Provide the doctor with a printout of evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of PMDs. If you feel it would be helpful, ask your doctor for a referral to a behavior-oriented therapist who can provide practical weekly support during your journey to find effective treatment and can rule out other easily-treatable psychological symptoms (e.g., phobias). While there are no blood tests that can diagnose PMDD, ask your provider whether a blood test is useful for ruling out any underlying disorders that may be causing your symptoms. Provide your doctor with your history of treatment, especially whether SSRIs and birth control pills have been helpful in the past. Here are some basic points to cover in your first visit:Įxplain your symptoms and say, “I believe I have PMDD (or PME)” Statistically, the medical specialties that are most likely to know about the existence of PMDD and PME are gynecologists and psychiatrists. Moving Forward with a Medical Doctor (Gynecologist, Psychiatrist, GP)Īs we mentioned above, many medical doctors are unaware of the existence of premenstrual disorders or don’t know how to treat them. If you’re struggling with tracking consistently, enlist your spouse, partner, or family member to help you rate your symptoms each day for two months. For the moment, however, it seems to be the only way to get a clear diagnosis and the help you deserve. We understand that tracking symptoms (or tracking symptoms in a new way) may be frustrating for patients who have suffered with premenstrual disorders for a long time. The DSM-5, where PMDD was recently made into an official diagnosis, specifically requires two months of daily ratings before a diagnosis can be made. Because of this confusion, the medical and mental health communities have determined that, before “advanced” treatments for PMDD (i.e., options other than SSRIs and oral contraceptives) can be provided, daily symptom ratings across at least two menstrual cycles should be used to make an official diagnosis of PMDD (or PME). Preparing Ahead of Time: Daily Symptom Ratings Across the Cycleįor a healthcare provider, premenstrual disorders can be confusing to differentiate from other disorders such as dysmenorrhea (severe physical symptoms around one’s period that don’t have an emotional component), bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders, or borderline personality disorder. Since it may take some time to get these records from your prior healthcare providers, we recommend you request those records as soon as possible often you will need to sign a release of information form before records can be picked up or send to your new provider. Preparing Ahead of Time: Collecting Prior Treatment Recordsįor most providers, bringing in documentation of any prior history of treatment for premenstrual or other disorders will help them to treat you more efficiently. Although everyone responds differently to treatment, we recommend that you find a provider who starts by recommending the treatments that are statistically most likely to work (as outlined on our treatment recommendations page). You might also ask them what treatments they typically use for PMDD. If there are multiple providers at a single practice, you should ask which providers specifically have experience in treating PMDD. You might call a provider and ask the office assistant whether any of the providers at their office have experience in treating PMDD. Screening ProvidersĪlthough it may be frustrating, it is usually worth the investment to screen your providers ahead of time via phone. Providers who know about PMDD will also be knowledgeable about PME, so asking about their work with PMDD is probably the best place to start. Therefore, the most reasonable place to start when seeking diagnosis and treatment of PMDD or PME is to find a provider near you who (1) knows what PMDD is, and (2) knows something about how to treat PMDD. Because of this, many healthcare providers have not received training in PMDD or PME - they may not be aware that the conditions exist, and they often don’t know where to begin in treating them. PMDD has only recently been formally recognized as an “official” diagnosis in the medical and mental health communities, and PME currently remains a research diagnosis only. Steps to Diagnosis Preface: Why is it so hard to get a diagnosis?
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