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September 23, 2024
If you’ve ever experienced a migraine, you will know how difficult it is. Interestingly, migraine has an inherent connection with female hormones, the reason why more women suffer from migraines than men.
While hormones are not the only reasons why women get migraines, the role of hormones can never be undermined. While oestrogen and progesterone play a key role in female menstrual cycle and pregnancy, they may also affect headache-related chemicals in the brain.
Let’s understand more about this in this article.
A severe headache that causes pulsing or throbbing head pain on one side of the head is known as a migraine. It lasts anywhere between four hours to several days and gets worse with:
Migraines can disrupt your day-to-day life, affecting your work, personal and social obligations. Most people suffering from migraines also experience nausea and vomiting. Most women who get migraines, experience them at least once a month.
Let’s understand the link between the female hormone oestrogen and migraines. A drop in oestrogen levels can set off migraines, which is what happens before your periods. On the other hand, during pregnancy oestrogen levels rise, which is the reason why women who suffer from migraines get a break during pregnancy. However, migraines usually start again, once the baby is born.
When a woman approaches menopause, the hormone levels can go up and down due to which your periods become irregular. As migraines are tied to your oestrogen levels, and in turn menstrual cycle, they become unpredictable. The migraines become more intense too.
Even those women who have never gotten migraines during the menstrual cycle may get them in the years leading to menopause. On the other hand, those who experience migraines during their periods may become less intense and less frequent as they approach menopause.
Women who have had their uterus and ovaries removed through surgery often get migraines after the surgery.
Let’s talk about some options which can provide you relief from these excruciating migraines.
So, can you prevent these migraines?
Well, there’s no foolproof way of preventing them, but you can take some measures. If your periods are regular, you can take a medicine a few days before getting them and continue throughout your periods. NSAIDs or triptans work the best in this case.
Your doctor may recommend you take medicines every day if you get migraines regularly throughout the month. Your doctor may also recommend you take these medicines daily if you have irregular periods. These daily medicines might include calcium channel blockers, anticonvulsants, beta-blockers, magnesium or antidepressants.
If medicines are not working, your doctor might suggest monthly injections of calcitonin gene-related peptide monoclonal antibody. These injections can prevent headaches. However, these are provided after several considerations by your medical provider.
Certain lifestyle changes may help you get fewer headaches or make them less severe. Some of the prominent such adjustments include not skipping meals, exercising regularly and reducing stress.
Headache patterns can be changed by hormonal contraception such as birth control pills, vaginal rings and patches. While some people experience improvement in headaches, for others it can get worse.
How do they work? They minimise the drop in oestrogen happening during a period, thus providing relief from headaches. However, preventing migraines through hormonal birth control can help if you don’t smoke and the migraines don’t come with aura. However, if you smoke or experience an aura, then you should consult your doctor before starting birth control.
We’re sure you are wondering what’s migraines with aura. Well, they are nervous system symptoms that you get before or during a migraine. As a result, you might notice blind spots in your vision, flashes of light or other vision changes. You may also feel tingling in your face or hands. While migraines with aura rarely cause trouble in speaking, they can sometimes cause weakness on one side of the body. If you experience migraines with aura, do not ignore them. Talk to your doctor. You should also seek medical help if you face any unusual visual changes, trouble in speaking, weakness or sensory changes, with or without a migraine, especially if you’ve not faced any of these issues before.
If you are a smoker, avoid birth control pills with hormones as that increases the risk of having a stroke.
You may get headaches the first month you start taking birth control. Birth control pills also trigger headaches in some women. However, do not ignore them, talk to your healthcare provider about it.
Women who suffer from migraines regularly often experience them getting lesser or even stopping during pregnancy. This can be due to the rise of oestrogen levels during early pregnancy. However, you may still get headaches from tension as they are not affected by hormone changes.
Talk to your doctor if you face regular headaches during pregnancy. Some headaches can be harmful or have unknown effects on the baby. So it is better to get it checked out.
Unfortunately, if your headaches go away during pregnancy, they may return after the child is born. The sudden drop in oestrogen levels after birth can trigger migraine. It can also be due to stress, lack of sleep or change in eating habits.
You should also talk to your doctor if you face headaches while you’re breastfeeding to find out medicines that are safe to use during this time.
The frequency and severity of hormone-related migraines can increase during perimenopause and menopause. Why? Because of the fluctuations in the hormone levels during this time.
Many women experience a vast improvement once their periods stop. However, tension headaches may increase and continue unless you take medication or some alternative therapy.
Sometimes perimenopause and menopause are treated using hormone replacement therapy (HRT). HRT can improve headaches in some people while worsening them in others. Or there may be no changes. Sometimes your healthcare provider might recommend oestrogen skin patches along with HRT. These patches provide a steady and low supply of oestrogen.
If HRT is making the migraine worse for you, inform your healthcare provider. They may lower the oestrogen dose put you on a different kind of oestrogen or stop hormone replacement therapy completely. If you are a smoker, you should inform your doctor before starting HRT.
Let’s discuss some other techniques which can help you get relief from these migraines.
The first and foremost thing to do is to control stress. Yes, we know easier said than done. Keep a positive attitude and look for good in your day-to-day life. Count your blessings, make a gratitude list or write a journal. You can build a support system of friends and family members who you can talk to. Accept things that you cannot control without being affected by the negatives. You can also follow meditation techniques or listen to good music.
Keep yourself hydrated; fluids can help you avoid stress too. Keep a glass of water or a bottle of water near you all the time.
Certain exercises have been shown to prevent migraines. If you are not used to exercising, it can be difficult to start especially if you’re dealing with other symptoms of menopause. You can start with low-intensity exercises such as walking for thirty minutes a day, several times a week. You can also pair up with friends and engage in activities together.
One of the best ways to manage these migraines is to avoid things that trigger them. Some of the most common triggers include emotional, dietary, physical, environmental and medicinal factors.
Alcohol and caffeine are important triggers, so you might want to consume them in lower quantities to avoid getting a migraine. For some women, dairy can be a trigger. If you are one of them, then avoid milk and milk-based products such as yoghurt, cheese and others.
Yes, that’s a valid question. Usually, you can stop migraine medication about six months after you attain menopause. Speak to your doctor, if they already don’t know. Your doctor may reduce the dose slowly over the next two to three months.
If migraines return once the dosage is dropped, then the dose might have to be increased till your migraines are controlled. This can also help your doctor understand the lowest dose that can contain your migraine.
Some women continue to get migraines even after menopause. This is because even after periods have stopped, your hormones may take a few years to settle down. While it takes one or two years in most women, some women get hot flushes and migraine even ten or more years of menopause.
Sometimes even when hormonal triggers have settled, non-hormonal triggers can continue and may even increase after menopause. Chronic medical conditions may trigger migraines.
The best way to deal with such migraines is to maintain a good migraine habit such as regular exercise, regular meals, regular sleep routine, balancing triggers and generally maintaining good health.
According to most research, hysterectomy does make migraines worse. When the ovaries and uterus are removed, the hormone cycle is disrupted. This sends the brain hormones on an overdrive since they are not prepared for early menopause. This worsens the migraines at first, but in general, it settles over the next couple of years.
The symptoms that you may experience after hysterectomy can be reduced by using replacement oestrogen, especially if the ovaries are removed. Even though the ovaries are retained, the hormone cycle can be disrupted, in which case the extra oestrogen can be helpful.
Sometimes women are given vaginal oestrogen to control vaginal pain and dryness, especially those who face vaginal symptoms but not hot flushes or sweats. This rise in oestrogen persists for a couple of weeks and then drops back again. This rise and fall can trigger migraines, especially in those who are prone to it.
However continued use of oestrogen settles the oestrogen levels, thus making it less likely to trigger migraine. If you are put on vaginal oestrogen, be prepared for an initial increase in migraines, the good news is it will become less frequent with time.
All said and done migraines can be difficult to deal with. Resting in a quiet, cool and dark room can be helpful. You can use a cold or warm compress on your forehead and behind your neck for relief.
Massaging your scalp and temples in a circular motion also helps. Keep yourself calm and stress-free as much as possible. It will get better with time.
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