‘My self-worth plummeted every month’: the hidden disorder that can ruin women’s lives

PMDD is a little-known condition that causes depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts for a significant proportion of women. Sufferers and experts talk about its devastating effects, and the fight to improve diagnosis

By the time Emily got her diagnosis, she was under 24-hour supervision by her mum, suffering with anorexia and routinely self-harming. Her suicide attempts had numbered “too many to count”. She had seen doctors, was working with a therapist and “doing everything everyone said, but the emotions were exhausting and relentless and stayed there”.

Then she would get her period, and everything would change. “I couldn’t understand how I was in complete distress, and then OK a few days later,” she says.

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