I’ve just had the best period of my life. That’s not a sentence I ever thought I’d be able to write. In fact, it’s probably something few can say, given how many of us live with chronic menstrual conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis. In my case, however, living with premenstrual exacerbation (PME) has been like living with a monthly curse.

I was informally diagnosed with PME by a former trauma therapist in 2018. It’s a condition in which people with pre-existing mental health issues experience exacerbated symptoms during and in the run-up to menstruation. Having lived with conditions such as borderline personality disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and recurrent depression since early adolescence, my symptoms of emotional instability, insomnia, brain fog, anxiety and panic attacks have usually escalated to a debilitating extent in the weeks before and during my period.