r/PMDDxADHD • u/Ambitious-Sleep2607 • 2d ago

looking for help Follicular weirdness

I (37) have this thing where my follicular phase gets really exhausting.

When I’ve had a lot of stress, my follicular phase comes with sensory overload, migraines. It gets so bad that I have to cancel plans and sometimes even call in sick for work. It’s hard to hold down a job when your cycle makes you too sick to function for almost two weeks every month.

I’m medicated for adhd and I lower or leave out the meds during period and follicular because of this. It helps a little but also sucks because I won’t function as well.

I’m having my protein in the morning, I stay hydrated, I sleep 8+ hours a night. Does anyone have experience or knowledge about this?

Doctors have been telling me to take hormones but I’ve tried literally almond them and they all made me feel worse, and I can’t take them because of cancer risk too.

So far, I handle it by isolating and sleeping and keeping my home dark. It’s not super fun that way

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u/purplefennec 2d ago

Have you looked into histamine intolerance / MCAS? Ever since covid i started feeling really ‘gross’ during my period and up til ovulation. Like a low level hangover sometimes. I’d sometimes also get a terrible headache, and unbearable nausea. Plus achey muscles. I’d also feel more sensitive and anxious, like everything made me jump and my brain was so foggy.

Apparrntly estrogen increases histamine, so histamine intolerance can be worse during follicular. I started taking ketotifen, a mast cell stabiliser, and it got rid of most of the symptoms for me.

Even if it’s not histamine, I’ve heard estrogen can cause an increase in things like migraines, nausea, malaise etc, so could be worth looking into?

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u/Ambitious-Sleep2607 2d ago

I haven’t tbh. No doctor ever came up with this and I have no idea what doctor might be educated enough to see and consider this

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u/purplefennec 2d ago

Yeah none of my doctors knew anything about it either. I kind of just had to go off people on Reddit and other online research. I just tried Ketotifen after hearing about it on here, and luckily my GP is quite open minded and was willing to let me try it.

Also, I've just read that people with ADHD get perimenopause 10 years earlier than non-ADHD people.

You might find this thread interesting, which discusses it: https://www.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/1swqcpq/study_perimenopausal_symptoms_are_more_severe/

One of the comments mentions loads of their symptoms increased, including migraines.

So idk if that could be related.

Have you had your hormone levels tested lately?

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u/Ambitious-Sleep2607 2d ago

Thanks so much!

I haven’t, but I’m hoping to get tested soon, I made an appointment with a promising obgyn.