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Hi everyone, I hope you've had a good day.

I was diagnosed with OCD in 2014 just after turning 40. Made everything in the past make sense. Got so bad with its new manifestation that I had to be signed off work as a teacher as I felt that I had to protect every child at school that didn't seem happy, possibility ill and those that were self harming. Had private CBT at the time and still on Sertraline. I became pregnant and my girl seemed like a cure, especially when I had her. It went!

Shes just turned 2 and my OCD is back, I've had health anxiety in the past and that's how it's manifested this time. 

Does anyone know if hormones can effect OCD? As I'm wondering if pregnancy and breastfeeding were the reason my OCD went? 

Also, has anyone experienced health anxiety as part of OCD?  

I'm spending so much time checking my body for lumps and bumps that I accidentally feel and also googling health conditions? I look for symmetry in my body and I can't stop and then when I find it I forget and have to start all over again. Hate showering, scratching an itch incase I find something! 

Sorry for all the detail, it's just nice to say all this. 

 

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Hi Emsie and welcome to the forum. 

Yes, hormones can have an effect on OCD. Yours is a bit unusual in that hormones out of whack usually causes OCD symptoms to be worse.

You are doing all the wrong things, like everyone with OCD who isn't actively engaged in CBT. You're doing compulsions. Looking at yourself for symmetry, checking for lumps and bumps, Googling symptoms are all compulsions.

Have you looked into getting CBT?

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Hi Polar Bear, 

Thank you so much for your time and your reply.

My OCD now gets so much worse when I am due on my period when hormone levels change at that point, and then seems to get better as I move in to the next cycle, does that make sense? Have you heard of that? I don't think my hormones are out of whack, my OCD is just sensitive to the changes (sorry, you saying about hormones being out of whack has now made me worry mine are out of whack......due to my current health anxiety). 

I know I'm doing all the wrong things. It just consumes me. I did loads of CBT privately with an excellent physiologist several years ago, but I can't afford it now. My GP has said she can refer me, but she said there's loads of hoops to jump through and she can bypass some. I told her I'd think about it, because I anticipated a huge wait and wanted something now. 

Thanks so much. 

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If you search on the forum you'll probably find 100 threads about women expressing how their OCD gets worse according to their menstrual cycle. That's what I meant about hormones being out of whack... Pregnancy and that time of the month causes big changes in hormones.

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