The study shows that turning off ovarian hormones with a GnRH agonist (leuprolide) stops the mood and physical swings of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). When estrogen or progesterone is added back, the symptoms return, especially irritability and mood swings with progesterone. Healthy women don’t develop these symptoms when the same hormones are added back.

The authors previously demonstrated that symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) remit during ovarian hormone suppression and recur after estradiol or progesterone is reintroduced (addback). In this study, using a substantially expanded sample, they aimed to 1) evaluate the specific contributions of estradiol and progesterone to symptom development, 2) analyze physical symptoms related to ovarian hormones, 3) identify differences between women with PMDD who experienced continued symptom remission and those who experienced symptom recurrence during hormone addback, and 4) determine whether change in hormone levels from baseline to addback is associated with PMDD symptom severity. Thirty-four women with PMDD (10 from the original cohort) and 76 healthy participants (15 from the original cohort) completed a daily rating form during three hormone conditions: ovarian suppression induced by the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist leuprolide, leuprolide+estradiol addback, and leuprolide+progesterone addback. Affective and somatic symptom scores during the last 8 of 12 weeks of leuprolide alone were compared with scores during the first 4 weeks of estradiol addback and the first 4 weeks of progesterone addback. For affective symptoms (anxiety, sadness, irritability, mood swings), there were significant main effects of diagnosis and diagnosis-by-hormone interactions, reflecting a significant increase in symptom severity scores during estradiol addback and progesterone addback compared with leuprolide treatment alone. Compared to healthy comparison participants, women with PMDD had significantly higher symptom scores during each addback. With regard to physical symptoms, bloating and food cravings showed greater severity in women with PMDD regardless of hormone conditions, whereas breast pain increased in severity during estradiol addback compared with leuprolide alone and progesterone. The study confirmed that ovarian suppression in women with PMDD eliminated symptom cyclicity, and that symptoms emerged during ovarian steroid addback in women with PMDD but not in healthy comparison women. In PMDD, irritability and mood swings are tied more closely to progesterone than estradiol. Despite the replication of this hormone-related behavioral phenotype in PMDD, the mechanisms underlying the presumed alteration in steroid signaling require further characterization.