It's hard to imagine a joke more cruel than postpartum mood disorder:
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: #000000;">Nine months of excited anticipation centred around the joy of a new baby</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: #000000;">BUT </span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: #000000;"> instead you experience a full-frontal attack of depression, anxiety, OCD, intolerable mood swings or at its worst - psychosis!</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">And perhaps the worst part is that you don't even realize at first that you have something that's not only a<em> <strong>treatable condition, but possibly a preventable one!  </strong></em></span><em><strong>Yes I actually used the word preventable and postpartum mood disorder in the same sentence.</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">I know some readers may scoff, if it was preventable wouldn't doctors be preventing it by now?!   Let me explain.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Dr. Katharina Dalton, MD studied postnatal depression in England for 30+ years and linked postpartum mood disorders to a progesterone deficiency and treated her patients with........ prevention!<strong><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">She prevented the onset of postpartum mood disorder by administering progesterone immediately after delivery. Supplementation would be continued on an as-needed basis after that - and is perfectly safe while breast feeding, according to Dr. Dalton. In fact, Dr. Dalton asserted that "progesterone enhances lactation, which is an additional bonus."</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Although Dr. Dalton made it her mission to re-educate the medical community, apparently some doctors found her approach controversial.  So those doctors freely prescribe anti-depressants to new mothers who are reluctant to take medication.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Postpartum mood disorder is such a cruel joke, but the way it is viewed today is equally cruel.  I recently read a statistic that 50% of women who suffer from PPMD don't seek help because they are afraid that they will be put on medication.  Whether that's the true number or not, I do know that the fear exists because I have been on forums where women are talking about anti-depressants being the only option doctors are offering and they are resistant.   So it makes me wonder if they had a doctor who gave them the option of attempting to balance their hormones first and then turn to anti-depressants if that didn't achieve the desired success - what would a woman choose?  (And yes please comment - I'd love to hear your thoughts)</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">There are times when I think back that I still can't wrap my head around what happened to me.  But I am sure that the work of Dr. Dalton must have found it's way through some interesting pathway to my AMAZING Ob/Gyn who successfully treated my PPMD with bioidentical progesterone when my family doctor only offered anti-depressants.  My own PPMD would have been prevented in fact.  My Ob/Gyn did give me a prescription for bioidentical progesterone to take to the hospital and start using right away.  The issue was the dose was too low and I had a misconception about PPMD....as it turns out I had anxiety but I thought postpartum depression was only about depresssion so never sought a higher prescription.  That's a story for another day....</p>
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