I have been getting migraines in the 10 days or so leading up to menstruation for years and never really made the connection until I became peri-menopausal. Now a study has found a definite link between oestrogen and migraine (Dr Jan Lewis Brandes).
Most of us get a headache every now and again. But how do you know when your headache is a migraine?
Typically migraine headache symptoms include two of the following - headache on one side of the head, pain that's moderate to severe, and feels throbbing or pulsing, or it is made worse by ordinary activity. You only have to have two of those four pain characteristics to meet the clinical diagnostic criteria for the headache phase of a migraine.
You will also have one of four symptoms which are nausea, and/or vomiting and sensitivity to light, (called photo phobia), and sensitivity to sound (phono phobia).
Here's some little-known secrets to managing migraine headaches that are triggered by your fluctuating hormone levels:
- Take paracetamol every day for the last 10 days of your cycle or if you know exactly when you get your migraines, start taking it every day for a few days before and continue for up to seven days afterward.
- Taking paracetamol (or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) showed that a third of those women who had had very severe menstrual migraine had no menstrual migraine during those attacks. There probably are a lot of women who use it as a strategy without doctors because they figured out that sort of pre-empting it can work well. And of course it works well in women who have abdominal cramping, pelvic pain with severe attacks.
- Drink soy milk or yoghurt rather than dairy. Soy contains natural phyto-oestrogens which helps to increase the oestrogenal level that will help to even out the oestrogen fluctuations that triggers the migraine attacks.
- Make sure you get at leats 7 hours sleep per night, but not more than 9 hours. Over sleeping or conversely, sleep deprivation can trigger migraine attacks.
