Illustration by Chanelle Nibbelink
Symptom tracking—charting your physical and mental symptoms alongside the days of your cycle—can help untangle the chaos of PMDD. It’s also essential to confirming a diagnosis and getting proper treatment, says Chicago-based clinical psychologist Tory Eisenlohr-Moul. “Clarifying which symptoms are most intense and impairing can help providers select the best treatments and can help patients cope more effectively.”
Enter the Me v PMDD app, which was developed by a fellow sufferer and her family. Every day, it will prompt you to rate your overall mood and symptoms on a scale of zero to 10. All the data is then graphed out against the days of your cycle, making any correlations between cycles and treatments easier to pinpoint.
Regardless of how you track—paper works, too—taking at least two months’ worth of tracking to your next doctor’s appointment could bring you closer to relief.
