Psychiatry for Women - The Blog

By Julie Brownley, MD, PhD Founder, Psychiatry for Women f I asked you to name the symptoms of menopause, you'd probably say: Hot flashes Night sweats Irregular periods Mood changes Those are certainly common. But estrogen receptors have been identified in tissues throughout the body—including the brain, skin, eyes, ears, joints, bladder, blood vessels, muscles, and connective tissue. As estrogen begins its unpredictable decline during perimenopause (often years before your f

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) has officially been renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS). But this is more than a name change, it reflects a fundamental shift in how we understand one of the most common hormonal conditions affecting women. Learn why experts made the change, what PMOS really is, and why this new perspective may lead to earlier diagnosis and better care.

What discontinuation symptoms actually mean, and what they don’t. By Julie Brownley, MD, PhD Founder, Psychiatry for Women If you’ve ever tried to come off an antidepressant and felt awful, you’re not alone. And if your immediate thought was: “Oh no. Am I addicted?” You’re definitely not alone there, either. People (even providers) frequently use the word withdrawal to describe what happens when stopping an antidepressant. That makes intuitive sense. After all, some people ab

“Suicidal thoughts” are often treated as a single, black-and-white symptom—but they can reflect profoundly different experiences, from passive overwhelm to intrusive OCD thoughts, PMDD-related emotional collapse, postpartum anxiety, or true suicidal intent. Understanding the difference matters.

By Julie Brownley, MD, PhD Founder, Psychiatry for Women You’re getting everything done. Work. Partners, dogs, cats, kids, whatever. Logistics. All the random invisible things that somehow end up being your responsibility. From the outside, you look fine. More than fine, honestly. But internally there’s this low-grade sense of… I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. Or: I feel like I might just… drop the ball on everything. I see this all the time. And what’s in

By Julie Brownley, MD, PhD Founder, Psychiatry for Women The Limits of Genetic Testing for Antidepressants and Other Psychiatric Medications I get asked about genetic testing for antidepressants and psychiatric medications all the time. Usually, the question is: “Can I do a test to find out which medication will work best for me?” The short answer? Nope. What Genetic Testing Actually Measures Most pharmacogenetic tests used in psychiatry are looking at liver enzymes. Specific

A simple but powerful strategy for setting boundaries without direct confrontation. Learn how “saying no by saying yes” can help you protect your time while staying collaborative.

By Julie Brownley, MD, PhD Psychiatrist, Founder of Psychiatry for Women During residency, we had a patient who wasn’t getting better. This was despite real effort, real thought, and a lot of care. We were sitting with an older attending (what I like to call a dinosaur), trying to come up with next steps. The options on the table felt… limited. Not wrong, but not reassuring either. I remember saying, “There are a lot of ways this could go sideways.” He paused and looked at

By Julie Brownley, MD, PhD Founder, Psychiatry for Women Reproductive Psychiatry As a reproductive psychiatrist, I spend a lot of my days sitting with postpartum women who are trying, desperately, to do everything “right.” They are waking themselves up every 2–3 hours to pump.They are tracking ounces like it’s a full-time job. They are crying in the middle of the night because their body isn’t cooperating. And almost every one of them, at some point, says a version of the s

By Julie Brownley, MD, PhD Psychiatrist, Founder of Psychiatry for Women Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is a severe, cyclical mood disorder that affects a subset of menstruating individuals during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. While many people experience some premenstrual symptoms, PMDD is characterized by marked mood disturbances and functional impairment that resolve shortly after the onset of menstruation. Estimates suggest that approximately 1.8–5.8%

Understanding symptoms, testing, and when treatment may help For many women, conversations about hormones during perimenopause focus almost exclusively on estrogen and progesterone. But there is another hormone that plays a meaningful role in women’s health: testosterone . Although often thought of as a “male hormone,” testosterone is essential for women as well. It influences sexual desire, energy, mood, cognition, muscle strength, and overall well-being . During perimenopa

Aromatherapy can be a gentle grounding tool. Peppermint engages sensory pathways that calm the nervous system. Based on “Dissociation debates: everything you know is wrong” by Richard J. Loewenstein, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience (2018). The short version Dissociation is a way the mind copes with overwhelming stress or trauma. It can look like spacing out, feeling detached from your body, losing time, or having important memory gaps. Dissociative disorders are real, comm

Pregnancy comes with enough worries— pain relief shouldn’t be one of them. If you’ve seen the recent headlines warning that acetaminophen...

You’ve just taken a strong step toward better mental health by completing our screening survey . Thank you for sharing your information with us. We know it can feel vulnerable to reach out for care, and we want to reassure you: your responses are safe, valued, and already being reviewed by our team. Step 1: Our Admin Reviews Your Screening Survey Our admin team carefully reviews every survey. This step ensures we’re the right fit for your needs and helps us connect you with t

Preparing for your first Psychiatry For Women appointment: what to expect

Antidepressants in Pregnancy: Why the FDA’s One-Sided Narrative Puts Women at Risk The FDA’s Missed Opportunity on SSRIs in Pregnancy...

When your job feels like it’s draining the life out of you, is it burnout—or something deeper like depression? Learn how to spot the difference, what each really means, and practical steps to start feeling like yourself again.

The news cycle today is a goddamn wrecking ball, swinging relentlessly into our mental peace. Whether it's breaking headlines, divisive...

Brainspotting therapy represents a unique approach in the realm of alternative therapies, utilizing specific spots in an individual's...

One in every four people in the US will have a psychiatric syndrome in their lifetime1. The impacts of mental illness span the gamut,...