PMDD in Chat it's fate magazine.

Today, my story came out in the August edition of Chat it's fate magazine.  I was contacted by them earlier in the year to share my story about PMDD, the menstrual cycle and my art.  I felt this was a way to raise some awareness of how severe PMS can become, along with how I came to heal myself from the worst symptoms.  If you would like to read my story you can find it in all larger newsagents for the next month.

If you are interested in finding out more about PMDD, please check out my PMDD blog, Meet My PMDD, or visit the UK's National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome (NAPS) or the USA's National Association for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder.

To find out more about the alternative ways of understanding the menstrual cycle, please have a read through my Natural Shaman blog, particularly the article I wrote for Indie Shaman magazine, The Magic of the Menstrual Cycle and my experience at a menstrual workshop with Alexandra Pope.

Sign up to learn more about your menstrual cycle with Red School Online.  Red School Online is a new way to learn about your cycle, with peer support, fantastic learning tools and private group chat.  Go check it out!

Red School also features some of my work in their teaching materials, you can find my poster in my Etsy store.  If you would like to see more of my feminine art work, please visit my gallery over at chaoticat.com.

Women's Wisdom

Meet my PMDD - Moods and Musings Blog has been featured on a wonderful little site over in Spain run by Melissa Moss.

I was thrilled to have been asked to share my blog and I hope you will go and give her website a little visit.

Just click here to go to Holistic Mental Health Services, for women.

Thoughts on the Pill

I'm on day 20.  I can feel the irritation and narkiness that comes with my pre menstrual phase building.  This the time of the month often brings about a rant, and today, what really grinds my gears (yes, that was a Family Guy reference) is all the talk about the contraceptive pill in the UK at the moment.

A news story came out today, in which an NHS report suggests that girls as young as 13 should be able to walk into a chemists and get the pill, without having to see a doctor http://uk.news.yahoo.com/over-counter-pill-girls-13-034326518.html.

Apparently, this already happens in some parts of London.  It is also currently possible to walk into a chemist and buy the morning after pill for around £25.  Some chemists were also talking about allowing women under 25 to gain free access to the morning after pill. 

...It follows a pilot scheme which found the number of women needing emergency contraception "dropped significantly" in the year following the introduction of over-the-counter access to the pill.

Well... duurrrrr.... what a surprise! 

Currently, teenage girls would need to speak to a doctor to get a prescription for the contraceptive pill, or go to a family planning clinic, where they would be seen by one of the qualified doctors there.  I'm not sure that parents have to be made aware of this or not, but at least the girl would have some proper advice given to her...  Blood pressure is taken, along with weight and other general questions and checks.  If you aren't grown up enough to ask your doc or go to a clinic, the you probably aren't grown up enough to be on the pill.
Allowing teenagers as young as 13, free access to the pill, with no medical guidance or advice is completely ridiculous.  I am so sick of the media and people banging on about the pill like it is a sugary sweet that magically stops you from getting pregnant. 

NEWS FLASH....
The contraceptive pill contains chemicals.  It contains synthetic forms of the hormones estrogen and progesterone (progestin).  They work by suppressing ovulation.  Some brands contain both forms (combined pill) and some just contain progestin (min-pill).  They don't work by magic.  They interrupt your natural rhythm, and stop your natural cycle.

Doctors and pharmaceutical companies will have you believe that the pill is THE cure for mood swings, it's the cure for acne, depression, for irregular periods and more... AND that all those things are abnormal and should be treated.

Hormones are created in response to signals from the brain.  Hormones are like a radio signal, and the receptors are the antenna.  When you take the pill, it over rides the radio signal.  It sends it's own signals to the receptors that stop ovulation.  The body's natural receptors then get used to this signal, and act accordingly.  But what happens with long term use?  or in young women bodies that are still forming and whose hormones are still settling down?

I know there ARE benefits to the pill...
 It has been shown to protect against cancer of the ovaries and the womb lining and pelvic inflammatory disease, a major cause of infertility in women, and (they claim) it can make periods more regular.  However, it is not recommended for women over 35 who smoke heavily, obese women, those with high blood pressure, a history of heart disease or blood clots and other illnesses, such as breast cancer.

I also know that a few ladies find it helps their PMDD, but the success rate is seriously hit and miss, and I would question if it is ever a good option for women who are sensitive to hormones.

My rant is really that all this talk about the pill being handed out to stop kids getting pregnant is only one part of the story.  What about the use of synthetic hormones in girls that are barely developed themselves?

So, 13 year old Rosie, who has only just started her period and whose hormones are still going crazy and haven't settled down yet, goes out to the chemists and get's the pill.  Her doctor doesn't know and nor does her mother.  She decides to go on it because she's heard it might stop the horrible spots she's been getting and she also really likes Jake and he really likes her and cos he already watches a ton of porn on the internet, she thinks he might want to have sex.  She is being responsible and doing the 'adult' thing in getting herself protected against pregnancy, but she hasn't talked to anyone other than her mates and the nice man at the chemists.  She can't tell her mum cos she would freak.  Rosie knows nothing of the effects the pill could have on her, neither does she understand what's in it and how it works...  Rosie and her mum don't talk about such things.  It's too embarrassing, and her mum would just think that she is a slut and is only going on it to sleep with boys....  Rosie has barely got used to her body having a cycle, her body has barely got used to the new hormones, then BAM... the pill enters her system and the cycle is gone.

Rosie is in control, she feels grown up and responsible.  After six months on the pill, Jake decides he wants to take the relationship further...  Rosie is hesitant but knows she can't get pregnant, so she decides the time is right.  She has some condoms in her purse too, which she knows help prevent catching STD's, so she asks Jake to wear one... He says there's no need, cos she's on the pill, and he hasn't done anything with anyone... reluctantly Rosie agrees.  She doesn't want to lose Jake or upset him....

Rosie and Jake have been together for a couple of years now.  They are 15 and have been sleeping together for a while.   Rosie's mum knows they are close, but doesn't know for sure if her daughter is having sex, and she tries to blank out those thoughts and ignore it.  It's too embarrassing.  She sort of assumes they aren't as Rosie has never asked about the pill or anything.  She puts Rosie's outbursts and mood swings down to her teenage hormones and just accepts that her daughter doesnt want to share anything with her.

Then, Rosie finds out she is pregnant.  She is 16 and about to do her GCSE's... HOW did that happen?  Maybe it was those few days last month when she forgot to take the pill... she took one late and thought it would be ok... or maybe was it because she was ill and on antibiotics for a week?  Rosie didn't know the pill can stop working of you take antibiotics.  Her mum is gonna go mad... The shame, the fear, she feels sick to her stomach.....

Maybe, the freedom of taking the pill could lead Rosie down the path of sex with more than just one person.. maybe she could end up with an STI, or get pregnant and not know who the father is.
What gets me with all of this, and it's a familiar story all over the UK, is that the communication between mothers and daughters is weak.  Mothers are not teaching their daughters what they need to know.  There is no communication, no passing on of advice.

Rather than try and throw a magic pill at every young girl in the hope of making the UK's teenage pregnancy rates look better, why are we not questioning WHY these young girls are having sex so young.  Why are we not looking at healing the relationships between mother and daughter?
Why is it that teenage girls have such low self esteem and think so little of themselves that they seek to have sex at such a young age?  Why are we not teaching young girls how to respect their bodies and themselves?  helping them to understand the changes and risks involved with sex and contraception?

No one really knows the long term effects the pill can have, or what it may do to a young body that is still forming.  I started taking the Pill at 13.  I was showing signs of PMDD but no-one knew that back then.  I also suffered from really bad acne and depression.  The pill was given to me to cure it all.. to make me better.  When I look back, I wonder if my mood swings at 13 were just perfectly normal.. extreme yes, but I have since found out I am sensitive to hormones, but what if taking the pill at 13 actually caused my PMDD.. what if it messed my system up for the rest of my life?

What I do know for sure is when I came off the pill aged 20 (that's 7 years of synthetic hormones and no ovulation) is that I felt completely different.  The pill had never stopped the mood swings, in fact, by the time I stopped taking it I was getting some pretty extreme episodes.  I became pregnant a few months after stopping the pill.  It was a planned pregnancy as I had just got married.  I experienced severe depression during my pregnancy and post natal depression afterwards.  PMDD came back with a vengence along with my periods and motherhood was very difficult.

My body didn't know what a natural cycle was.  It had only had 6-7 cycles before I got pregnant.  I truly believe that our natural cycles prepare us for being pregnant.  Without intervention, it is possible to become in tune with your menstrual cycle.  You lean how you are at different times of the month.. you can FEEL the changes.  Each cycle is a chance to learn something new about yourself.  It's an inner tool, that we simply throw away when we start taking the pill.

By encouraging young girls to take the pill as soon as they start their period, or for other ailments that could be helped by other methods, we are stealing our daughters ability to learn from their cycle.  We are taking away that inbuilt natural blessing of being a woman...

We need to heal the mother daughter relationship.  Many of the current generation of mothers have grown up on the pill, and don't ever question it.  If it was good for them, then it's good for their kids....  I urge you to think twice about ever putting this drug in your body, or allowing your daughter to.  There are other ways of preventing pregnancy, there are other ways of dealing with mood swings, acne and depression.

Here is a great link to a piece by Dr Erika Schwartz.  She has written a few books on hormones and the menstrual cycle, and I found her response to a worried mothers question a really good read.  I would recommend you take a look.

And as for the increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases and infections... or how the pharmaceutical companies make us believe in whatever will make the most profit for them...
well, those rants are for another day....

PMDD and Me

Today, the Mind blog published a blog I wrote for them titled, PMDD and Me.

This is a really good step, as Mind currently do not cover PMDD in their list of disorders, nor have any leaflets about it.  Ladies with PMDD need to speak up.  They need to make 'the powers that be' aware of their existence, their struggles, their needs.

I hope this goes a little way towards making people listen to women with PMDD, and that women eventually get better support and help to living a better life.

You can find the blog here http://www.mind.org.uk/blog/6201_pmdd_and_me.  Please share the link on Facebook or email...

Never stop passing on information and raising awareness, in whatever small way you can.

Cat x 

PMS AWARENESS WEEK - THIS WEEK!

This week is PMS AWARENESS WEEK!
Run by NAPS - The National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome, PMS Awareness Week is held to try and bring PMS into the media and into discussion.

This morning, Bo, from PMS Warrior Blog, appeared on a national breakfast show called Daybreak.
You can see the video here http://www.itv.com/lorraine/health/pms-awareness-week/

While PMS is a much more general condition and not as severe as PMDD, it is necessary to raise awareness.  PMS is a woman's first point of call when she realises there is a cyclical nature to her problems and mood changes.  NAPS is the only organisation in the world that tries to give information, support and a voice to sufferers of PMS and PMDD.

Please feel free to use the image above on your Facebook page to help raise awareness amongst your friends and family.  Many women suffer in silence not knowing where to turn.  NAPS is there waiting to offer support and advice.  On their website you will find a free forum, and mood chart, and by joining up as a member, you will be able to gain access to other benefits.

If you blog, please share this information to your readers.  NAPS is a charity, and need everyone to help spread the word.

Point them in this direction!  National Association of Premenstrual Syndrome - www.pms.org.uk

PMDD in the news

A new story hit the papers today, about a 41 year old woman from London called Kirsty.


The women told they're mentally ill when they are really crippled by period pain
By JO WATERS

Kirsty Baranowski stood in the middle of the road hammering on a taxi driver’s windscreen. She was incandescent with rage because he’d suddenly pulled out in front of her.

The outburst was completely out of character, but for 20 years she had been battling with violent mood swings in the run-up to her period.

‘Normally, I was mild mannered,’ says Kirsty, 41, who lives in Southfields, South-West London, with her children, Alexander, ten, and Sophia, nine.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2016172/Women-told-theyre-mentally-ill-really-crippled-period-pain.html#ixzz1SZnfJ3ev

Other articles that have been in the papers are:

My story in the Local paper in 2010:
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/features/living/8625883.Extreme_PMT_made_me_violent_and_suicidal/

Donna from Scotland, who's story in 2009 led me back into researching and trying out GHRH injections.. She is still an inspiration, and I hear she is doing really well!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1218328/Donna-told-stressed-cure-sex-In-fact-crippling-new-form-PMS.html

Elizabeth Freundel's story back in 2007:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/pmdd-extreme-pms-438114.html

Got Milk? GET REAL....

An ad campaign in America by The California Milk Processor Group.  It is supposed to increase the sales of milk.. using the obviously hilarious symptoms of PMS or rather, men's suffering at the hands of their pms'ing girlfriends.

It's aimed directly at men, and claims to be using humor to raise awareness of what they call "a REAL condition that affects millions of men every month" and that "PMS places undue strain on personal and professional relationships and for several days in each cycle, men are inexplicably unable to do anything right" The campaign hopes to encourage men to get their wives and girlfriends to drink more milk, as if that will magically solve women's PMS and give them a less stressful life.  It would be more helpful if they advised them to go talk to a Doctor or health professional.

They have a website www.everythingidoiswrong.org, which gives you various 'funny' dials and gauges, like a color-coded ”global PMS level,” a “video apology enhancer” and a “mistake verification system”
The loading page shows a glass of milk, with a banner around it stating 'Milk can help the symptoms of PMS'.

On the website www.gotmilk.com the milk group claim:

A majority of women who consumed 1200 mg of calcium a day for three months reported being less irritable, weepy and depressed, and suffering from fewer backaches, and less cramping and bloating. With 300 mg of calcium per glass, milk is the perfect PMS comfort food.

The study they used to come to this conclusion can be seen here,
http://www.gotmilk.com/pdf/PMSstudy_s.pdf .  Only 55% of women reported an improvement, which means 45% didn't.  It was also shown that a THIRD of women who didn't take calcium experienced an improvement over time anyway.  To get the levels of calcium you would need to help symptoms, you would need to drink a pint of  skimmed or semi-skimmed milk every day, even more if you drink whole milk.

What they don't wish to tell you is that studies have been done regarding the health problems caused or aggravated by milk.  Some sources maintain that high dairy consumption can lead to an increased risk of PMS/PMDD.  Milk and other dairy products can contain high levels of hormones, and consumption can therefore alter hormone levels in sensitive peoples, leading to PMS/PMDD symptoms. Diets which are high in caffeine and sugar may also have this effect (there goes your white coffee or tea with 2 sugars!).

If you are a PMDD sufferer, because the symptoms are so serious and life restricting, you become obsessed with finding a solution, or finding ways to relieve the symptoms.  You will learn quickly that food plays a massive part in managing symptoms and there are foods that are better to avoid.  In a perfect world we would all eat unprocessed, fresh, natural food.  Whole food.  The milk that we buy in our current society is processed, it comes from cows that have been given hormones and antibiotics.  It is the best milk for calves, not necessarily, for humans.

Vivian Goldschmit (a graduate of New York University with a Masters of Arts degree in Nutritional Sciences and Biochemistry) creator of the website saveourbones.com, an osteoporosis community, says we have been led to believe many myths about milk and in her article here, you can read many other facts about modern day milk:

One of the first myths, she says, is that drinking milk creates healthy bones because of the calcium found in the milk. However, the animal protein found in milk actually depletes the human body of calcium, exactly the opposite of what milk drinkers expect it to do.

Nowadays, milking cows are given antibiotics and most are also injected with a genetically engineered form of bovine growth hormone (rBGH). A man-made or synthetic hormone used to artificially increase milk production, rBGH also increases blood levels of the insulin-growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in those who drink it. And higher levels of IGF-1 are linked to several cancers.

On the website www.notmilk.com, you can find information on many health problems that are caused or aggravate by milk.  On the topic of mood swings, Robert Cohen says:

Imagine starting your day with an estrogen pill, followed by progesterone, prolactin, melatonin, oxytocin, and 50+ other hormones including gastrointestinal peptides and hypothalamic hormones. 

It is no wonder that the Townsend Medical Letter noted the following in May of 1995: "In reality, cow's milk, especially processed cow's milk, has been linked to a variety of health problems, including: mucous production, hemoglobin loss, childhood diabetes, heart disease, atherosclerosis, arthritis, kidney stones, MOOD SWINGS, depression, irritability, allergies."

Can I also mention, that if you were to follow the advice given by the Got Milk Campaign, drinking non or half fat milk will actually MAKE you put on more weight!

The fat in milk actually helps curb you appetite by making you feel fuller by triggering a release of the hormone cholecystokinin.  Fats also slow the release of sugar into your bloodstream, reducing the amount that can be stored as fat.

This is a low blow to those women who suffer from PMS, or it's big ugly sister, PMDD.

To take one unsubstantial research paper and base an entire promotional campaign is crazy, let alone the BAD advice of hormonal women drinking more milk.  The 'humerous' aspect will only be appreciated by men... I'm sorry.. but if we are gonna get sexist here, who does the shopping?

Statements like,  "I'm sorry I listened to what you said, not what you meant", "I'm sorry for the things I did or didn't do" and "We can BOTH blame myself" are sarcastic, insulting and quite frankly don't help anyone.  When you step into the realms of PMDD, you will find men who a dealing with a time bomb.  Someone they love, goes to hell and back every month and often tries to drag them along.  The fact that PMS and PMDD is so misunderstood, still so taboo, means that these men, and their families suffer for years without help.  Women with PMDD go through years of trial and error using medications that haven't been created to treat PMDD... we are guinea pigs.  There isnt enough research into PMS and PMDD, there aren't enough studies or new medications being created.  There just isn't the support available to women with this condition, or their long suffering partners.

A woman with severe PMS or PMDD will have to spend a lot of time dealing with the side effects of medications, only to realise that they are never going to work.

A woman with PMDD will battle every month to 'keep it together', they will try CBT, psychotherapy, counselling,  meditation, exercise, diet, anything that may offer a way of dealing with the feelings and situations that PMDD brings.

I've not met ONE woman with PMDD who jokes about saying something awful to a loved one, or being hurtful, letting people down, or self harming.  I see these women battle everyday with a life destroying illness, I see them battle for their kids, I see them battle for their man/partner, myself included.

I would embrace an advertising campaign that raises awareness about how badly mood disorders and hormone imbalances affect the lives of many.  I would embrace something that gives an uneducated person a true and fair insight into the lives of women, kids, AND men, who live with severe PMS or PMDD.  I would embrace something that promises to raise awareness and demands more research.  

This however, is far from that.  It's nothing more than a company trying to make more money at the expense of women by promoting something that could actually worsen symptoms in a woman with PMS or PMDD.  

Got Milk have released an article about the campaign saying:

ARE YOU A MAN LIVING WITH PMS? 

GOT MILK? Comes to Relationship Rescue "During That Time of the Month"  

Are you a man living with PMS? That's the question the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), the creator of the GOT MILK?, is asking California men this summer. In an advertising campaign titled 'Everything I Do Is Wrong,' the CMPB aims to use its signature GOT MILK? humor to highlight the strain placed on many relationships due to the monthly symptoms of premenstrual syndrome or PMS and how dairy milk can come to the rescue: studies show that the calcium in dairy milk can help reduce PMS symptoms by as much as 50 percent. Whereas most PMS-related messaging is aimed at women, the campaign's core question ("Are you a man living with PMS?") turns the tables and looks at this age-old dilemma from the point of view of the man and the couple. 

"PMS and its symptoms are sensitive issues to discuss among couples," says Steve James, executive director of the CMPB. "We hope that this campaign, through its message and humor, would empower both men and women to talk about this topic more openly and to take action by learning how to help relieve symptoms by drinking dairy milk."

"The goal of the campaign is to engage consumers, while helping users learn about the many benefits of drinking dairy milk," says Jeff Goodby, chairman of GSP. "Milk comes to the rescue and in the case of this campaign, it could very well help strengthen relationships." 

Goodby is no stranger to this topic, having had directed the first GOT MILK? PMS ad in 2005 titled 'Milk to the Rescue.' The humorous 30-second commercial was produced after studies in the Archives of Internal Medicine and in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology showed that the calcium in dairy milk can help reduce the symptoms of PMS. 'Milk to the Rescue' opens to scenes of men in grocery and convenience stores stocking up on gallons of milk. The frantic, near desperate looks on their faces are funny, but puzzling. Viewers are the then let in on the secret when a guy comes home with grocery bags full of milk and a bouquet of flowers. A full screen comes on where audiences learn how milk can make that "time-of-the-month" a little better. The ad ends with the ubiquitous tagline "GOT MILK?"

Jeff Goodby is quoted in The  NY Times as saying "We did it in the past, but the women just didn’t drink enough milk,” he says, laughing. “If they’d only drink enough, we wouldn’t come back."

No need to wonder where the sexist ideas come from then?

Mad week

So this week turned out to be a bit crazy!  After the article came out, I had journalists on my case.  There are a couple of agencies out there who want to help me take my story to national women's magazines or papers.
With this week being one of my 'difficult' ones, it really did my head in.  Too many questions, pressure and a sense of urgency that wasnt really needed made my head spin.  I didnt get the college work finished that I wanted to, and I've been a bit more stressed out with the girls than usual.

I've had more ideas for art work, and even managed to complete a new piece.  It really helped to get my mind off everything else.  Simple, and some may say silly, but you'll have to wait and see!!
I was inspired last weekend when my boyfriend and I visited Southampton Art Gallery.  We saw the Bridget Riley exhibition.  It was amazing.  I remember looking at her work in college, but to see it for real, and to learn more about her was inspiring.  It's right up my street too!  Colour, how it makes you feel, how it works next to other colours, contrasts and movement.  Portraying the natural world in it's basic forms of colour and vibrations.  I have had some really good ideas for more artwork, and might even go back and see the exhibition again while it's there.  I'm always looking for ideas and imagery that helps me to convey the emotions of PMDD, and I have some plans to do some paintings that focus on the colour red.  Red rage, seeing red, menstruation, anger, warning, danger, blood, life, fire...  all key things that come to mind when I think about my PMDD.... watch this space!!

Extreme PMT made me violent and suicidal

My story came out today in the local paper.  I am happy with it.  I don't like the picture much, I look tired and my face looks puffy... but I guess thats a good representation of what PMDD does to you.  I also had a huge spot on my face which has been there for 6 weeks now!  Thats just not right.. damn you hormones!

There has been lots of good feedback, and I've been contacted for another story, so maybe this is the start of something.  It would be great to be able to raise more awareness about the condition and help other women.  getting it recognised by doctors would be a start.  A lady on the PMDD Community forum said her doctor said "PMDD isnt a condition here"  (meaning the UK) but they do recognise severe PMS...  Oh my days...

What I do know is there are only a handful of people (specialists) in the UK, and you gotta be very wealthy or prepared to take out huge loans to get thier help.  Doctors dont know what to do, and if they dont believe it exists, what hope has anyone suffering from PMDD?