Built from a gap too many people live in.
Red Tent PMDD began with years of premenstrual suffering that too many clinicians dismissed — and with the relief of finally being heard by someone who understood PMDD from lived experience, not just a textbook.
From unnamed monthly crisis to a tool we wished existed.
For a long time, our founder Ariel did not have a name for what happened every month: crushing mood shifts, panic, fatigue, and days when getting through work or relationships felt impossible. Emergency rooms and well-meaning providers often treated each visit in isolation. PMDD was rarely on the list.
Ariel’s diagnosis came through therapy with a licensed counselor who also lives with PMDD. For the first time, the pattern was named without judgment. Online PMDD communities mattered too — proof on the hardest days that the experience was real, not a character flaw.
The app formed where personal need met professional background in communications, conflict resolution, and user-research ethics: a calm place to track cycles and symptoms, read vetted education and research, and optionally connect with others — without treating health data as a product to sell.
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Accelerate diagnosis. Advance research. Protect your privacy.
PMDD sits at the intersection of two areas medicine has historically underinvested in: women’s health and mental health. These are the outcomes we design for every day.
- Shorten the lonely years between “something is wrong” and “this has a name.”
- Give you a private record you can use on your own or bring to appointments.
- Close gaps in women's health research through optional, ethical data sharing — you choose whether to participate.
- Build with people who understand PMDD, including clinicians and advisors with lived experience.
Principles that shape every decision.
Privacy is non-negotiable
Your day-to-day logs stay on your iPhone and sync through your Apple ID in iCloud. Research sharing is optional and separate — we do not sell tracking data.
Evidence over anecdote
Education and research summaries are grounded in peer-reviewed sources, reviewed for accuracy, and kept current.
Validation without alarm
We take symptoms seriously without sensationalizing them. Calm, accurate, human — never diagnostic or prescriptive.
Independent coverage of the mission — and the founder.
Journalists have featured Red Tent PMDD and founder Ariel Watson in profiles about the diagnosis gap, privacy-first design, and why cycle-related mental health deserves the same seriousness as any other chronic condition.
For logos, screenshots, and boilerplate, see our press kit.
Red Tent PMDD supports tracking and learning — it does not diagnose PMDD, prescribe treatment, or replace emergency care. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider about your symptoms.
If you’re in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988 in the US) — free, confidential support, 24/7.