Menstrual cycle hormone related anxiety?

[Haruka]

Hey everyone, it's been quite a long time since I have been on the forum. I used to be here all the time for emetophobia related stuff, but I guess it's a good thing that I haven't been on since that means I haven't been having as many issues with it! I faced my worst phobia fear of vomiting away from home a year ago (On a train to Seattle, too!) and I didn't panic as much as I normally would have. Just a few months ago I had someone puke next to me, and I didn't panic. I am really proud with how far I have come

However, I am back now because I believe that my period hormones might be triggering anxiety in me? For the past 4 days of my period, I have been in a constant state of anxiety. I don't exactly have anything to be that nervous about right now, other than being at a semi new job—which did give me a great deal of anxiety for the first week of it—but now a month later I have relaxed about it, until now.

I wake up with that tingly gross nervous feeling in my chest and stomach, the butterflies, and I have a hard time eating all day so as a result I have lost a lot of weight in a short time. I want to lose weight, but not in an unhealthy way such as this. But this nervous feeling has been lasting all day, only easing up a little bit when I get home from work and allowing me to eat dinner and get some food in.

Oh, and I've been pooping a lot as a result, since I am a nervous pooper. Which sucks when you are at work and have to go to the bathroom every hour or less, and your coworkers are asking if you are alright. I don't want to be like "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just pooping 89375936 times in a day because I am dealing with anxiety."

The only other thing I can think of that would be causing this is that there is a guy at work who I am interested in, and he seems like he might be interested back, which would make me nervous since I always tend to mess things up when there might be a chance. Just by being nervous and putting my foot in my mouth or acting awkward and making him less interested.

But anyways, could it be my menstrual cycle triggering such bad anxiety in me? Because I feel like even if I was nervous about this guy, it wouldn't be this bad. Especially not on days where he isn't even working and there isn't a chance of seeing him.

[Lisah34]

Id say it could be. I have pcos and my anxiety is awful 90% of the time. Id speak to your dr.

[claire]

hi! I have anxiety during and after my period which lasts about a week or two. Combined with very short cycles so it's no fun at all!
The rest of the time I'm fine so I'm thinking it's probably PMDD (and PCOS) and the doctor has agreed with me although they can't tell me why I'd feel worse at the end of my period . It's most likely down to fluctuating hormones. I believe people with PCOS have a rough time with progesterone and this increases during and after your period. I'm putting it down to that. I considered birth control pills to stabilise but I thought that I might aswell go in at the deep end and start zoloft (sertraline) instead as it's equally as good for anxiety and pmdd. I'm taking my first one at the weekend. The only problem is it can upset your stomach at first so maybe stock up on some loperamide!
You could ask your doctor to check your hormone levels and thyroid too.