PMS

Right now, my brain feels like: "Bbblllaaaaahhhhhhh."

It has felt this way for the past 3 days. I've been uninterested in anything, not feeling up to taking on a project, and a little too bored to sit around doing nothing. This feeling is torment. I can't simply just "push through it" and get work done, because I'll just discover that I don't have the physical energy for it either.

What's causing this? I wish I could blame it on an MCS reaction, which can cause this type of prolonged brain fog, but that isn't the case this time. It's that my energy has been overspent, then my body was further taxed by the start of my period. Blah. I just want to melt into the floor and stay a liquid puddle there until I find the strength to put myself back together.

For most of my adolescent life, I had no idea that my periods were not normal. I thought every woman suffered tremendously each month. The older I get, the more comfortable I've grown talking about my monthly substantial torment, the more I've come to learn that my periods have not been "normal" at all. It isn't normal to suffer so much each month! Thankfully, I'm no longer suffering to the degree I used to. It's taken a lot of work and effort, but my periods are actually manageable now. I still can't go to work on the first day of my cycle, but I'm no longer staying in bed screaming for hours. I'm continuing to get better as time goes on.

I'm not up to writing "Menstrual Solutions Part 2." I don't have that kind of energy to spend. I do, however, want to talk a bit about PMS. I do not understand it, and this is not an advice-giving post.

PMS is stereotyped as "getting overly moody the week before a woman's period." I never thought I had PMS because this was hardly ever an issue for me. Of course, I have suffered terrible acne (as in so much acne that it was hard to see my face's skin color,) bloating, tenderness and skin sensitivities, fatigue, and chocolate cravings.  I didn't know this through my teen years and early 20's, but those were all PMS symptoms. If I had to have PMS at all, I'm grateful that I had these type of symptoms rather than the mood symptoms. (I'll never be grateful for the amount of acne I've suffered, of course.)

That was then. About 3 years ago, when my menstrual issues got so bad that I was finally willing to see a doctor about it, my PMS symptoms had grown worse. I was feeling moody most of the month (both the very good moods and the very sour moods,) but I didn't quite recognize just how bad I was until my moods started to even out after getting help. My acne wasn't as bad as it was when I was 16, but I was an adult trying to hide teenage-like breakouts every so often. My breasts would grow so tender that it was painful to touch them. My bloat would get so large that I would need to go up a pant size on the day or two before my period started. I wanted chocolate all the time.

But after getting help from my Naturopathic doctor, my symptoms gradually changed. My periods slowly, but surely, eased up as the months went on. During this time, my PMS started to change. My chocolate cravings gradually went away, but my mood swings gradually got worse. I eventually got to the stereotypical point of being easily irritable the week before my period started. This lasted for several months, and then my PMS started to swing back towards being about acne breakouts and chocolate cravings again. And then it swung back to to being moody without the chocolate cravings. Let's fast forward to today. I now know that my PMS symptoms will either bring chocolate cravings or mood swings, but I don't know what type of PMS I'm going to get until I get it. Some months I get acne breakouts, other months I do not. It isn't in the least bit predictable!


What I have noticed, however, is that my acne breakouts have been big during both periods I've suffered since starting the Candida cleanse 41 days ago. My mood swings are substantially worse now too. I was so angry the week before the period I'm currently on that even my husband was feeling stressed about my stress levels.

And so I have a theory: Candida makes PMS worse, and causes it to fluctuate.

I hope to find that my PMS symptoms disappear after this candida overgrowth is gone. Please message me on Facebook or leave a comment here if you have a PMS story to share.

(I do appreciate all the Facebook messages I've received - I've had quite a few from readers who also suffer menstrual issues! While it's not normal for our periods to make us suffer, it's clearly a common problem among women.)