Medication and Menstral cycle

[Free3indeed]

Has anyone found a correlation between their ADD/ADHD symptoms and where you are in your cycle? Does or doesn’t medication work as well right before a period starts. Thoughts? Experiences? Insight?

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[Anonymous]

I asked this question a few months ago and you could hear crickets chirping. I’m not sure why this is one of those hush hush topics when so many of us are suffering. For me PMS/menstrual cycle+ADHD = worthless and unproductive. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t schedule anything important because I know my ability to focus is non-existent, I’m more sensitive to external stimuli than normal, I’m irritable and an unproductive sugar craving mess…and that’s with medication. No wonder women have such a hard time climbing the corporate/professional ladder compared to men, many of us are only operating at 25-50% for a week every single month of our careers.

Dr. J…some guidance here please. How can we lessen the affects of hormones on our ADHD symptoms?

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[quizzical]

I’ll break the silence, because I’m DEFINITELY affected by my cycle. I would say symptoms are at least twice as bad the week before the period starts as they are the rest of the month. It’s hard to know where the PMS ends and the ADD begins, that’s for sure.

My ob-gyn put me on as-needed Prozac to help with the PMS. I started last month; I think I took it once or twice the third week of the cycle and then just about every day the week before my period started, and it really seemed to help a lot with the moodiness. Stopped it on day two of the period and didn’t seem to have any withdrawal-type issues.

Alas, the fuzzy-brain ADD stuff wasn’t helped much (this was before I started meds for ADD), but at least I wasn’t going around beating myself up for my lapses any more, which was a big plus.

I’m curious to see how my PMS symptoms are this month, since this is my first month of ADD meds. I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks!

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[Author]

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