Hello:

Welcome to the ADDitude forums and thanks for your post. It's my understanding that changing estrogen levels (with pregnancy or menopause) can definitely impact ADHD symptoms. Of course, the fact that you can't take ADD medications while pregnant doesn't help...

I would recommend reading Women with Attention Deficit Disorder, a great book by Sari Solden that goes into much greater depth on all matters related to women and ADHD.

Best of luck!

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I can completely sympathize with you. I am currently pregnant with my second child (a girl) and feel as though my symptoms are a lot worse than with my first (a boy.) Going off of my meds has a major impact on my life and, unfortunately, there does not seem to be much information out there for women in our situation. I have had the book by Solden for years, and, like most ADHD books out there, it goes into explaining symptoms and how one might feel after getting diagnosed. As far as the topic on pregnancy was concerned, if I remember correctly, it said some women report fewer symptoms during pregnancy, which is obviously not the case for you and I. I wonder is the gender of the baby has anything to do with symptoms? I was told by my doctor that one usually experiences more cramping with the second child and more sickness with a girl, perhaps these can exacerbate ADHD symptoms?

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I am glad someone out there is going through this too. I don't know what to do becuase I work full-time at an amazing job I love, but i am considering taking Ritalin one time a week ONLY just to get my work done. It is so hard concentrating while doing my boring reports. All other aspects of the job I can keep up with.

Does anyone know of anything that helps-maybe alternative medicine, Decaf latte's, exercise, acupuncture?? This is my first pregnancy and I am distracted, worried and stressed.

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I to have been ADD all my life , from the time I was a young child , all the way up to when I was a teenager , I struggled incredibly hard wth my ADD , now I will admit that when I was in high school that being on the cross country / track team did help quite a bit when it came to dealing with my ADD & all the particualar things that I struggled with such as the concept of time ect ect . How ever @ the age of 19 my whole world changed when I got pregnant with my son Willilam - even tho the relationship i was in at the time with my son's father wasnt in stable condition , I guess you can say the combination of pregnancy hormones & my ADD , I grew alot emotionally , mentally , was able to leave the reationship I was in . To say the least my ADD improved even more when I gave birth to my son in May 2001 at the age of twenty . The moment I became a mother, everything just came together , my focus / concentration became better , I wasn't as forgetful , I got better at completeing tasks ( such as emptying the trash, and putting another trash bag in the trash can ) , I became better wth my patients . I am happy to report today that my son William is one awsome 7 1/2 yr old accademically gifted , has not shown any symptoms of ADD/ ADHD . How ever tho every woman who is ADD/ ADHD is different

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