Last night I was reading and came across this:

"Having outlived their ovaries, they have outlived their usefulness as human beings."

This quote is from 1969. Our mothers were being born then. Or becoming mothers themselves.

For generations, women who spoke about physical or emotional symptoms were labelled "hysterical". Today, the language is different. Women's health is talked about more openly than ever before. But is being talked about the same as being understood? "It's stress." "It's anxiety." "It's just your hormones." Different words. Same full stop.

For years, I kept asking why I felt the way I did. Each appointment seemed to end with a different explanation, but never one that truly fitted. Then a family member sent me an article about PMDD. I remember reading it and thinking... Maybe I'm not imagining this. 

It didn´t answer everything but, for the first time, I realised there might be a pattern instead of a personal failing. That shift mattered.

When we're repeatedly told that what we're experiencing is "just" stress, "just" hormones or "just" anxiety, it's easy to stop trusting ourselves. Not because those explanations are never true. But because there are times that they become the end of the conversation, instead of the beginning. Sometimes we need space to explore what that explanation means for us, how it fits our experience, and what happens next.