As a GP, she had seen it many times in patients and thought she recognised the signs. \u2018I was working a stressful job with a young child, so that also contributed,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
But in the months that followed she began to notice something else \u2013 her depressive episodes, strangely, followed the same rhythm as her menstrual cycle.<\/p>\n
For around two weeks of the month, right before the start of her period, she felt irrational and sad, struggling with even the simplest tasks. Then, for the rest of the month, she felt completely back to normal again.<\/p>\n
\u2018I went to my own doctor, and I can vividly remember her telling me that I was too stressed and needed to take less on. I tried, but that didn\u2019t change anything,\u2019 says Dr Raizada. \u2018In the meantime, it was beginning to impact my work and my relationships.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"Mum-of-one](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102320199-0-image-a-7_1758448748695.jpg\")
![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102320197-0-image-m-6_1758448732105.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Alys Golding and Dr Milli Raizada both experienced PMDD without realising at first what their condition was<\/p>\n
Pregnancy with her second child offered some respite, but the vicious cycle returned as soon as she gave birth again.<\/p>\n
Finally, five years after her first symptoms, she desperately decided to seek help from a private gynaecologist.<\/p>\n
\u2018I walked into the consulting room and immediately burst into tears. And after just a few minutes of explaining how I was feeling, the specialist told me that I likely had PMDD,\u2019 she says. \u2018I was a GP at the time, and throughout medical school and my work in practice, I had never encountered PMDD. I was horrified.\u2019<\/p>\n
PMDD \u2013 premenstrual dysphoric disorder \u2013 is a hormonal condition that causes intense mood changes, along with emotional and physical symptoms, in the weeks before a period begins.<\/p>\n
It is often confused with premenstrual syndrome (PMS). But while PMS is very common \u2013 causing irritability, low mood or physical discomfort in the run-up to a period \u2013 PMDD is a distinct psychiatric diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Symptoms are far more severe, ranging from overwhelming anxiety and rage to feelings of hopelessness or even suicidal thoughts. Unlike PMS, PMDD is classified as a mental health condition, not simply a more extreme form of the same problem. It was first recognised in 1994 and was only added to the World Health Organisation\u2019s diagnostic manual in 2019.<\/p>\n
But PMDD affects as many as one in 20 women in the UK \u2013 a figure experts believe is underestimated as many GPs are still unaware of it.<\/p>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102320203-0-image-m-9_1758450168351.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
In recent years, celebrities including former Coronation Street actress Helen Flanagan have spoken of their serious struggles with PMDD<\/p>\n
And according to the International Association for Premenstrual Disorders, as many as one in three women with the condition attempt to take their own lives.<\/p>\n
In recent years, celebrities including reality TV star Vicky Pattison, former Coronation Street actress Helen Flanagan and Married At First Sight contestant Kristina Goodsell have spoken of their serious struggles with PMDD.<\/p>\n
But the condition is still little known, meaning tens of thousands of women slip through the cracks.<\/p>\n
\u2018What happens is that women come in feeling really low, and the GP just diagnoses anxiety and depression \u2013 because that\u2019s what they see daily,\u2019 says Dr Raizada. \u2018But questions around whether it could be related to her cycle don\u2019t get asked.<\/p>\n
\u2018And \u2013 as was the case for me \u2013 it can take years to finally get a diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n
\u2018PMDD isn\u2019t even on the NHS website \u2013 this is the problem we\u2019re up against. The noise is all about menopause, but we need to see the same energy going into better training on PMDD.\u2019<\/p>\n
The mood and physical symptoms of PMS usually appear in the luteal phase \u2013 the two weeks between ovulation and the start of a period, when levels of progesterone and oestrogen rise to prepare the body for a potential pregnancy.<\/p>\n
But in women with PMDD, the brain reacts abnormally to these hormonal shifts, disrupting the chemicals that regulate mood.<\/p>\n
\u2018PMDD is related to PMS in the way that a major depressive episode is related to feeling a bit down,\u2019 explains Dr Katie Marwick, a consultant psychiatrist and senior clinical research fellow at the University of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
\u2018To diagnose PMDD, we\u2019re looking for serious depressive episodes every month, as well as significant distress in people\u2019s functioning \u2013 whether at work or in terms of being able to care for people. As well as feeling low, women may feel more prone to anger, as well as experiencing changes to their thinking \u2013 finding it hard to concentrate or remember things.<\/p>\n
\u2018Physical symptoms also appear \u2013 such as fatigue, changes to appetite or pain in the joints.<\/p>\n
\u2018Women sometimes talk about having a Jekyll and Hyde personality \u2013 they find themselves behaving in ways that they don\u2019t want to, but just can\u2019t help it.\u2019<\/p>\n
The impact of this disruption \u2013 which can take up between a quarter and half of each month \u2013 can be devastating. \u2018Suicidality is quite common,\u2019 adds Dr Marwick.<\/p>\n
Experts aren\u2019t sure why some women are more sensitive to hormonal changes than others. Research from the US National Institutes of Health found those with PMDD carry an altered gene complex in the part of the brain that regulates responses to stress. Other studies suggest the condition is more common among women with a history of trauma, ADHD or close relatives with PMDD.<\/p>\n
Dr Shirin Khanjani, consultant gynaecologist at University College London Hospital, says: \u2018In historical medical texts, PMDD was often referred to as menstrual madness or hysteria. But it\u2019s always been there in the medical literature.\u2019<\/p>\n
And despite growing recognition, women can still wait over a decade for a diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Researcher Dr Thomas Reilly, of the University of Oxford, wrote: \u2018Patients often find themselves falling through gaps in clinical services, such as between gynaecology and mental health.\u2019<\/p>\n
At Dr Khanjani\u2019s PMDD-dedicated clinic at UCLH \u2013 one of only a handful in the UK \u2013 most of the women spent years being referred to different specialists before reaching her.<\/p>\n
\u2018They tell me they don\u2019t recognise themselves \u2013 they feel as though they\u2019ve been taken over by someone else,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
\u2018Some are worried they\u2019re going to lose their jobs, or ruin their relationship.<\/p>\n
\u2018They\u2019ve been suffering in silence for years.\u2019<\/p>\n
Dr Raizada says that one patient who attended her practice was even misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and detained under the Mental Health Act before discovering she had PMDD.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just doctors who are missing the signs. A survey of British adults this year showed 40 per cent had never heard of PMDD, while 28 per cent had heard of it but didn\u2019t know what it was.<\/p>\n
This was the case for mum-of-one Alys Golding, who spent three years believing she was suffering from a particularly bad bout of post-partum depression.<\/p>\n
She says: \u2018I\u2019d probably had it ever since I got my first period, but I went on the Pill as a teen for many years, and only came off it right before I got pregnant with my daughter.\u2019 After her daughter was born, however, Alys, an office administrator from Swansea, noticed that the mood swings she experienced in her teen years were returning.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was told I had post-partum depression by my GP and I was put on antidepressants, which didn\u2019t work for me at all.<\/p>\n
\u2018It was confusing, because I wasn\u2019t depressed so much as angry \u2013 I would go into rages over the littlest of things.<\/p>\n
\u2018I began to think maybe I was bipolar. I could sense there were times when I felt normal and times I felt really bad. It got to the point where every month I would ring up my doctors in tears because I\u2019d had a rage that I\u2019d taken out on my loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u2018I didn\u2019t feel like a horrible person who likes to shout at her small child or lash out at her parents. I couldn\u2019t understand why I would do it.\u2019<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until three years later that a new GP \u2013 the fifth Alys had sought help from \u2013 told her that it sounded like PMDD.<\/p>\n
Alys says the relief was overwhelming: \u2018Someone finally acknowledged I wasn\u2019t going crazy \u2013 but getting anyone to listen was really tough.\u2019<\/p>\n
Once diagnosed, PMDD can be treated in several ways. Regular exercise and cutting down on processed food can help regulate hormones, says<\/p>\n
Dr Khanjani. \u2018Supplements such as vitamin D and iron, exposure to daily sunlight and minimising alcohol intake can also be incredibly helpful.\u2019<\/p>\n
For women who don\u2019t respond to lifestyle changes, medication is often the next step. Between 60 and 70 per cent respond to antidepressants, according to the US National Institutes of Health. Unusually, many women with PMDD need to take them only during their luteal phase.<\/p>\n
Dr Marwick adds: \u2018It goes against what we know about treatment for depression, but we\u2019ve seen that antidepressants work differently for PMDD.\u2019<\/p>\n
Other treatments aim to stop hormone fluctuations altogether, such as the combined oral contraceptive pill or gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, which suppress oestrogen and induce a chemical menopause.<\/p>\n
But these may also affect libido and mood, sometimes requiring hormone replacement therapy.<\/p>\n
In rare cases, women opt for surgery to remove their ovaries or womb.<\/p>\n
\u2018Menopause is really the only cure,\u2019 says Dr Marwick.<\/p>\n
Dr Raizada adds: \u2018If your GP is your trusted person, and you go to them with your symptoms and are told that you\u2019re just being sensitive, it can be embarrassing.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m a GP myself, and even I felt like that.<\/p>\n
\u2018Change will only happen if we have better training about PMDD for primary care physicians and medical students.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was after the birth of her first child that Dr Milli Raizada noticed a profound change in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2525,97,59,102,16996,51088,56,54,55,9803],"class_list":{"0":"post-151178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-coronation-street","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-helen-flanagan","13":"tag-married-at-first-sight-australia","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom","17":"tag-vicky-pattison"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}