What Every Woman Should Know About Her Brain, Hormones & Mental Health

Do you ever feel like a completely different person in the two weeks before your period?
Hormonal changes can have a huge impact on women's mental health, yet the relationship between our hormones and our brains remains surprisingly understudied.
Today's guest is Dr Emilė Radytė, a neuroscientist who studied at Harvard and Oxford, and founded Samphire Neuroscience, a company developing wearable brain stimulation technology for women's health.
Together, we're exploring how hormonal changes affect our brains, why women's brain health has been overlooked in research, and how advances in neuroscience could transform the future of women's mental health.
We also talk about:
🩸 The 2 most common treatments for PMDD (and what to know before trying them)
💊 Why your ADHD medication might feel less effective before your period
💭 PMDD vs bipolar disorder: how can you tell the difference?
🧠 The surprising link between ADHD and PMDD
🫣 Why PMDD is so much more than just bad PMS
Resources & links mentioned:
-Dr Emilė’s Instagram: @dr.em.neuroscientist
-Samphire: samphireneuro.com or @samphireneuro on Instagram
-Schmidt et al. (2017) (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28427285) on why sensitivity to changing hormone levels matters in PMDD.
-Broughton et al. (2025) (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40528384) showing the emerging evidence on PMDD and ADHD overlap (note that this study measured provisional PMDD)
-Reuveni et al. (2023) (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37031779) discusses differences in emotional processing networks in PMDD.
-Kaltsouni et al. (2024) (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38176542) covered a review of EEG findings, including the early research on alpha waves in PMDD.
-Silva et al. (2026) (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42094870) is our published home-use direct current stimulation study in PMS and menstrual pain. Samphire's PMDD trial data is currently under peer-review and expected to be published in early 2027
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🛑 Disclaimers: Opinions are my own. This content is for educational / entertainment purposes and not medical or financial advice.