79 – ”I knew it wasn’t depression”: Jenny’s PMDD story
About this episode
Jenny Potkins shares her experience with PMDD and the misconceptions surrounding it.
For years, Jenny was wrongly told she had depression. She was prescribed antidepressants, saw multiple healthcare professionals and even underwent a hysterectomy, yet no one addressed the underlying hormonal changes driving her symptoms. In this powerful episode, Dr Louise Newson is joined by Jenny Potkins, who shares her deeply personal experience of living with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a severe hormone-related condition that can have a devastating impacts on mental and physical health. Jenny describes years of feeling dismissed, the toll PMDD has taken on her family, and why she is now campaigning to raise awareness so that other women don’t have to go through the same dreadful experience. Louise explains why PMDD is often misunderstood, how fluctuating hormone levels can affect the brain and the whole body, and why so many women are still often inappropriately prescribed antidepressants or encouraged to have surgery before natural hormones are even considered. Together, they discuss the importance of listening to women, recognising the cyclical nature of symptoms, and ensuring people have access to informed choice about hormone treatments. LET'S CONNECT 👉…
More episodes of The Dr Louise Newson Podcast
- 85 – Why being healthy feels so hard, and how to change it
- 86 – Why so many women stop feeling like themselves Elinor Wilde
- 83 – Why are women still leaving work because of their hormones?
- 82 – The hidden link between epilepsy and hormones
- 81 – The hormone confusion that’s affecting millions of women
- 80 – What if we’ve misunderstood hormones all along?
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