PATRICIA CONRAD M.D. Gynecologist 10 East 78^th Street, Suite 1 B, Just off 5^th Avenue New York City, New York, 10075 (212) 327-1152

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Menstrual Problems Irregular Periods PMS/PMDD Irregular Periods I am on my school's gymnastics team in the winter, and then I do track in the spring. I started having my periods four years ago. Everybody says eventually they will become regular, but so far, they haven't. I have had a couple of accidents in school already, when my period started unexpectedly and I had to go home and change clothes. We have these stupid white bodysuits for gymnastics, and I'm scared that one of these days my period is going to start and everybody is going to see it. Is there any way to make my periods become regular so I'll know when to expect them? It is normal during your teen years to have irregular periods for a while, but four years is somewhat of a long time for your body not to have started settling down. One way of regulating your periods is taking birth control pills. I don't recommend this for everyone. You would have to have a physical first, to see if there are any underlying problems that need to be fixed before considering this step. I am nineteen and my periods stopped six months ago. I know I'm not pregnant. Does this happen sometimes, or is something wrong? It's hard to tell, without examining you, what the problem might be. The main reason for periods stopping at your age, other than pregnancy, is anorexia. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have been intentionally starving yourself. There is such a thing as sports anorexia, which occurs when you exercise so much that you lose too much body fat for your body to work normally. You should schedule a physical to get to the heart of the matter. PMS/PMDD I have really bad PMS. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Right before my period my personality seems to change. Nothing I take seems to help. Can anything be done to stop it? PMS can be very debilitating. Research in recent years has shown that some women who have been thought to have been suffering from serious PMS have in fact had a somewhat different disease, called PMDD--premenstrual dysphoric disorder. PMDD has all the symptoms of PMS, except that it is so severe that it interferes with everyday living during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle (the week or two before your period). In women with PMDD, the regular medications for PMS don't work. A new medication called Sarafem was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of PMDD. It has the same molecular structure as Prozac, so your doctor may give you either one. Originally, it was thought that Sarafem, like Prozac, would be prescribed by psychiatrists, but gynecologists are now treating patients for PMDD as well as PMS.