Charlie, 34, initially put her low mood down to lockdown, losing her job and having a baby – but eventually received a PMDD diagnosis after five years of misery. “I was so snappy with my husband,” she says. “I’d start arguments but not know why. I [wouldn’t be] interested in anything intimate. Then a week later I would feel more human again. I knew it was something more than just postnatal depression. It was after my son turned one that I really thought something wasn’t right with me.

“I went back to the doctors and explained that I’d been tracking my moods with my cycle. I presented them with the evidence. When the doctor said I had PMDD, he said it would be something that would affect me until menopause. I felt relieved because it meant I had answers and I think giving my symptoms a name made me feel less alone, as I knew other people were suffering too.”

While Charlie recognises herself as the “instigator” in her domestic disputes, she says, “I know that sometimes my husband isn’t the victim.” PMS is a term used both medically and societally as a way to explain – or dismiss – a woman’s volatile mood or behaviour. It’s normal for women to feel tearful a day or two before bleeding, perhaps overreact at minor incidences – a biological fact that cannot be ignored. But there is a danger of cementing misogyny, by anchoring ‘hysterical’ behaviour to PMS, or even to having a uterus, when there are legitimate feelings or concerns at play.

“I want to divorce my husband every month”: the impact of PMDD on romantic relationships