"Shalene Gupta deftly blends her own personal experiences with a meticulously researched history of how the medical establishment has understood (or failed to understand) PMDD through the years. An unflinching exploration of the stigma surrounding periods and mental health, and how we need far more support, research, and treatment options for conditions like PMDD that affect both."
— Karen Tang, MD, MPH, author of It's Not Hysteria

"As someone who also suffers from PMDD, I found that Gupta offers crucial information on this too often misunderstood and misdiagnosed medical condition. The Cycle reaffirms how critical it is to believe women and center the stories of women of color. Her book gives us permission to talk about having PMDD and the pain in our lives."
— Anushay Hossain, author of The Pain Gap

“A brilliant, deeply researched book about living with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) — something that too often is experienced as a shaming, quiet, and personal mystery in a society that is uncomfortable discussing periods or validating their significant medical and mental health impact. Gupta combines memoir and research flawlessly so that readers understand the profound personal impact of PMDD as well as the financial, interpersonal, and societal consequences. This is a critical addition to books about medical issues that are too often under-researched, undiagnosed, and stigmatizing to those who are suffering.”
—Michelle Bowdler, author of Is Rape a Crime?

2023-10-21
A well-informed look at a misunderstood disorder.

Journalist Gupta, who suffers from premenstrual dysphoric disorder, offers a close look at the medical, social, and psychological issues surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of menstrual disorders, with the hope that her findings will help the “3 to 8 percent of menstruators” who meet the criteria for this severe syndrome. Too often, she reports, “the never-ending loop of social stigma against menstruation” means that such disorders go untreated. Cultural prejudices and sexism within the medical system have led some women with PMDD—and even Gupta, at times—to doubt their experiences. Her own suffering—which included depression so severe that she became suicidal, as well as angry, violent fights with her boyfriends—persisted for over a decade before she received a diagnosis, and then she spent a year trying to find the proper medications that would alleviate the symptoms. Gupta provides an overview of the menstrual cycle and its effects on many women. Premenstrual syndrome, experienced by about 48% of women, is characterized by physical symptoms such as bloating and insomnia, as well as psychological symptoms such as mood swings and premenstrual mood exacerbation, in which preexisting psychological symptoms, such as depression, get worse during menstruation. Beginning in the 1980s, when little research on PMDD was available and it was often conflated with PMS, debate swirled over whether to include PMDD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Some medical practitioners were opposed, fearing that the diagnosis would victimize women by turning “a regular biological event into a mental disorder.” In 2013, it was finally included, and in 2019, the World Health Organization recognized PMDD as a diagnosis in its International Classification of Diseases. With ample evidence from her own life, Gupta ably depicts the reality and intensity of an affliction that rages into a monthly “emotional storm.”

An informative melding of memoir and research.