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What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of four vaginas only. In today's episode we're gonna talk about Dun Dun Duh P m. S also known as premenstrual syndrome. And we're also gonna touch a little bit on P M d d. Which is pre menstrual dysphoric disorder, which is a little bit of a worse situation than PMS. So let's get right into the intro music. Uh, yeah. You probably want to listen to the actual music, huh? Hello, and welcome to four vaginas. Only the podcast about everything. Female. I'm your host, Dr Celestine, bringing you important information about understanding your health and body in the way you wish your doctor would actually explain it. All right, guys, I'm Dr Celestine, as most of you know right now, if you don't know, welcome to four vaginas only, which is my podcast. You can also find a little bit more about me and some more up to date over. Joe. I am topics on the four vaginas only Instagram page. I also have a Facebook group for four vaginas only as well. So just type that in tow all of your social media outlets and you'll find me anyway So this episode of for Madonna's only is gonna be about PMS, which I mean either, you know, you have it, you think you have it, or the people around you are telling you you have it, so let's get a little bit more into it so we could find out if you truly d'oh! Okay, so PMS long name premenstrual syndrome. But that's the last. I'm gonna say that from now on, we're just gonna keep saying PMS is a collection of symptoms that happens every month with your menstrual cycle, not every day of the year. Not randomly. It's sporadic times, but pretty consistently, with your period to be a little bit more specific. It usually starts about five days before your actual period starts and maybe will last about 2 to 4 days into your period, but should be completely gone after four days of your period and especially the week after your periods over. All of the symptoms that we're gonna talk about should be non existent. If you do have any symptoms that last longer than that or you feel are most days of the year, that's usually an indication that you have something else going on some sort of maybe history or new onset depression or anxiety or some sort of underlying issue. That's not necessarily PMS, but we're not gonna really get too much into the other stuff, since today's episode is just on PMS, and I am also not an expert in the Depression and anxiety. That's more of a psychiatry thing. So I'm gonna talk about what I know about, All right, so do you have PMS? That is the question. I know a lot of you out there that are in relationships. The people that you're in relationships with sometimes will indicate to you that you do have PMS. But just because they think so does not mean that that's actually true. Um, but also, you know, it is. It is something that occurs and up to 85% of women that still have their period. So I mean, it could be, but just don't take everybody else's word for it. Listen to kind of what I'm talking about today and then talk about it also with your O B g Y n. All right, so, PMS what are the symptoms? Do you have it? Let's talk about it So PMS is a collection of not just emotional symptoms, but also physical symptoms. So what are the emotional symptoms? Some of the emotional symptoms you might experience with PMS include depression having angry outbursts, being super irritable, crying. Sometimes people say they cry for no reason, being very, very anxious or confused, having very poor concentration and things that you're actually trying to concentrate on. Also, sometimes insomnia can be part of it as well. A lot of these air also overlapping with depression, symptoms, right. But like I said, in order for it to be PMS, it has to be really restricted to around the time of your period and not on just most days of the year. Physical symptoms. I get a lot of these. I definitely do have PMS, so I can kind of speak to you on a personal level as well. But here are the physical symptoms food cravings. A lot of people get this. I was just talking the other day about how I share this craving of chocolate with somebody around my period, and I don't really want chocolate any other time of the year on Lee when I have about to get my period anyway. Tm I probably pressed tenderness. A lot of people get tender breasts around the nipple around the whole breast tissue. That's very common with PMS, abdominal bloating or weight gain. I know me personally. I gain £2 just before my period, and it's completely gone about half way through my period and definitely by the next week after. And that's just straight from abdominal bloating. You can also have headaches around the time of your period. You can also be very, very tired and not really, you know, want to be doing anything active. I've even heard of joint and muscle pain and swelling of the hands and feet and things like that around the period, which can also be a sign of PMS. Now the best way to diagnose PMS is like I've been saying has the president in the five days before your period and end within four days after your period starts, and sometimes it interferes with some of your normal activities. But if you really want to document it at home and bring this document to your physician, it's best to keep a record of your symptoms, at least for 2 to 3, um, periods. So 2 to 3 months so that you can have an idea of whether these things are happening to you, Maura. Just an everyday thing or if it really is related to your period now, that being said, people that have depression or anxiety or even some thyroid disease things like that. These symptoms that you do have on a regular basis can be amplified around the time of your period, and that doesn't necessarily mean that it's PMS. It can just be an amplification of your baseline condition. All right now, a lot of people have heard of PMS. It's very common thing that people just know. But not many people know about premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is also called P M d d p M D D. The reason many people don't know about it is because it really exists only in a very small percentage of women. But some of those women might be listening to this podcast, so let's talk about it So premenstrual dysphoric disorder is cyclic, just like PMS. It occurs just around the time of your period, and it ends before your period is over. Yada Yadi have repeated this 500 times already. So you know what I mean. But the distinction between P. M s and P m d d is that Although the PMS symptoms are uncomfortable, the symptoms of P m d. D are so severe that they interfere with your ability to function very comparable with other mental disorders such as major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder so similar to PMS. Some of the symptoms of P m d d r having very extreme mood swings, feeling suddenly sad or a tearful are very sensitive to rejection, being very irritable or angry, very depressed feelings of hopeful of hopelessness that's very different from hopefulness, hopelessness like if there is just nothing in the world that's gonna help you, um, also being very, very on edge, having decreased interest in your normal activities very difficult to concentrate being very tired. Change in your appetite, insomnia, feeling like you're just very overwhelmed or out of control. And also some of the physical symptoms like breast tenderness, bloating, et cetera that we previously talked about with PMS. But the difference is that this thes symptoms actually lead thio clinically significant distress or interference with work school your usual social activities or relationships with other people, like avoiding social activities altogether, decreased productivity at work at school and efficient decreased efficiency at work, school or at home. So I know what a lot of you are thinking. My relationship is strained every time I get my period. You know, I end up in fights with my significant other, and that's, you know, seems like it might have P M d d. Well, I'm here to tell you that the majority of that is probably just PMS. Because a lot of women experience that not necessarily P M d d. It is very hard to differentiate between P. M s and P M d d but those that have p m d d. You know, you really will have a lot of problems at work and at school, especially those two will be really strained around the time of your period. But it's even hard for me to explain it just on a podcast. I think the best thing to Dio would be Teoh right down your symptoms for at least 2 to 3 months of your period. And bring that in to your doctor. So you guys can discuss whether you have PMS or P M d d and what to do from there. Luckily, the treatment of P. M S and P M D D can be similar, so you can start with some of the treatments for PMS and, you know, work your way up if it's not working for you, and then we'll talk a little bit more about what those treatments will be. Okay, so in terms of treatment for PMS, sometimes there's a change in your lifestyle can lessen the symptoms of PMS. For example, exercise technically aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, running, cycling, swimming, thes things that increase your heart rate and your lung function. And if you regularly do it not just the days that you have symptoms, then it can a decrease your overall symptom profile from PMS. Ah, good goal is at least 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week. Another thing that you can dio is try relaxation methods to help relax and reduce the stress that you have in your everyday life. Some things that you can try to do our breathing exercises meditation, which I have never been good at because my mind continues to run like crazy and also yoga or massage therapy, which is my favorite thing. I actually just got a massage yesterday. Some women actually do find these things to be quite helpful in terms of their PMS symptoms. And if that doesn't work, you can even try some changes in your diet or combine the changes in your diet with exercise and relaxation. Some changes in your diet that are recommended include eating a diet that has complex carbohydrates, which includes whole grains like whole wheat bread, pasta, cereal, barley, brown rice, beans and lentils. So even if you're on a low carb diet and you're trying to stay away from wheat bread and pasta, you could still do beans and lentils, which you should be getting some of that some of those nutrients anyway in your regular diet. Also, some say that adding calcium to your diet can actually help relieve some PMS symptoms usually taking 1200 milligrams of calcium a day or even calcium rich rich foods like yogurt, leafy green vegetables and adding that into your diet can help us. Well, now, with calcium supplementation, I would just say Make sure you talk to your doctor about it, because there's some conditions that, if you have, you should not be taking any extra calcium in terms of at least the pill form, so I would talk to your physician about that before adding it into your regimen. Also, you can decrease your intake a fat, salt and sugar. Decrease your caffeine and alcohol, which can be hard for some people on dhe. Change your eating schedule to eating small meals a day rather than large meals that can keep your blood sugar stable and help with your symptoms as well. There's also some limited evidence on taking magnesium supplements to decrease bloating and breast tenderness and also vitamin E supplements to reduce the overall symptoms of PMS. But with any medication. Please talk to your doctor first because you never know what can interact with what. So don't just take my word for it. Make sure that you talk to somebody that knows your personal history before you start taking anything, even if it's over the counter, Okay, and then there's some prescription medications that have been shown to decrease P. M S and P M d. D. For one is birth control pills. More specifically, a birth control pill that contains the progestin called dro spirit known fancy name. But for those of you that are aware of some of the brand names of birth control pills, the ones that contain this progestin are those such as you Jasmine Yeahs, Jeon v. Lorena, Nikki Rossella. Those are just a few of the brand names that contain Address Your unknown, which are has been shown to offer relief from both the physical and psychological aspects of P m d d. But in 2012 the FDA announced that women taking jazz and other dispirit on containing birth control pills, maybe at an increased risk of developing blood clots compared to women taking birth control pills with other forms of progestin in it. So if you have any type of blood clotting disorder, any increased chance or family history of blood clots, you talk to your doctor as to whether or not you should even try to take this form of birth control simply to decrease your PMS or P M. D d. Symptom mythology and the last prescription medication I'm gonna talk about for decreasing P. M s and P M d. D symptoms, our anti depressants. They can be very helpful in some women, especially those that have p M d. D. I've seen two different schools of thought. You can either take them two weeks before the onset of your symptoms, so about two weeks before the five days before your period, or you can take them every day as if they were prescribed for depression, the most common antidepressant that people would take for these are called SSR. I's selective serotonin re uptake inhibitors and some of the names you might be familiar with. Our Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Zoloft, etcetera. So definitely talk to your doctor about taking an SSR I for PMS or P M d d. Especially if all of the previous things I talked about diet, lifestyle change, relaxation supplements and birth control pills are not working for you. One other tip it about birth control pills. You don't necessarily have to take the spirit known form of birth control. One thing that you can do is take your birth control pills differently. You can take them continuously without having a period every month and probably having a period, let's say, three times a year or so and that will decrease the amount of times that you will experience PMS Ray. If you think about it, you're having less times that you have your period during the year and PMS is associated with your period. So you will have experience last symptoms from your PMS, but it's still important to have a period at least a few times a year. So if we're going to do this method, don't just do it with birth control pills that you have already prescribed by your doctor on your own. Make sure you go in and you have a discussion about exactly how many periods a year that you need to be having, but also how consistently, or how continuously you can take the birth control pill to decrease your PMS or P M D d symptoms. All right, that's it. That is almost everything that I know about P. M s and P M d d. So I hope I've helped you guys figure out which one you may or may not have and kind of explain some of the symptoms that you're feeling and, you know, it's not just in your head. These things do happen to at least 80% of the population. So make sure you go to your doctor, have a conversation with them about what you can do to decrease your symptoms so that you have just better relationships, better concentration and just feel better overall and not be kind of a slave to these periods. Symptoms all the time. As women, we go through a lot, huh? Just talking about this makes me feel like we really experience the gambit of things out there that there are two experience. But anyway, that is the end of the episode. So thank you guys for listening. Thank you guys, for staying with four vaginas only. Please follow for vaginas only Instagram Page as well as the four vaginas only Facebook group, both of which you confined on either platform by typing in at four vaginas only. And thanks for listening until next time. Guys, CIA