Rate each symptom once a day, every day, and mark the day your period starts. Keep going for at least two cycles. One bad week proves very little. What a doctor looks for is the shape over a whole cycle. With premenstrual dysphoric disorder, mood symptoms build in the week or two before a period, ease within a few days of it starting, and stay quiet until after ovulation. Your daily ratings are what show that shape, so the days you feel fine count as much as the bad ones.
What should you track for PMDD?
The form most PMDD research uses is the Daily Record of Severity of Problems, or DRSP. Its authors tested it in two studies and found it reliable for measuring PMDD symptoms and how much they get in the way. It rates each item from 1, not at all, to 6, extreme. You don’t need the exact form to start, but it’s a good list to copy. Rate these every evening.
- Feeling depressed, hopeless or worthless
- Anxiety or feeling on edge
- Mood swings, or being suddenly sad or sensitive to rejection
- Anger or irritability, and conflicts with other people
- Less interest in things you usually enjoy
- Trouble concentrating
- Tiredness or low energy
- Big changes in appetite, or cravings
- Sleeping much more, or not being able to sleep
- Feeling overwhelmed or out of control
- Breast tenderness, bloating, headache, or joint and muscle pain
Then add one line on how much it got in the way that day, at work or school, with your hobbies, or with the people around you. That impairment rating matters. The Office on Women’s Health says a diagnosis needs five or more PMDD symptoms, including at least one mood symptom, and the symptoms have to disrupt your life.
Mark the first day of each period, and any spotting. Without period dates the ratings can’t be lined up against your cycle, which is the whole point.
How long do you need to track PMDD?
Two full cycles is the minimum, and three is better. The NHS suggests keeping a symptom diary for at least two menstrual cycles and taking it to a GP appointment. ACOG suggests writing down and rating your symptoms each day for at least 2 to 3 months, along with your period dates. For PMS, ACOG says the symptoms should show up in the 5 days before a period for at least three cycles in a row and end within 4 days after it starts.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina built a scoring system for the DSM-5 PMDD criteria called C-PASS. It works from two or more months of daily DRSP ratings, and the C-PASS worksheet is free. Daily ratings matter because PMDD can’t be diagnosed from memory. Looking back over a month, most of us blur the good weeks and the bad ones together.
How do you read a PMDD chart?
Compare two windows in each cycle. The first is the week before your period. The second is the week after your period starts, once the first few days have passed. With PMDD, the mood ratings are clearly higher in the first window and drop back in the second, cycle after cycle.
If the ratings are high in both windows, that’s worth knowing too. Low mood or anxiety that’s there most of the month and gets worse before a period can be a different condition that flares premenstrually. IAPMD, the International Association for Premenstrual Disorders, calls this premenstrual exacerbation, or PME. The treatment can be different, so bring the whole record rather than just the bad weeks.
Bring the dates as well. If your cycles are irregular, the week before your period moves around, and a doctor needs to see where each period actually started. Our PMS calculator shows which days fall in that window for your cycle length.
What’s the best app for tracking PMDD?
It depends on what you want the record for. We make Plum, and it’s in this list. There are no affiliate links. We read each App Store listing on October 17, 2026.
PMDD Tracker is the closest to a DRSP in your pocket. Its listing says you track emotional and physical symptoms and treatments, write notes, define your own symptoms, and create PDF or CSV reports for your doctor. You can lock the journal with Face ID, and there’s an optional subscription.
Belle is built around PMS and PMDD. Its listing says it tracks your period, mood, energy, sleep and pain, looks for PMS and PMDD patterns, makes reports for healthcare professionals, and can share chosen cycle details with people you trust. It has in-app purchases.
Bearable is a general symptom tracker. Its listing says it shows how symptoms, pain and mood change across each phase of your cycle, and you can log medication, which matters if you’re trying an SSRI or the pill for PMDD.
Plum is a period tracker for iPhone, not a PMDD tool. You can log moods in a tap, choosing as many as fit from irritable, anxious, sad, mood swings, emotional, foggy, calm, content, happy and focused. You can also rate PMS as mild, moderate or severe, and log energy, sleep, cravings, pain, and days you felt withdrawn. The home screen counts down the days until your next period, so you can see the hard week coming. Plum Premium connects how you’ve been feeling with the phase of your cycle once you’ve logged a couple of cycles. What Plum doesn’t have matters here. There’s no 1 to 6 scale for each symptom, no notes, no medication log beyond the pill and no export, so it can’t replace a DRSP for a diagnosis. It has no ads and nothing under Data Used to Track You on its App Store listing.
A printed chart still works. IAPMD offers a free symptom tracker to download, and many clinics hand out the DRSP itself.
Side by side
| Rates severity | Notes | Report for a doctor | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PMDD Tracker | Your own symptom list | Yes | PDF or CSV | Free download, optional subscription |
| Belle | Not stated | Not stated | Yes | Free download, in-app purchases |
| Bearable | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Free download, paid upgrades |
| Plum | PMS as mild, moderate or severe | No | No | Logging at no cost, Premium for insights |
| DRSP on paper | 1 to 6 for every item | Margin | The sheet is the report | Free |
Making the habit stick
Rate at the same time every evening, before bed, so you’re judging the whole day. Keep it short. Ten items rated in a minute beat thirty you give up on by the second week. Don’t skip the good days, because a run of low numbers after your period is half the evidence. If you miss a day, leave it blank rather than guessing from memory. Our period diary guide has more on keeping a daily record going.
When to get help now
Don’t wait for two cycles of data if the week before your period brings thoughts of hurting yourself or not wanting to be here. In the US, call or text 988. In the UK, call Samaritans on 116 123. Tell your doctor about those thoughts too, along with whatever you’ve logged so far. PMDD is treatable, and ACOG lists SSRIs among the drugs that help.
Sources
- NHS, Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
- ACOG, Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
- Office on Women’s Health, Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)
- Endicott J, Nee J, Harrison W. Daily Record of Severity of Problems (DRSP): reliability and validity. Arch Womens Ment Health, 2006.
- Eisenlohr-Moul TA et al. Toward the reliable diagnosis of DSM-5 premenstrual dysphoric disorder (C-PASS). Am J Psychiatry, 2017.
- IAPMD, PMDs symptom tracker
- PMDD Tracker on the App Store
- Belle Period & PMDD Tracker on the App Store
- Bearable on the App Store
- Plum Period Tracker & Diary on the App Store
