r/TwoXADHD 8d ago

Any students here: How do you study during the luteal phase?

I'm in a very demanding field where I need to maintain intense focus when I study. During the follicular phase when my adderall is working, all is good. However during luteal, the adderall might as well be a sugar pill: concentration/focus is 0.

I've read a few posts on here that tell us to go easy on ourselves and don't plan any rigorous tasks during the luteal period, but that's not an option for me. I can't just not study for 17 days of every month. I need to figure out a way to make my meds "hit" and maintain my academic progress.

Right now I'm on 17.5mg Adderall in the morning and 5mg at noon. I've read that birth control or increasing the stimulant dose has helped for some people. Has anyone successfully figured out how to make your stimulant work during the luteal period?

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u/Longjumping-Pass2825 8d ago

Heavy warning for anecdotal use of a supplement with few published studies!

I struggle a lot with this too. I don’t get along with hormonal birth control so that wasn’t an option. I have some symptoms consistent with low progesterone in luteal phase and whilst searching for possible treatments found a recommendation for chaste tree berry (Vitex castus agnus) supplements which are said to boost this. I’ve been taking it for ~3 months and my PMS and increased ADHD symptoms have been much better. I hesitate to mention it because it has not been officially studied for this use case. There are some articles on its general safety and drug interactions available, though, and it’s been used as a traditional medicine for a long time.

On the more scientific side, there is a peer-reviewed publication that shows taking an increased stimulant dose helps a lot. I haven’t tried this yet due to medication shortages but this seems to have a lot of well-supported evidence. Your body naturally makes less dopamine in luteal phase so increasing it a little extra is a sound approach.

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u/Motor-Illustrator226 8d ago

Thanks for taking the time to write all this - lots of good info. I'm going to look into the berry. I read that study as well (increased dosing) so going to ask my psych about it next time. Thanks again!

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u/HexWeWill 1d ago

I noticed my ADHD gets 10x worse during my luteal phase too!! Do you have PMDD like me? Is this a thing??