Compulsive Eating in the Days Before Menstruation

Many women have considerable difficulty with their eating just before menstruation. At this particular time they eat compulsively more than usual. A treatment which has helped some women with this problem is to eat one tablet of Prozac (Fontex, Seroscand, Fluoxetine) a day, for one week, directly before. This usually causes the desire to disappear and eating becomes manageable (note: you must first contact your doctor as Prozac requires a prescription).

Prozac is mostly used to combat depression etc., but then the tablets must be taken continuously. Taking them for just one week before menstruation is only effective for patients who are not depressed. The hunger-suppressing effect disappears if you eat them every day, but to treat depression, you need to eat them every day. This treatment can be repeated for every menstruation, since the break between the periods of use will make this drug effective again. There are also more expensive drugs with an even stronger effect of the same kind, such as Reductil. More about drugs.