{"id":92705,"date":"2025-10-23T06:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T06:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/92705\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T06:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T06:58:15","slug":"woman-who-felt-completely-out-of-control-for-25-years-finally-diagnosed-with-pmdd-in-perimenopause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/92705\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who \u2018felt completely out of control\u2019 for 25 years finally diagnosed with PMDD in perimenopause"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who battled debilitating periods, suicidal ideation and erratic mental health for decades \u201cfelt completely out of control\u201d until she got diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in perimenopause.<\/p>\n

Nicky George, now 40, began struggling with her mood when she was a young teenager. She became \u201cvery moody\u201d in the year leading up to her first period and, along with her menstrual cycle, came severe physical and emotional symptoms. She\u2019d soak through menstrual pads in an hour, experience nausea, diarrhoea and constipation, and would have \u201ccramps so bad I\u2019d double over and I couldn\u2019t walk some days\u201d.<\/p>\n

By her 20s, Nicky, who lives in Hertfordshire, thought she had bipolar disorder. The main symptom of bipolar disorder, according to the NHS, is extreme changes to mood \u2013 from high feelings of mania to low periods of depression \u2013 which Nicky would experience every month, not realising it was linked to the phases of her menstrual cycle.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until she began talking to other women about her experience in her 30s that she realised it wasn\u2019t normal \u2013 her periods shouldn\u2019t be so cripplingly painful, that her months shouldn\u2019t be so emotionally tumultuous \u2013 and thus began a long battle for answers from doctors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what was happening to me,\u201d Nicky told PA Real Life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that I felt completely out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nicky's<\/p>\n

Nicky\u2019s symptoms made her feel \u2018completely out of control\u2019 (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

When Nicky began her period at 14, she didn\u2019t know that her experience of heavy, painful bleeding and uncontrollable, debilitating mood swings, was not normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought everyone was like this, and that\u2019s what periods were like, and that I just wasn\u2019t coping very well, that I was weak, or something like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool was really hard, particularly with the depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think maybe some people thought I was just a stroppy teenager.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, as puberty came and went, things didn\u2019t improve or settle down. In her 20s, Nicky began to believe that she had bipolar disorder, since her symptoms fluctuated so much throughout the month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really did think that\u2019s what it was\u2026\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor about 18 days or so, I was in turmoil. I couldn\u2019t really focus, I couldn\u2019t think clearly. I just felt really down. It was hard to get out of bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the seven or eight days where my period started, I had to go through all of that, and then there were a few days of feeling kind of normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that time, I was so busy just trying to fix my life and build it back up, and get on top of things, basic things, like cleaning the house and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point did I realise that it all linked to my cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"It<\/p>\n

It took years before Nicky realised that her symptoms were related to her menstrual cycle (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

The menstrual cycle has four phases, all taking place roughly over a 28 day span \u2013 though this can be shorter or longer for some women.<\/p>\n

Typically, days one to five are the menstrual phase, characterised by bleeding, low levels of oestrogen and progesterone, and feelings of tiredness and low sociability. The next stage is the follicular phase, which runs until ovulation, and people typically have higher energy levels, feel more sociable, have a higher sex drive and find it easier to concentrate.<\/p>\n

Days 13 to 15 are the ovulation phase, where the ovary releases an egg ready for fertilisation. As with the Follicular Phase, ovulation usually makes people feel confident, sociable, and high energy.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the cycle, days 16 to 28, are the luteal phase, where oestrogen and testosterone decline and pre-menstrual symptoms of mood swings, declining energy, bloating, headaches, insomnia, tiredness and more take hold.<\/p>\n

However, in a healthy person, none of these phases should prevent them from going about their daily life or come with extreme, debilitating symptoms.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until her early 30s that Nicky began to put the pieces together and realised that how she felt was tied to the phases of her menstrual cycle, and she began to open up to other women about what she experienced. When they told her that they didn\u2019t have such incapacitating symptoms, she realised she needed to seek medical advice.<\/p>\n

Initially, her GP advised her to go on the contraceptive pill, but this only exacerbated her symptoms, \u201cparticularly the mental health side of it, where it made me feel even more suicidal, quite erratic in my behaviours,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have these really high highs and really low lows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nicky<\/p>\n

Nicky felt like \u2018a shell of a person\u2019 on antidepressants (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

With hormonal treatments not helping, doctors began to explore the possibility of mental illness and, in 2015, Nicky was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. She was prescribed antidepressants, and went through the process of trying different variants at different doses, but over the course of about five years it became apparent that the antidepressants, like the contraception, were making things worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me numb all of the time, but I still struggled to take care of my basic needs, like showering and looking after myself, eating well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to get out of bed more when I was on it, but I just felt like a shell of a person on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicky was passed between mental health teams and gynaecology teams, with no one managing to put together the pieces of the puzzle and understand the root cause of her problems. Even when Nicky suggested she might have premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) \u2013 a very severe form of premenstrual syndrome that is characterised as a mental health condition \u2013 she struggled to get the support she needed.<\/p>\n

The longer the process took, the more it affected her life: she\u2019s never managed to hold down a long-term relationship, she struggled with going to work as a teacher, and it affected her friendships.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/p>\n

No one had answers and she felt \u2018so alone\u2019 (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really hard to advocate for myself, because there was really a very small window when I felt strong enough to do that, and then the rest of the time I was in a deep depression,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s one of the reasons it took so long to get where I am, because I just didn\u2019t have the energy to fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one had answers, and she felt \u201cso alone\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Nicky\u2019s symptoms got worse still. By this point, she\u2019d been battling her symptoms for almost 25 years with no answers, contending with suicidal ideation, struggling to hold her life together, and dealing with intense physical symptoms that made every day a challenge.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t know it at the time but, at the age of 38, she had entered perimenopause \u2013 the transitional phase before menopause \u2013 and the decline in hormones was making things worse still.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were days when I felt like the world was ending,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was panicked, and nobody else seemed to get it. It was awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicky began hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which usually helps manage menopause symptoms by replacing declining oestrogen and progesterone levels. However, it had the opposite effect, and Nicky felt so unwell she had made a plan to take her life.<\/p>\n

She was signed off work for nine weeks following her mental health crisis and, at that point, decided to come off the HRT and begin paying for private talking therapy.<\/p>\n

\"Nicky<\/p>\n

Nicky was diagnosed with PMDD in May 2025 (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

She discussed her suspicion that she was experiencing PMDD with her therapist, who then introduced her to the work of Dr Louise Newson \u2013 a GP, hormone expert and a leader in menopause awareness and education \u2013 who had produced a wealth of online content about PMDD.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just watched every single video I could find of her on the internet, anything she\u2019d written or been involved in, and I couldn\u2019t believe it, because it was my story in a lot of the videos,\u201d Nicky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018This is me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicky booked an appointment at a private women\u2019s health clinic in May 2025, and when she told them her story they \u201cimmediately\u201d diagnosed her with PMDD before confirming she was perimenopausal. She was prescribed Cyclogest, a progesterone capsule that is body-identical to the progesterone that the body produces, which is commonly used to treat recurrent miscarriage but can be used \u201coff-label\u201d for PMS and PMDD.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin 48 hours, I felt different,\u201d Nicky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like a blanket had been lifted off me, I just had energy to do things, and I felt good.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in I don\u2019t even know how long, I actually felt happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After<\/p>\n

After starting on the right medication, Nicky said \u2018for the first time in I don\u2019t even know how long, I actually felt happy\u2019 (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

Thanks to the help of the right medication, Nicky feels like she\u2019s finally on the right track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a bit of a journey, but I haven\u2019t had a single day off work since I came back in September,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, every cycle, I was having time off \u2013 at least a few days \u2013 because I couldn\u2019t cope with my symptoms when they were very, very bad in the luteal stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was absent often, and my work performance dropped during the luteal stage, and this was questioned by managers. I had to move jobs every five years as people\u2019s patience had run out, and I often had outbursts at work with other staff \u2013 though never the children \u2013 and would often be over emotional at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve managed to, with these body-identical hormones, manage basic things like hygiene and eating and coming to work every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I\u2019m not always feeling 100% and I still have tough days, it\u2019s considerably better, and I haven\u2019t once felt suicidal since I went on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Anyone<\/p>\n

\u2018Anyone going through it, just know there are people out there who will help you\u2019 (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

Having been through what she has, Nicky feels passionate about educating others on women\u2019s health and encouraging conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone going through it, just know there\u2019s groups out there, and people out there who will help you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to find the right person and not give up, because you\u2019re worth it, and people will miss you if you go, so hang in there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who battled debilitating periods, suicidal ideation and erratic mental health for decades \u201cfelt completely out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[163,85,46,20537,522,62365,20548,20549,62366,50107],"class_list":{"0":"post-92705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-menstrual-cycle","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-nicky-george","14":"tag-pmdd","15":"tag-premenstrual-dysphoric-disorder","16":"tag-suicidal-ideation","17":"tag-symptoms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}