News From Girl World: Be a Bitch for Your Health, PMDD Relief, & CeraVe Lawsuits
- jennysmithmattfeldt
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
The health, wellness, and discovery stories the girls need to know.
Your unexpected PMDD medications.
The unexpected way to ease your PMDD symptoms might already be sitting in your medicine cabinet. As we gain more understanding of PMDD a unique little medicine combination has started to go viral on social media.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder in simple terms is a severe sensitivity to hormonal changes in the second half of your cycle (after ovulation, before your period.) It's not always that your hormones are wildly abnormal, it's that your brain reacts very strongly to the shifts in estrogen and progesterone. All of that to say it can increase rage, anxiety, and depression way more than the typical woman's luteal phase.
So where do antihistamines come in? Histamine is a chemical involved in allergies but also involved in inflammation, brain signaling, and hormone interactions. The growing theory is that in those with PMDD histamine levels may rise or the body becomes more sensitive to histamine during the luteal phase. Meaning that taking antihistamines could calm overstimulated brain signaling, reduce inflammation responses, and slightly dampen the intensity of anxiety. (Side note: it's also being theorized that this antihistamine combo could help soften the same symptoms of perimenopause.)
The key is a combo of H1 and H2 blockers. H1 being non drowsy allergy medicine like Claritin or Allegra, and H2 being acid reducers like Pepcid.
Be a bitch for your health, doctors orders.
For a long time, there's been a theory that autoimmune diseases in women show up more frequently in those who are people pleasers. Lately though, the conversation has shifted from simple question toward a more proven connection. Dr. Jolene Brighten stated in 2025, "Suppressing emotions, particularly anger, has been linked to increased stress, dysregulated immune function, and chronic inflammation, which may contribute to the development or worsening of autoimmune diseases."
Now, is it actually stagnant emotions manifesting into disease in the body? Or is it that pushing off your own needs leads to the subconscious belief that your health isn't a priority? Or perhaps it's simply the exhaustion of constantly holding it together? Whatever the true link is, I would encourage you to think about the women in your own life who have autoimmune disorders, are any of these attributes sounding familiar?
Does this mean you need to actually be a bitch to everyone who pisses you off? Technically, no. But the overarching idea is that you can't just keep shoving your anger down while internally deciding that your needs and preferences don't matter as much as those of the people around you. I don't care if it takes speaking up for yourself, going outside to throw shit, or simply carving out time to go do the things you actually want to. It's not a matter of being the "nice girl." It's about signaling to your own mind that you are worthy of taking up space, expressing your emotions, and being taken seriously.
What's in a name?
Women's health may be advancing slowly, but it's advancing nonetheless. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) was recently renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS).
At first glance it might seem like a small or unnecessary adjustment, but the hope is that the name change will lead to faster diagnosis and better support for women affected by the condition. It also helps spread awareness that ovarian cysts are only one piece of the puzzle, and for some women they aren't present at all.
If Twitter becoming X has taught us anything, it's that the way people refer to it probably won't even change (I have yet to hear it referred to as X in a casual conversation and they'll always be tweets.) What I do think this change will accomplish however, is reducing the automatic assumption that a woman must have polycystic ovaries to receive a diagnosis. While PMOS can absolutely present with ovarian cysts, the condition is a far more complex endocrine and metabolic disorder than its original name suggested.
Time to clean out the skincare shelf.
CeraVe, one of the most dermatologist recommended skincare brands in the world, is in the headlines after becoming involved in a lawsuit related to benzene. It's important to understand what's actually being alleged, the issue isn't with CeraVe's moisturizers or cleansers as a whole it's specifically tied to the benzoyl peroxide found in their acne products. Which when exposed to high temperatures, can break down and form benzene, a known cancer causing ingredient.
According to a report from Valisure, testing found benzene levels in some CeraVe acne cleansers that exceeded federally accepted limits (which is 2 parts per million or ppm) that certain products contained benzene levels ranging from 5 ppm to more than 12 ppm. If this whole trope sounds familiar, it's because it comes on the heels of the massive sunscreen recalls that began in 2021 after benzene was detected in 78 popular sunscreens.
The tough thing is effective acne products and non toxic classifications don't always go hand in hand (take this from an ex acne girl) but one alternative ingredient you can look for instead is salicylic acid. It's one of the most well studied over the counter acne ingredients available and remains incredibly effective for treating clogged pores and blackheads.
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