If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”
For the most part, Cori Lint was happy.
She worked days as a software engineer and nights as a part-time cellist, filling her free hours with inline skating and gardening and long talks with friends. But a few days a month, Lint’s mood would tank. Panic attacks came on suddenly. Suicidal thoughts did, too.
She had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, but Lint, 34, who splits her time between St. Petersburg, Florida, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, struggled to understand her experience, a rift so extreme she felt like two different people.
“When I felt better, it was like I was looking back at the experience of someone else, and that was incredibly confusing,” Lint said.
Then, in 2022, clarity pierced through. Her symptoms, she realized, were cyclical. Lint recognized a pattern in something her doctors hadn’t considered: her period.
For decades, a lack of investment in women’s health has created gaps in medicine. The problem is so prevalent that, this year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to advance women’s health research and innovation.
Women are less likely than men to get early diagnoses for conditions from heart disease to cancer, studies have found, and they are more likely to have their medical concerns dismissed or misdiagnosed. Because disorders specifically affecting women have long been understudied, much remains unknown about causes and treatments.
That’s especially true when it comes to the effects of menstruation on mental health.
When Lint turned to the internet for answers, she learned about a debilitating condition at the intersection of mental and reproductive health.
Sounds like me, she thought.
What Is PMDD?
Let’s Talk About Periods
Both Lint and Tingum, who were diagnosed by medical professionals after learning about the disorder on their own, said a lack of conversation around periods contributed to their care being delayed.
Lint doesn’t remember talking much about periods in grade school; they were often the butt of a joke, used to dismiss women.
“For the longest time, I thought, ‘Well, this happens to everyone, right?’” Lint said of her symptoms. “Has a doctor ever asked me what my symptoms are like? No, absolutely not. But we’re talking about a quarter or more of my life.”
Brett Buchert, a former University of Florida athlete who took time away from campus because her symptoms were so severe, said that when doctors do ask questions, it can feel like boxes being checked: “The conversation ends there.”
Buchert, who graduated with a degree in psychology and now lives in Boulder, Colorado, said understanding what’s happening to her and being aware of her cycle has helped her manage her condition.
Lint and Tingum agreed.
Even as Lint struggles to find a medicine that brings relief, tracking her cycle has allowed her to plan around her symptoms, she said. She makes fewer commitments in the week before her period. She carves out more time for self-care.
She’s also found solace in reading stories of others living with the condition, she said.
“It’s helped me process the extremes,” Lint said. “There’s not something wrong with me as an individual. I’m not crazy; this is something that’s legitimately happening to me. It helps to know I’m not alone.”
This article was produced through a partnership between KFF Health News and the Tampa Bay Times.
Byline: Lauren Peace, Tampa Bay Times, KFF Health News, (TNS)
(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)
©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
