Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Breaking Your Cycle series for natural hormone healing, to ease pain, boost energy, and create happy menstrual cycles. This is your straight up resource with practical advice for hormone healing that'll take you one step closer to relieving your hormone woes. So before we begin, let's make a deal to commit to taking just one action after you watch this interview. I'm your host Nicholas Smith, and today I'm joined by a special guest, Jess Fleming. Jess is a nutritional therapist and an M-B-H-W-C Board certified integrative menstrual health educator and coach, who is also the founder of her mood mentor at Virtual Premenstrual Clinic. Hello, Jess. Welcome. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hello, Nicola. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
No problem. I'm so excited about this episode. But before we get into that, I would love if you could share a little bit about your story or background and what led you to focus on PMDD?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
It really was a twist of faith to move into this practitioner space. Based on my own experience, like we said, so many of us are led into our passions through our experience. And I was living for 17 years, undiagnosed and misdiagnosed with what I now know was PMDD or premenstrual Dysphoric disorder. And during that time I was misdiagnosed as bipolar. I was treated with antipsychotics as a teenager. There was a lot of trauma that came along with the experience of not knowing what was happening with me and then not being able to access treatment that moved the needle. Many of the treatments for me made things worse. And unfortunately in 2017 I hit a rock bottom where it was really like I cannot continue to live like this. Suicidal ideation is a big part of the PMDD profile. And so I was really at a crossroads of like, can I continue being here or can I find a different way forward?
(02:13):
And I'm so grateful every day that I tried again and moved into the path of integrative menstrual health. This was 2017. So if you remember, this was a huge menstrual health movement period of time. And luckily there was a lot more adequate reproductive health education coming out during that period. And I finally discovered PMDD after years of going to gynecologists and counselors and psychiatrists and on and on trying to figure out do I have a personality disorder? Do I have a mood disorder? What is going on? But no one ever talked about PMDD, even when I said, Hey, this is extreme PMS, there was really just nothing. So after I discovered what PMDD was and sought out a formal diagnosis and received the formal diagnosis, I was then offered the same exact treatments that I had been offered for the previous 17 years, which was crushing because I felt very hopeless.
(03:13):
And luckily, like I said, it was 2017, so there was more education around the menstrual cycle. And I started to dive into that and really equip myself with a different perspective and new tools. And within three months on that path, Nicola, I had my first symptom-free period. My period came, I didn't quit a job, I didn't destroy my relationships. I didn't move states, countries, I just got my period. And it was beautiful and also crushing at the same time because it's one of those experiences where you don't know how sick you were until you feel better. So on the one hand, I felt so much better. It was just a miracle in ways. But then on the other hand, it was like, wow, this is why people my age are married and have doctorate degrees and children and function in society where I couldn't get out of bed for two weeks each menstrual cycle.
(04:08):
So at that point was really when I said, okay, I to, I think it was a part of my trauma processing of I'm going to now turn my pain into my purpose and I'm going to help others. Because if I can shorten the window for someone from 17 years to 10 years or five years, or if I can help them get back one or two or three days of their quality of life each menstrual cycle, somehow it will help me feel like what I went through was worth it. And it is so beautiful to see that now playing out and see women reclaim their lives from these symptoms when they felt just as hopeless as I did. So
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Been a
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Journey
(04:51):
That's really powerful. It's kind of bittersweet because you had the initiative to take your health and matters into your own hands. Then you getting in the answers that you always kind of knew that something was wrong, but then it's kind of like, wow, all so much time has passed and because of that I've missed out on X, Y, Z. But you've turned it around and turned your pain into passion and that's incredible. So well done to you, Jess. That's amazing. So just diving in on PNDD, that'd be a good place to start with what is PMDD and how does it differ from PMS? Because a lot of people use those two interchange people. They're actually not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
They're absolutely not. A lot of times it's described as really bad PMS, and I think that that's okay because it's true, but it can trivialize the PMDD experience because the severity is very intense. So we'll go through, I have four differences that I think really set apart PMS from PMDD. But first let's talk a little bit about what PMDD is. So PMDD stands for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. And if you've ever Googled the term dysphoric and you've lived with this experience of PMDD, your jaw will just drop to the floor because dysphoric is basically the opposite of euphoria,
(06:23):
And that's what it feels like. It's just this complete void that sucks all of the joy out of your life. And it took me a while after the diagnosis to Google like, well, what does dysphoria really mean? What is the definition? And when I googled it, I was like, oh my gosh, yes. They named this so perfectly. Yes. So PMDD is believed to be a hormonal, well, it's a hormonal mood disorder, but it's believed to be caused, and we'll get into some other causes in a little bit, but to believed to be caused by a sensitivity to the natural fluctuations of hormones in the brain. And some of the core symptoms of PMDD are going to be mood and emotional dysregulation, irritability, anger and rage is a really big part of the experience, which leads to interpersonal conflicts, symptoms of depression, hopelessness, feeling guilt and shame, feeling completely worthless.
(07:28):
And having an increased sensitivity to rejection is very much part of the experience. Anxiety, tension, feeling out of control, easily overwhelmed, and experiencing an intense kind of onslaught of automatic negative thoughts about yourself, about your life, about the people in your life is a part of the experience. But it also includes physical symptoms, which I feel like not every person experiences, but I also feel like the physical symptoms kind of aren't talked about enough, and the physical symptoms can be very severe. So breast swelling and tenderness, when I was at the height of my symptoms, I had to have two different sizes of bras because my breasts would swell and be so tender and then I would have to wear two brass.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Sorry, is that throughout the whole cycle? Is that
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yep, great question. So PMDD is only, the symptoms are only present primarily during the luteal phase. They have identified three subtypes where sometimes symptoms are lasting into the menstrual phase a little bit. But in order to receive a diagnosis for PMDD, these symptoms have to be present the majority of your menstrual cycles, and you have to have at least five of those core psychological symptoms that I've listed. And those symptoms have to be presenting at least in the week before your period. But the luteal phase can be as 14, 16 days long. So the symptoms could be presenting for that entire period of time, and that was the case for me. And then the symptoms have to alleviate upon menstruation or soon after for it to fall into the PMDD category because it is a hormone related mood disorder and it follows the menstrual cycle. So that is a huge benefit because as you're trying to delineate, am I experiencing bipolar disorder? Am I experiencing, is it a DHD? You can do a process to determine when the symptoms are presenting to help you sort some of that out. But back to those physical symptoms, bloating is another major one, fatigue, whether it be oftentimes where you're just extreme fatigue, but you can also be experiencing insomnia, brain fog, muscle and joint pain is really common as well as changes in your appetite, whether it be craving binging or a complete loss of appetite, and then difficulty concentrating on other more physical symptoms that we're experiencing with PMDD. So it's intense and it's consuming.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, I'm listening to it. I'm like, wow, I can see why they've named it what it's named, because that is a whole host of intense symptoms going on, a lot of them at the same time. Yeah. Wow. I'm blown away. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (10:22):
It's not fun. It's not fun. It can be a very dark experience, but I hope that through this conversation, those listening can feel a lot more hopeful about it because there's so much hope. I mean, I've been there, I've been in the hopeless depths, but working with thousands of women over the last six years, it's just been so wild to see how resilient we are and how much the body does want to heal.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
So just thinking about root causes then, what do we currently know about the root causes of PMDD, the symptoms that you've listed? There's a whole host of different systems that could bodily systems that come into play. So from your hormones to brain chemistry, what do we know about the root causes if we do know the root cause?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, so there are some clues that we have so far around PMDD and root causes. One is a genetic factor, just like with anything else, there are family and twins studies that show a 30 to 80%, which is a wide range heritability with PMDD, but we also know epigenetics is real too. So just because you have this, one of the most common genes that they have identified in being linked to pm, DD is the SR one gene. Just because you have a mutation in that gene or polymorphism in that gene doesn't mean you're going to have experienced PMDD. There are a lot of environmental factors that can impact the expression of that gene, but other genes have been investigated as well that have shown a link, including genes that are related to serotonin, dopamine and BDNF. So more research I think will be coming in that area. But I also think it can be hard to run a genetic test and be like, oh, well that's why. And then just kind of roll over and think there's nothing you can do about it when there's so much you can do. So
(12:28):
That's my caveat there. There's also been shown in the research kind of can fall into the root cause category here is that sensitivity to the normal fluctuation of the hormones, and it's specifically a metabolite of progesterone called allopregnanolone, which is a neurosteroid, and this impacts your gabaa receptor function, which contribute to those mood symptoms like irritability, mood swings, and anxiety. So we have seen that in the research. We also know that estrogen plays a role. So while it's not so many things, so many things, I know it comes back to, while it's not believed to be a hormone imbalance, I think there's more nuance there. And especially as we're postpartum, as we're perimenopausal, when we're weaning, when estrogen is low, we often see an uptick in these types of symptoms that could fall into the PMDD category. And so just sex hormones, other hormones can be playing a role.
(13:35):
And then something else really interesting that I don't think is discussed enough is what we've seen in the researcher around our stress response system, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal access. We see a dysregulation in that with women who are experiencing reproductive mood disorders and severe premenstrual symptoms, and there's a big link between trauma and early life trauma and these symptoms. And there's also a big link between neurodivergence as well. So again, lots going on here, lots of things to point to, which is a good thing because it means we have a lot of options to work to support the symptoms, and none of these are telling us there's nothing you can do about it just because these are some of the root causes.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's a really great point. That's so interesting, the link between the HPA axis and PMTD. With all that being said, because so much there, what do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions then about PMDD that you'd like to clear up?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah. Well, one of them I kind of already said, which is just that I see people in my comments and dms and in the community saying, well, this is just a sensitivity that my brain is having, so there's kind of nothing I can do about it. That's a big misconception. There's always things we can do. Symptoms are messages from your body telling us things that are going on inside. And the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2015 rated the menstrual cycle as the fifth vital sign, which I'm sure that Nicola and that is telling us that these symptoms are right up there with our body temperature, our respiratory rate, our heart rate. That's telling us a lot about the health of our overall body and the function of our organs. And so these symptoms aren't something to just be like, well, too bad I just have to white knuckle it and this is how it's going to be.
(15:34):
No, we really need to listen to what those symptoms are telling us and work to improve our menstrual health so that we can improve our overall health. Another misconception that I see a lot which kind of ties into that is just like, oh, well, I have a period and I'm supposed to be in pain and suffer and have these, I think there's a lot of course in culture, there's a lot of jokes and a lot of stigma and things like that around menstruation. And we did not evolve to suffer because we can create life just like, no, that's a hard stop. If you're suffering because of your menstrual cycle, something needs to be done about it. And another misconception that I see and hear a lot often too is that, well, we only have two treatment options. You can take an SSRI and antidepressant or you can take birth control because those are the two primary first and second line treatments offered by conventional medicine. And those are not your only options. And those don't work for everyone. They can be lifesaving for many, but they can make symptoms worse for others, or the side effects can be intolerable, or people have other health conditions where they can't take those medications. So feeling like you only have two treatment options, again, really leads to nowhere and is hopeless for a lot of us, and it's just not the truth.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, that's such a great point because I feel like of recent, I've met a lot of women who are taking medications and they don't actually want to, because as you said, a lot of the times it's making symptoms worse and they actually want another route, another way. And this is why this conversation is just so powerful and why I'm so glad to have you here. So just touching on different approaches, another route, another way, how can nutrition help with PMDD symptoms? Are there any specific foods or nutrients that can really support to bring back that hormone balance and that mood stability?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Oh my goodness, yes, Nicole, this is one of my favorite topics. I mean, I'm biased. Let me just wave my flag here. I am a nutritional therapist, and I added that credential into my practice last year. It was like a year long process to do that, but I realized through working, it was about a little over four years that I was working with a community and I taught basic nutrition. That was a part of my coaching process, but I realized I was really doing a disservice to the community by not bringing more around that topic because it is so it a complete non-negotiable. Food is everything, digestion is everything as well. Those go together. But food can do so much for us. It's foundational to our health, to our menstrual cycles. There are so many nutrients that play a huge role, and there's a lot of, unfortunately, nutrient deficiencies, mineral deficiencies going on because of soil degradation, because of mono crop agriculture, because of chemicals that are being used, especially in the United States. It's better in Europe, but there's a lot adjacent to the food that's related to the food that's playing a role as well. And so there's so much
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Of our control as well, that part.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah,
(19:13):
And like I said, some of those symptoms with PMDD, and especially if you're experiencing a comorbidity with A DHD or any neurodivergence, the food piece is going to be an added challenge. So a lot that I see with my clients and my students are macronutrient deficiencies. So they're eating a lot of carbohydrates, which we're craving and we need more of during the luteal phase to keep that blood sugar balanced. But they're eating bio of unavailable forms of protein or not enough protein. And protein is key for the synthesis of neurotransmitters. And so many functions in our body, those feel good chemicals in our brain. So one of the just quick and easy tips that I would give here is making sure you're hitting protein goals. We need 75 minimum grams of protein per day. If you're more active, you are going to be needing closer to 100 grams of protein.
(20:07):
And to put that into perspective, one egg has six grams of protein, and some of my clients are coming to me and they're eating one egg in the morning, and we need 25, 30 grams of protein in the morning to keep our blood sugar stables. So there's a lot we can do with nutrients, and it really comes back to a lack of education about the female body and what we need. Minerals are also huge. I am big on running hair tissue mineral analysis labs for clients, and we learn so much about the physiology of their function, their body function, and that's something else I see is a lack of sodium, potassium, magnesium, all of these minerals that are playing a huge role in our moods and how we feel our detox and drainage pathways is huge. And then just basic micronutrient intake, those things are going to be stripped from foods that we're eating. Any kind of processed foods, any kind of food that's coming from mono crop agriculture are going to be lower in micronutrients. And those micronutrients are foundational to the creation and metabolism of hormones. So really working on getting them replenishing those micronutrients, things like B six, some of those minerals.
(21:24):
So I had a client the other day and she was just like, I'm trying to get everyone to take a multivitamin now because I feel better than I ever did when I was on antidepressants. And of course, we're using a specific supplement regimen that's targeted to her body and her needs, but she's blown away by how impactful it has been for her in the day to day. And again, these are just nutrients. It's wild, but they're powerful, simple things
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Like that that it's kind of been stripped and stolen from us, but when we incorporate that back into our lives, it's actually amazing. I'm with you and nutrition. I'm biased. It's incredible. It's the foundation to everything because if that isn't right, there's no point layering anything else on top of that because it's just not going to work. So you touched on it actually, but I just wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the role of gut health and how that plays a role within PMDD. What relief of PMDD symptoms?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, so our digestive function again is foundational because it's how we're utilizing and assimilating those nutrients from the food to be able to do the functions that our body needs to do to help us feel healthy and alive. And something that I think is overlooked when it comes to PMS and PMM DD symptoms is that these are a consequence of other body functions being out of alignment and other hormones being out of alignment. Because a healthy menstrual cycle is the cherry on top of your milkshake. You don't need it. And actually in some cases, it's going to be detrimental if we're in wartime or famine, it's unsafe for you to conceive a child that's that's not healthy for you and safe for you to do in that time. So your body has adaptive mechanisms to start to shut sex hormone function down to protect you. So if we're experiencing some of these symptoms, we really have to zoom out and see, okay, what else is going on that is resulting in some of the sex hormone dysfunction? And I mean, the gut is just like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, right? Part of our nervous system is in the gut. That's why we have that saying of what's your gut telling you? It actually tells you things and it is connected
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Even when you are feeling like stressed or you have some sort of anxiety, you literally feel it in your gut.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, it's tied into our nervous system. So it's that everything is connected. And I think that's such a beautiful realization when you really get into any kind of healing journey is that your body is always trying to protect you. And when it comes to digestion, if you're living in a really stressed state, or if you have HPA access dysregulation, which we see with PMDD your body, it's not going to prioritize digestion. It's going to prioritize running from the threat. So it's going to impact how you're digesting your food, the nutrients that you're absorbing from your food. And also the gut produces several of our neurotransmitters, including serotonin, dopamine, gaba, glutamate, which play a crucial role in various body functions, especially your mood. We're talking about PMDD here, your immune responses, and more than 90% of serotonin, as we know is synthesized in the gut. So it's also one of our primary detox and drainage pathways, which is key for hormone regulation.
(25:02):
Like Nicole, you poop out estrogen. That's how you get it out of your system. And so a lot of my clients are coming to me constipated, and it's like, this is problematic because your body has already gone through phase one, phase two detoxification, and it has broken that estrogen down into a free radical, and if it's not moved out, it's going to be reabsorbed back into your bloodstream and causing a lot of negative symptoms. So we have to look at digestion from top to bottom. Digestion starts in the brain, and so we really have to, it's just again, another non-negotiable for PMDD and something that ties in with digestion here too, and with nutrition that I see a lot with clients and students, that's problematic. Is there food frequency when you're going really long periods of time in between eating, it starts to move you into a fasted state. It disregulates the blood sugar. So a lot of digestion too also comes back to using digestion and using food to regulate your nervous system, which is so key for PMDD and again, something that very few of us are talking about in the space.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. There is a big fasting culture at the moment. Everyone seems to be fasting, but not everyone should fast depending on where they are in their health journey. I just want to touch on the nervous system a little bit. What are some of the ways that people can help support that nervous system health if they're experiencing PMDD?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
There are so many ways, and of course there's a lot of different nervous system regulation techniques, somatic experiencing, breath work, all sorts of vagal toning that you can do with exercises. But I really like to just start with the basics. If you are not keeping your blood sugar regulated, you will not have a regulated nervous system end of story. So I see a lot of clients jumping to these really time consuming practices to regulate their nervous system, but then they're not working on food frequency. They're not working on macronutrient balance, they're not working on micronutrient balance. And again, bias, nutritional therapist talking here, but yeah, right. I'm waving my flag, I'm being totally honest, but you can't regulate your nervous system if your blood sugar isn't regulated. So starting with some of those foundations is so important. And something else I think here too that isn't talked about enough when it comes to nervous system regulation is our light environment can be very stressful.
(27:47):
I mean, a huge study just came out, shocking study. There were over 89,000 participants in this study linking our light environment and blue light exposure to mood disorders. And we see that how it impacts the menstrual cycle in research as well. So we're all spending all this time sedentary on our screens. We're not going outside. This is impacting all of our hormone production from the top down with the sex hormones being the last to be impacted or in some ways the first to be impacted because not as important, but it needs to be addressed. And again, that's more actionable, I think, for people than spend 20 minutes a day meditating or 40 minutes a day doing these vagal toning exercises. Again, amazing, important, great things to do. But I think there's a sequencing to making these changes where if you ticked off some of those foundational boxes first when you bring those nervous system regulation tools in, they're going to be so much more effective and also so much easier for you to do because you're already in a more regulated state.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, there's definitely a process with focusing on, like you said, that foundation, the nutrition, the blood sugar balancing first, and then introducing those things along the way. You touched on blue light, which is great because I did actually want to pick your brain on, because how sleep can impact PMDD, because as we know, blue light affects our ability to sleep, but this is why we're all on the phone scrolling, scrolling, scrolling at night and not being able to get some shuteye.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yes, it's huge. It's huge. And it's so exciting to see this burgeoning quantum biology field that's really rooted in the sleep science and the light biology science. It's so cool. It's such a cool time to be in the health space. But yeah, sleep is non-negotiable. It's how we detoxify. It's when we detoxify, it's when we recover. It again has to be prioritized, and I think it can be tough in different phases of life, telling a mother of a young child to just sleep more, like not super helpful advice. These annoying actually and annoying. So some of these more actionable steps like changing your light environment, if you're indoors a lot to mimic a more outdoor natural light environment can be helpful using blue light blockers. And for those of you that can work more on some sleep hygiene aspects, a sleep wake schedule is really important.
(30:43):
But even if you can't work on a sleep wake schedule, you can work on the temperature of your room. You can work on getting off your phone a couple or a few hours or screens before bed, or if you're going to be on screens again, you can use filters on your devices or you can use blue light blockers. You can work on your mineral balance, which is going to help you sleep better. You can work on your nutrition, which will help you sleep better. You can work on movement practices which are going to also support sleep. So again, all these areas are connected and fuel and feed on each other, which is so positive because the experience is so negative. But when you realize you can go on a downward spiral real quick, right, like whoop, and there you are, but you can also go on an upward spiral real quick when you have the education and you have some support in doing that. So there's a lot that you can do when it comes to sleep, a lot that you can do in other areas, movement, stress management, your exposure to environmental chemicals. And it's almost overwhelming because you start out and you're like, you can take birth control or you can take an antidepressant
(31:57):
In this realm of medicine, in conventional medicine, and then you come over to integrative or traditional medicine and it's like, there are 10,000 things you can do. What do you want to do? It's like, whoa. Oh gosh. Can we just find a middle ground?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
The bottom line is there's hope. There is hope. This has been amazing, Jess. Thank you so much. My final question, if someone is struggling with PMDD symptoms, what is one single action that they can start with today? I think I have a feeling about what you're going to say.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Well, what I'm going to say here, I'm curious if it lines up with what you're thinking, but it is what I call mapping. And a lot of us do cycle tracking. We have an app, we say, my period started, it stopped. Maybe we record how heavy it was or some of our symptoms on there, but it's generally pretty concise. It's not very detailed. It's also not visual. So A DHD brain here got to work with me on that, but I love a visual. So we created a process for you where you're going in and you're creating a graph throughout the month or throughout your menstrual cycle of your symptoms, and it creates a visual format for you that shows, okay, mild, moderate, severe, how were my symptoms throughout each of the four phases of my menstrual cycle if I'm cycling naturally. And that starts to reveal a pattern for you.
(33:30):
And like we said before, PMDD is predictable. It follows the menstrual cycle. And so once you do that for two to three months, you can identify your symptom pattern, and once you identify your symptom pattern, you can start to target those symptoms. And each symptom is going to be giving you different information about a different body system, about different things that you can support. If you come to me and you say, I'm constipated, versus you come to me and you say, I am having rage. Those are two different symptom profiles that are pointing me to two different types of protocols and questions that I'm going to ask you. So getting that information for yourself is really important. It also is like a SAV to the wound because instead of feeling like you're crazy, like you're losing your mind, you see, oh, here's this pattern. This doesn't have anything to do with who I am as a person, my worth as a person.
(34:26):
This is a predictable pattern where I'm having these moderate to severe mood symptoms like clockwork, and that really starts to create some distance within the experience between the symptoms and yourself. And it's hard to move forward without doing that first, you can't get a diagnosis for PMDD first of all, but you can't really start to be prepared to do the work if you're feeling broken and flawed as a human being and you're not able to see this cyclical nature of the experience because it's so consuming and that's what happens. But the symptom mapping process allows you to start to parse that out.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
That sounds absolutely incredible. With that being said, do you want to share the freebie?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
The freebie is the symptom mapping kit Nicola? Yeah. So we have a symptom mapping kit for you in there. You're going to learn a lot more about P-M-S-P-M-D-D symptoms. You're going to learn testing that I recommend blood serum lab testing as well as functional labs that I run and recommend for people to consider depending on what their symptoms are. And then we have a way for you to do this, or if you're more analog, a pen and paper old fashioned way that you can do this. Again, it is a lot of information that you're collecting, but if you can do this for at least two to three months, it's not something you have to do forever. It gives you that foundation to either pursue a diagnosis, start to target your symptom pattern, and it also is a really great communication tool for those around you. A lot of my clients use this as a way to show their partners what's happening, and it's just so powerful to learn more about yourself and your body. And this tool can help you do that and it's free. So definitely grab it if you feel like it would be helpful for you.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yes, absolutely grab that. It'll be available by the link below this video. Just a quick question on that. So is this something that people, women can take fill in it out for two to three months and then they can take it to their doctors, their healthcare providers and be like, look, this is my symptoms, my symptom pattern over the past two to three months?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Yes. That's another, I didn't point that out, so thanks for bringing that up. That's one of the main reasons that we have the resource is because it helps you advocate for yourself better in a physician's office if you're seeking a diagnosis, you actually have to have that data, and that's a very.
