How a diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder changed this P.E.I. woman's life

Sharon Gillis remembers sitting in her doctor's office in 2018.

In front of her were stacks of paperwork where she had been tracking her menstrual cycles, with charts and notes on how mood symptoms like extreme depression and anxiety always showed up in the weeks before her period.

"I'm done," Gillis recalls telling the doctor, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology. She had been trying everything, from lifestyle changes to birth control. Her moods didn't improve in the lead up to her period.

The doctor asked her about the symptoms. Gillis said she had been reading about a condition called premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and she might have been living with it for over two decades.

The doctor read through all the paperwork, then handed it back to Gillis.

"Okay, here's what we can do," the doctor said before explaining the available treatments for PMDD. And that was the moment Gillis knew her life had changed.

"For me to walk in and just be heard and have options and have someone explain and support me through them changed my whole life," she said.

Five to 10 per cent of people who menstruate are affected by PMDD.

PMDD has a long list of physical and mental symptoms including lability of mood, heightened anxiety and severe depression, said Dr. Alison Shea, an obstetrician and gynecologist at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton in Ontario. She said patients have to meet at least five symptoms on that list to be diagnosed.

"And they need to be significantly impairing either your work function, your school function or your relationships," said Dr. Shea.

Gillis knew what that was like.

For 20 years since her first cycle in the mid 90s, she said she didn't know what was going on with her mental state in the two weeks leading up to her period — also known as the luteal phase.

"It affects your moods so drastically. You can go from feeling very bubbly and happy and easy to be around one day and wake up the next day and, you know, just feel mean and angry or depressed," she said. "And it affects your impulse controls. You lash out over little things."

Gillis said the condition also strained her relationships with those around her.