PMS & PMDD

I'm new to message boards, so bear with me.

i was diagnosed with pmdd about a year after my son was born. (he's almost 2 now) my midwife had me start on yaz, which worked great for 3 months and then suddenly stopped working. all the symptoms came back with a vengeance. she switched me to another birth control, and the same thing happened; 2 months were fine and the third was as if i wasn't taking anything at all. here's my question: my worst symptoms show up a day or so AFTER my period ends. the exhaustion, lethargy, anxiety, anger, etc. and lasts anywhere from 1 to 3 days. it's a full on Jekyll and Hyde and then suddenly things are back to normal. has anyone else ever experienced this pattern? it seems that in most cases for it to be true pmdd, the symptoms happen before you start your period. however, since it's obviously a cyclical pattern, she still classifies it as pmdd.

anyway, since this is getting to be absolutely unbearable, I'm considering starting myself on a regimen of 5htp, which helps with serotonin production in the brain. i used to take it years ago for sad (seasonal affective disorder) and it worked wonders, almost overnight. has anyone else out there tried 5htp? and what was your experience?

also, i'm still nursing and need to do some research on 5htp and nursing to see if it's safe. any feedback and/or thoughts are appreciated.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with 5htp.  I'll see if I can find anything about it in my bfding references (I'm a bfding counselor IRL) and let you know what it says about the safety while nursing. 

It does seem as if your symptoms are related directly to your cycle, although they aren't PRE-menstrual.  Have you tried doing some research on symptoms that occur at the beginning of the cycle rather than the end to see what you can find out? 

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Ok, according to Medications and Mothers Milk by Dr. Thomas Hale - 5HTP is rated an L3 (moderately safe) medication for use while lactating.  5-HTP is not recommended for nursing moms because an infant's neurological development is incredibly sensitive to serotonin levels and we do not know if 5-HTP could produce high milk levels (and thus lead to an overdose to the infant). The manufacturer reports that 5-HTP can suppress lactation.

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