'Periods nearly cost me my education'

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By Jane Elliott Health reporter, BBC News

Michelle would be unable to control her rages

Every month, Michelle Barker would miss a couple of days of university because of her period.

And every month, for up to 10 days before her period, she would be angry, anxious or depressed.

Her attendance got so bad that her tutors were worried she was not capable of completing the course and warned her she would be asked to leave.

Michelle, aged 23, from the Rhondda Valley, said nobody seemed to understand how serious her condition could be.

Mood swings

"I get very depressed. I get bursts of anger and can go from being extremely happy to very tense," she said.

"Everything winds me up and I have no patience. Then I will start crying and then I will go back to anger.

They are like, 'It is just a bit of cramp - get over it.' They have no idea Michelle Barker

"My emotional symptoms can appear 10 days before my period.

"I suffer insomnia, anxiety, appetite changes, depression, crying for no reason, anger or tension, paranoia feeling that everyone hates me and a lack of concentration.

"When my period arrives the emotional symptoms calm down a lot. I then suffer very bad cramps that confine me to my bed for about two to three days.

"I cannot eat, walk or do anything but lie in bed for the time this happens. I also vomit 99% of the time with these cramps so keeping painkillers down is nearly impossible for me to do.

"On top of the vomiting, I get extreme hot and sometimes cold flushes along with pins and needles in my arms and legs.

"I often feel like I am going to faint with the pain when it comes.

"I don't feel that people take it seriously. I think they think it is just something I have to get over.

"They say, 'It's just a bit of cramp - get over it.' They have no idea."

'All too common'

Nick Panay, a consultant gynaecologist and chairman of the National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome, said: "Michelle's case is an extremely common scenario - all too common.

"It is a battle we are constantly fighting to get PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome) the recognition that it deserves.

"The difficulty has been that mild PMS symptoms are often confused with the severe symptoms that can affect someone's quality of life.

"As a clinician we often hear how people have been pushed from pillar to post by professionals, who to be fair haven't received the training to manage patients with PMS and don't know what to do with them."

PMS can leave sufferers depressed

In the meantime Michelle is trying to cope with her symptoms and has managed to keep her university place.

"I had missed time when I was moody or in bed with cramps.

"I had to talk to the head of my department about it. I really had to beg him so hard to let me stay."

Need for understanding

Michelle said her doctor had offered her the contraceptive pill to help combat her mood swings and painkillers to cope with her nausea - but neither had worked.

"My doctor also prescribed anti-depressants to me in the past at a low dosage, but I refused to take them.

"I do not want to become addicted to or dependent on them either so I avoided them. I don't believe taking them is healthy or the answer to my problems.

"I am not depressed. If I was, I would feel down all the time regardless of my periods. I don't feel down all the time.

"For two weeks a month I am extremely happy and what I describe as 'feeling perfectly sane'. And why should I pump myself with pills?"

She added: "I just want more understanding. I hate having to explain it to my new lecturers every year.

"I do not want to have to talk about it with them, and it is especially difficult when they are a male tutor."

Jackie Howe, of the National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome, agreed: "PMS is a devastating experience for many thousands of women throughout the year; current estimates are that there are 800,000 severe sufferers in the UK."