my life manageable at that point.

Things that helped mask PMDD and Perimenopause symptoms:

• ·    lowest estrogen Birth Control (lo loestrin fe): for all the symptoms of PMDD
• ·    magnesium powder (Calm): for muscle relaxation and constipation
• ·    milled flax seed: for a phytoestrogen boost and alleviates a lot of perimenopause symptoms
• ·    dim: to rid body of excess bad estrogen
• ·    quercetin: for Histamine Intolerance and PMDD
• ·    probiotics: for gut health
• ·    multi-vitamin
• ·    b vitamins: for energy
• ·    broccoli Sprouts extract
• ·    magnesium transporters
• ·    magnet therapy: for ANS (autonomic nervous system – only temporarily)
• ·    gastric sooth: for gut health
• ·    healthy feet: for healthy nerves

These made me feel better. And still I struggled.

The Tally: What PMDD Robbed from my Life

• ·    I hated holidays: For my child’s sake I pushed through and “celebrated” them, but I would have preferred to curl up in a ball and wait for them to be over. Holidays were full of triggers.
• ·    The 20k promotion: Increased stress due to the department head not getting someone to fill my old job led to increased PMDD and ultimately being fired soon after my promotion.
• ·    My career: I had always been a goal-oriented go getter, but PMDD showed up as justice seeker character flaw in my jobs. I would pinpoint what the company was doing wrong and I was like a ticking time bomb waiting for a bad PMDD day and I couldn’t hold back my thoughts on the matter anymore.
• ·    No goodbyes: I can remember wanting to go to the hospital when my grandfather was dying but I was in complete PMDD mode, and my own life force was completely gone.
• ·    The time and money in seeking solutions: The doctor bills, supplement cost, and time spent researching anything that would potentially be helpful.
• ·    Relationships: If people experienced one of my moods, they no longer had the sense of security in me that they once had. Or I would push people away due to PMDD overwhelm.
• ·    Maybe my son’s security in me in his early years: Those early years of his life when I was struggling to make it through the day were filled with a lot of “you’ve got to be f’ing kidding me” and other cursing, frustration, and rage…regrettably. I learned to shield him from it when he spoke his first curse word. It was a major wake-up call for me.
  
  

Resistance before Break thru

The creator of The Red Tent program, Natalie Ryan Hebert, doesn’t know this, but it took a long time for me to warm up to the program. I researched it and found out it used RTT and when I googled RTT I watched a video from the Founder of RTT, Marisa Peer who spoke about how her therapy involved “mind over matter.” I remember thinking, “she doesn’t think PMDD can be cured with mind over matter techniques, does she?” I was infuriated! “Something is wrong with my BODY, not my mind,” I thought to myself.

To this day, I worried that other sufferers may be on the same path and be just as perplexed and turn away, because the soundbite “mind over matter” doesn’t fully capture how the program works to cure PMDD. It insulted my being, my struggle, and my intelligence… and those of other survivors.

I grew up in a self-help family, my aunt was a therapist that founded an annual conference that world renown therapists in her field would attend. Growing up, the topic of conversation in our family was usually the latest tools in self-help. ‘Mind over matter’ and ‘positive thinking’ were tools I used throughout my life and now someone thinks I haven’t done enough of it? There it was, ***I wasn’t enough again. I was responsible for where I was with PMDD again.

A flood of ALL the dismissive, hurtful suggestions from others flooded me, “Have you tried diet and exercise? What about this supplement or tea? Oh, your hormones must be out of balance. Oh, you just have bad PMS?” Infuriated I screamed in my head, “MIND OVER MATTER?! F THAT!”

In that moment of complete frustration teetering on crying or breakthru, I remembered something my step-mother-in-law said to me once when we were sharing tips about weight loss, “well, what do I know?” she concluded. I laughed, as it became clear (when I was at my heaviest I had ever been-from medications to fix PMDD and perimenopause-but still), “yeah what do I know? Obviously, nothing!” In that rageful state, knowing I had tried everything…I had to humble myself, take the emotion out of it and look objectively at this program. I had nothing to lose but the cost, which was a drop in the bucket to what I had lost financially to that point from PMDD and a full life to gain. I was at my wits end.

RTT (Rapid Transformation Therapy)

What I would learn about RTT and the program would take me back to the answers I kept having. If I want to get to the root cause of PMDD, how do I do that? I know that trauma changed my DNA to have an extreme stress response in my body to the normal hormonal fluctuations of my cycle. But I could never figure out how the trauma changes the DNA. (I would learn later from the program, that at the moment of trauma, a belief/neuro pathway is created. That belief tells our body how to respond/react/feel.) But I was still puzzled in the questioning of the program moment. I asked myself, “What is trauma?” And, answered, “essentially it’s a moment in time that a life changing event occurs.” And with that, I knew she was onto something, to get to the root cause I would need to get to the moment of trauma that only lives at the current moment…in my MIND! I realized then, this program might actually work!

Two years prior, before I learned that RTT involved mind over matter elements. I had heard somewhere that RTT might be the cure to PMDD. I wanted to try it locally at a cheaper rate. I found a therapist that was an acquaintance of mine and asked if she would perform it on me. I told her I had heard it cures PMDD she thought it would and I directed the session on issues surrounding a loved one that was dying. It helped with that issue, but I didn’t experience any lift in my PMDD symptoms.

I didn’t know then what I know now, that the questions and focus must be on the symptom you want to cure with PMDD and the belief that created that physical symptom. There is so much more to it.

Soon after, I lost my loved one, the pandemic happened, and brain fog clouded my mind so my investigation into RTT halted and was completely off my radar. Thank goodness it came to my attention again!

FREEDOM! FINALLY!

I don’t want to give away the secrets of The Red Tent program, one, because I don’t want to spoil your journey. Two, because you might think you can take bits and pieces and think you can do it yourself (as I did) and miss the magic of all the parts of the program. And three, Natalie put everything into the program and is deserving of working with you and your investment in your well being. What I will tell you is that from the first RTT session, I was cured! I bought the program in late October; we had our introductory call at the beginning of November and my 1^st RTT session was November 5^th. I was mid-PMDD that day and woke up early for the zoom call because she is in Denmark. (Isn’t it amazing that something so powerful can be done with an ocean separating us?)

What I took away from the RTT session is that it isn’t necessarily the big traumatic events in our life that set the belief in place that tortured our soul and body. Sometimes it’s the smaller moments with people that “love” us.

I remember walking away from the first session buzzing, feeling better and I followed direction to take it easy that day. I napped hard. Over the next days, weeks and months I tip toed around my days cautiously optimistic. I was worried PMDD symptom might pop up.  I was confident enough to get off of the birth control pill just weeks later. While I was still in the program I wanted to make sure I was cured even without the pill. However, no physical symptoms ever showed up again. Over the past 5 months the only thing to arise were what is known as “wobbles” which were negative spinning thoughts. But they would last just hours, rather than weeks. When I became aware of what I was doing I used the tools from the program, and they would go away almost instantly. What wobbles teach us is what triggers us and then we can work through it.

Photo from that week: I could feel it was a big moment in my life

The days that followed my first RTT session were such a high! For those who haven’t experienced it, imagine the strongest feeling in your body, mind and soul that PMDD has vanished from your life! I went to the beach and decided to take a quick selfie photo shoot to document the moment. I felt that if I felt as good as I did on the inside, that it must be showing on the outside.

Taking it all in. The week of my 1st RTT session. What a high!
And, 5 months later, I’m just as serene and thrilled.

The Lesson of PMDD: A Spiritual Look at Having and being Cured of it

Through a life filled with major highs and lows. Trying to heal the lows led me to a spiritual outlook. I assume that is true for everyone that takes the time heal. I know I’m one of the lucky few. Not everyone has the desire to experience or seek answers or growth. What we learn is that for every
heartbreak there is a life lesson as if presented to you from a higher source to help you grow towards the light.

With PMDD the life lessons, for me, are:

• ·   It could be worse: there are far worse things to be diagnosed with, PMDD doesn’t have to be fatal,
• ·   Self-Care: when we don’t take time for ourselves, our bodies will shut down for us,
• ·   Seek the truth: I am an honest person, but my translation of events might not have had truth in it – seek the truth,
• ·    Speak your truth: others will speak from their perspective and drown out our voice, I must use my voice to speak my truth, or drown in the lack of my experience,
• ·    Be the observer: watch the scene, witness the trigger, choose not to react and work through it,
• ·    Boundaries: Some of our deepest pain can be from loved ones which makes it hard to cut them out of our lives – boundaries are imperative,
• ·    Carry Tools: Torture doesn’t necessarily happen as a prisoner of war, it can happens when unhealed loved ones, hurt you – carry tools to help you become victorious,
• ·    And, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, I’m worthy enough and people like me” – Al Franken

Age 46 to Now: How being Cured has Elevated my Life

As I write this, I am 47. Today marks 5 months since my first RTT session and 5 cycles FREE from PMDD symptoms! Let’s pause for a minute and take that in… I am filled with gratitude; I am sad for those in the thick of it but hopefully that they don’t have to waste so much of their life the way I did and cure it sooner.

• ·    I have stronger relationships without interruptions!
• ·    My energy levels are the same throughout the month (or 3 lowish days compared to 2 weeks!)
• ·    I can work through the month on my business at the same pace!
• ·    I make time for rest instead of my body demanding it!
• ·    I feel confident in my ability to make plans without worry that my body won’t allow it!
• ·    I am clear headed and optimistic for the future!
• ·    I do not feel the need to engage is petty arguments!
• ·    I set boundaries that work for me rather than going along with situations that keep me sick!
• ·    I am the wise observer rather than the emotional reactor! And I can still speak out on important causes if I feel it will make an impact. Or I can take actions that will make an impact.
• ·    My husband is breathing a sigh of relief, after 4 month he dropped his guard and finally admitted – he sees that it is over and I am cured,
• ·    My libido is back!
• And, my body is healing from prolonged use of the birth control pill.

Did you notice my sick beliefs throughout my story?

* I learned with N.R.H.’s help that this was one of the factors that played a role in my fatigue/exhaustion. I figured out on my own that it is the reason I want acknowledgement, recognition, and reward so badly. I never got it for going out of my way to make things better for others and putting myself last. I can no longer do this. I must put my needs first to stay healthy.

** Being the burden, required I spend all of my extra (downtime or mental) energy on not being a burden

*** Not being “healthy” for having PMDD, created the belief in my head, that I wasn’t doing enough. That isn’t true. My blood labs always came back in the green and normal, PMDD has nothing to do with our health or what we aren’t doing right.

Great Resources for PMDD Sufferers

www.iapmd.org (This is THE international organization on PMDD. I’m not happy with the 2022 campaign using the word “hormone and mental” for reasons we all understand, but it is a fabulous organization and the website is loaded with resources for you.)

https://natalieryanhebert.com/the-red-tent/ (This program cured me! After decades of trying to find out what would fix me, I am CURED! The science behind it is fascinating. I would expect the future of medicine is heading this way.)

Final thoughts

I share my story first to reach those struggling in the darkness unaware of what is going on with them. I have been there, isolated: with little support, hating myself: thinking it was my character flaws when it was my mind and body connection, and feeling life wasn’t for me. As IAPMD says, we strive to give as many “light bulb moments” as we can.

Secondly, I share my story to spread awareness to the healthcare community that is far behind on it’s care and treatment of women. Experiencing the dismissive responses of our experience motivates me to advocate for women experiencing PMDD. It made me reflect on the women I love that were going through other obstacles all at the dismissiveness of their men or society. It changed me, it even changed my business model to being the teammate for women owned business, I know what PMDD stole from my career. Now I’m trying to make up for lost time all while helping other women grow their business through all the obstacles we as women encounter.

In asking myself what else can I do? I can use my graphic design skills to create things like infographs that people can share to educate. I can put my heart and soul into writing this story. I can use my SEO skills to optimize this page about PMDD so that when suffers search for answers to their questions they will have this page to land. And I can create art that spreads awareness about PMDD.

This was written in a rush, to have it ready for April: PMDD Awareness Month. Please forgive anything that isn’t clearly written. If you have questions or concerns, please email me at lacey@jlaceytaylor.com. I call other people out all the time for putting the wrong information out there. I want other PMDD sufferers to have the clearest path to wellness as possible, so I’m
open to feedback. I do plan to add to, update, edit and evolve this page so check back as you like. I won’t be linking this from my website or biz/personal social media pages (but maybe in our private groups) so the best way to get to this information is by bookmarking the page and possibly googling it once I optimize the page.

I’m not a medical professional or doctor. Consult with a medical professional if you want medical advice.

I have no financial interest in the program that cured me, or anything related to PMDD.
I simple want to shout it from the roof tops to help other PMDD warriors.