April 2018 Declared PMDD Awareness Month

A global awareness campaign will kick off this April for a little known but debilitating genetic condition called PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder). PMDD impacts 1 in 20 people with periods, a staggering 60 million worldwide, and leads 15% of sufferers to attempt suicide to escape the relentless emotional and physical pain.

PMDD is a cyclical, hormone-based mood disorder that causes symptoms of extreme depression, breathless anxiety, unsolicited rage, mood swings, painful physical symptoms and more. It lasts for days to weeks on end in the premenstrual phase, every single month. April 2018 has been designated PMDD Awareness Month to raise awareness, reduce the stigma, and empower those fighting PMDD to be brave and talk openly about this deadly condition.

“This is a story whose time has come,” according to Amanda LaFleur, Co-Founder & Executive Director,Gia Allemand Foundation (now IAPMD), the leading association for PMDD. “It is the next wave in the reproductive rights movement. A groundswell of victims and activists around the world have begun to raise their voices and organize to fight for lack of awareness and understanding of PMDD and for respect and access to treatment options.”

This April, Gia Allemand Foundation will lead a coalition of organizations, including U.S.-based Me v PMDD and U.K.-based Vicious Cycle: Making PMDD Visible, focused on PMDD global awareness efforts. The theme for April is #1in20PMDD, based on the number of people with periods who suffer from this condition. A simple message, #PMDDShareGetCare will be used to engage the public in the awareness effort:

SHARE information about PMDD with your family, friend, classmate, colleague. You never know when they might be the “1” in 20.
GET informed, GET help and support, GET involved, GET the Me v PMDD symptom tracker app.
Take CARE of yourself if you have or think you may have PMDD, and know that there is a caring community of PMDD warriors, like Vicious Cycle: Making PMDD Visible, growing around the world.

Resources to support awareness-building are available on https://iapmd.org/pmdd-awareness-month, where visitors can also become a member (free or paid) to receive the latest updates in advocacy and research and add their voice to the women's reproductive and mental health movement.

“To most doctors and the general public, PMDD is invisible -- or worse yet, a figment of the female imagination,” according to LaFleur. “That’s why this campaign emphasizes simple acts that can have a huge impact and help reduce the stigma - such as simply talking openly about periods and symptoms.”

Although included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) for years, PMDD is often disregarded or misunderstood by doctors and non-sufferers. Stories about PMDD, often untold, are frequently dismissed as 'feminine concerns,' PMS, or plain weakness. At best, this leads to the underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of this serious reproductive health disorder. At worst, this lack of understanding leads to the very harmful ridicule and shaming of women suffering from PMDD.

Media Contact:

Sheila H. Buchert

Co-Founder & COO, Me v PMDD, Inc.

sheila.mevpmdd@gmail.com

727-421-1489

Organizational Contacts:

Amanda LaFleur

Co-Founder & Executive Director, Gia Allemand Foundation

media@iapmd.org

1-800-609-PMDD (7633)

Laura Murphy

Project Co-Founder/Director, Vicious Cycle