Bipolar and women's hormones glossary

Advance Choice Document (ACD)

Advance Choice Documents give people living with severe and recurring mental illnesses, such as bipolar, a chance to state their wishes and instructions and guide healthcare professionals about future treatment and care if they become severely unwell again.

Read more about ACDs here

Menopause
A female is ‘in menopause’ during the first 12 months when they don’t have a period. Before this, they are ‘in perimenopause’. After this, they are in ‘post menopause’.

Menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is the monthly changes in key hormones (including oestrogen and progesterone) that allow a female body to mature and release an egg. If the egg doesn’t get fertilised – if the female doesn’t get pregnant –she will then have a period.

Menstruation
Also known as a period, menstruation is when a woman’s womb lining sheds after a menstrual cycle if the egg doesn’t get fertilised.

Mother and Baby Unit (MBU)
An MBU is a specialist, in-patient unit for women who need medical support with mental health problems during pregnancy, after the birth of their child, or up until the child is one. Specialist staff support the mother-and-child relationship while the mother has treatment for her mental health condition.

Obstetrician
An obstetrician is a doctor who looks after the care of a woman during pregnancy, childbirth, and after she has given birth.

Oestrogen
Oestrogen is one of two sex hormones most associated with females. It plays an important role in developing breasts and hips, and is crucial in menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. Oestrogen also plays an important role in other body systems, including the brain, bones and more.

Ovulation
This is the time in a woman’s menstrual cycle when she releases an egg. The egg then travels down the fallopian tubes towards the womb, ready to be fertilised by sperm or to become part of a period if it’s not fertilised.

Perimenopause

This is the time in the run-up to menopause when the female hormones of oestrogen and progesterone go up and down a lot. This can trigger symptoms such as irregular or heavier periods, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, sleeplessness and more. If a woman is still having periods, even if they are irregular, she is in perimenopause until there have been a full 12 months without a period.

Perinatal mental health services
These are services for any woman with mental health problems, who is planning a pregnancy, who is pregnant or who has a baby up to one year old. Healthcare professionals work with the woman, her partner, and her family and friends to help ensure she stays as well as possible. They also work together to make sure there is a plan in place if her condition gets worse, and to make sure she gets the right help if and when it’s needed.

Postnatal depression (PND)
Postnatal depression (PND) is a type of depression that some women experience after having a baby. It’s a common problem, affecting more than one in every ten women within a year of giving birth. One key cause is thought to be the drop in the hormone oestrogen after the birth, but many other factors are thought to affect it, too – from a history of depression to life events such as bereavement, relationship stress or domestic violence.

Postpartum psychosis (PP)
This is a serious mental health illness that needs to be treated as a mental health emergency. PP affects around one in 1,000 mothers very soon after giving birth. Women with bipolar have an increased risk. Symptoms can include mania, depression or both, along with confusion, hallucinations and delusions.

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). It affects females of childbearing age and causes significant emotional and physical symptoms that disrupt daily life. Symptoms typically start in the week before a period and stop a few days after the period starts. Common symptoms of PMDD include severe mood swings, depression, intense irritability, anxiety, breast tenderness, headaches, joint or muscle pain and bloating.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is the name for the symptoms a woman can experience in the weeks before their period arrives – including mood swings, breast tenderness, bloating, headaches, irritability and food cravings.

Progesterone
This hormone is key for the menstrual cycle to take place, and for preparing the womb to support a fertilised egg in early pregnancy. Progesterone also has positive effects on the brain – soothing anxiety and encouraging sleep.

Testosterone
This hormone is mostly produced in the testes in males. It is also produced in smaller amounts in the ovaries in females, and by the adrenal cortex – which regulates many functions in the body – in both sexes.