North West Corrie star & model Helen Flanagan shares update on battle with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Greater Manchester actor and model Helen Flanagan, 34, has posted a video on Instagram explaining how she feels during the different stages of her period, following an increasingly popular social media trend.

Explaining that the condition makes her feel like she has ‘four personalities in one month and any boyfriend I’ve ever had knows how bad my PMDD can be’, Flanagan wrote that her sharing was inspired by Vicky Pattison, who also has PMDD, writing: 'We message sometimes about PMDD and I always love her posts on it and the awareness xxx’

Flanagan, who has been candid about her health struggles, revealing on the Full of Grace podcast she’d pleaded with doctors for medication to 'level her out', said that PMDD left her with ‘intense symptoms for roughly 10 days including severe depression, sadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, anxiety, and crippling OCD'.

On Instagram, she wrote: “The Luteal phase for me can be the very worst. I used to have very bad intense symptoms for about 10 days, severe depression - sadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, anxiety/ ocd- ocd so crippling I thought I was going mad, exhaustion, brain fog.

“Now I get about 4 days before my period where I don’t feel myself mentally. I also get severe bloating before my period where I can pass off at being pregnant.

“I also am always so desperate to come on my period as I know how much happier I will feel when I bleed and I will just feel more able to cope with anything life throws at me and feel I have my sanity back x.

“I had this from being about 16 but never really knew what it was x.

“I’ve been prescribed sertraline before for my PMDD but it didn’t work for me x (just sharing my personal experience here, we are all different and great if sertraline works for you) It just made me feel angry which isn't me at all.

“I then tried Yasmin the contraceptive pill to help control my pmdd and that really didn’t work for me (again great if it works for you I think we all react differently to things)

“It made me feel really sick ( I had hyperemesis gravidum in all pregnancies so very sensitive to hormones) and I just felt low on it and not myself.

“I also took medication for adhd for years, that I ended up being really poorly on so I was really put off medication so wanted to go though a more natural route as I didn't feel I had much choice x (also again if medication works for you, for some people it really does that’s great, just sharing personal experience) x.

“I did Cycle Syncing with my friend Grace which I absolutely loved I felt like I got such a better understanding of myself and my cycle and understanding the different stages helped me take more control back and worked out strategies.”

Flanagan has also spoken about the breakdown she suffered early last year which forced her to postpone her acting comeback as she pulled back from role as Miss Scarlett in the show Cluedo 2 after being 'advised to withdraw for medical reasons'.

She revealed on Instagram last March that she was having mental health troubles after her 2022 split from long-term partner of 13 years Scott Sinclair, 36, with whom Flanagan shares three children - Matilda, 8, Delilah, 5, and Charlie, 2.

Helen is now dating former footballer Robbie Talbot, 45, with the pair having begun dating in February 2024 after meeting at a restaurant.