<p>For those of you who had migraines, and are post menopausal, did your migraines dissapear or at least greatly diminish? I have menstual migraines and who knows why migraines.</p>
<p>Completely gone. I also discovered that Advil was a cause–I can take 400 mg once but if I take it for more than two days… third day is a migraine.</p>
<p>Mine started after menopause. There may still be a hormonal connection, though.</p>
<p>Yes - I still get some headaches, but they are not nearly as frequent and they are treatable with over-the-counter products. (And if I would stick to the headache diet, I could probably eliminate some of the ones I do get… but I like chocolate and cheese and yogurt, etc!)</p>
<p>Please do share your info about migraines!
My 13 year old DD started getting them this spring, about 2 months or less before her first menses. She gets them about once a month now, but she did have them as close as 2 weeks apart . I can’t pinpoint the exact time of the month, it is not necessarily during menses, not necessarily during ovulation. But the fact that she got them now ?
Regular Tylenol and a cup of coffee will take care of the pain in a few hours. She does have an aura about 30-60 min, before the pain starts.
Any pointers on how to deal with it?</p>
<p>Mine diminished, but not completely eliminated. I suspect though, that they are getting better more because I’m learning how to avoid them than because of menopause. For me, anyway, the number one trigger is not drinking enough fluids. I am guaranteed to get one if I don’t. I also try to go to bed at the same time, get up at the same time, eat well and consistently. Those sometimes contribute, but not always.</p>
<p>Dmd77- what you are describing sounds like rebound migraines. A nasty cycle that is hard to break. Often mis dx as cluster headaches. </p>
<p>Kelowna-DS has had them since he was 7, poor kid. Before I knew that the headaches I’d had since I was a child were migraines. He gets a tingle on his right cheek. If he gets Advil in time he can head it off. Action movies, 3-D, video games, and lack of sleep sets them off for him.
Often when you are older an anti-epileptic rx can be taken daily to control them, however cognition is often a problem (topomax is referred to as dopomax). I take another one that is less known. Cognition is a factor. It’s a trade off for week long migraines that keep me in bed. The only thing that kicks mine is Zomig. Expensive, but worth it. My best advise is to find a good neurologist.</p>
<p>Ack- I am having a migraine right now. I used to get them far more regularly right before my period until I discovered that taking nicotinic acid knocked them out, but it isn’t working as well as usual, or else I need some coffee.
;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Zomig has changed my life.</p>
<p>Not menopausal yet, but I had terrible menstrual migraines as well as mid-cycle migraines when I was on BC pills. I was assured that I could stay on the pill until I was 50 and also that going off the pill would not help the headaches, I would probably have the headaches anyway. At the age of 45, I had a huge blood clot in my leg, necessitating that I go off BC pills and advil cold turkey, advil because I was taking warfarin. I got through the initial withdrawal headaches by taking narcotics, which were prescribed for the pain of the blood clot, but once I was off the constant advil, my headaches were so much better. I occasionally get a headache on about day 3 of my cycle but don’t take anything for it except caffeine (in pepsi form). I do still take advil for other issues caused by endometriosis which returned because I can’t take BC pills any more, but am careful not to take it when I have a headache because it makes it so much worse.</p>
<p>Anyway, sorry for the long story, just agreeing that you should look into rebound headaches.</p>
<p>I used to get them like clockwork – they disappeared during my pregnancies, but resumed once my cycle did. I hoped they would go away with menopause, but no such luck. </p>
<p>However, they seem to be less frequent. It’s hard for me to say because I had very regular periods, and so it was easy to predict a once-a-month occurrence --but now there is no way of predicting. It hasn’t occurred to me to try to count … but I have a sense that maybe I’m getting about 7 or 8 a year. I’d say maybe once every 6 weeks, but there is no pattern or regularity … so even that could be misleading. </p>
<p>I do feel that they are far less intense. It used to be that about half of my migraines were head exploding, debilitating experiences that forced me to bed in the hopes of sleep, because the only relief from the pain would be if I could manage to fall asleep - I coudn’t function, I couldn’t see or think straight. But now its just a bad headache – a kind of dull, won’t-go-away pain. </p>
<p>Because the migraines I get now are less intense, it’s possible that I am just less aware of them – so it may be that they are as frequent as ever, but easier to treat so I forget about them. And of course if the pain meds work, then I can’t be sure if it was a migraine or a different type of headache – a full blown migraine is unmistakable, a nascent migraine is just a headache, although sometimes I get a woozy, disoriented feeling that wouldn’t be there with other headaches. </p>
<p>I’m saying that because as I think about it, I realize that I may have had two in the space of a single week – I remember being angry last weekend because I couldn’t find my Advil – my d. was visiting and it turned out that she had grabbed the whole bottle, so when she got home from her day out she returned it. Then I was traveling out of town and got another headache on Thursday… and of course ran into a similar issue of not having pain meds readily at hand. (Or maybe that was a rebound headache? I hadn’t thought about that possibility before, but it was several days after the missing-Advil incident.</p>
<p>I have found that I can “prevent” a migraine if I take ibuprofin (Advil or Motrin), at the very beginning, when I have the sense of an oncoming migraine but before it actually hits. Once the migraine has come on… it’s tougher – though with the post-menopausal migraines I have at least a 50/50 chance that meds will help. When I was traveling last week, I looked in my dad’s medicine cabinet and he didn’t have any Advil, but he did have Aleve (naproxen) – so I took one of those instead, and – good news – it did work.</p>
<p>Didn’t go away, a bit less intense. Treximet works for me, no side effects.</p>
<p>Menopause transition almost over - no more migraines!</p>
<p>kelowna, my daughter and niece had migraines with aura that began at age 13 and 11. Neither had migraines that really corresponded to their menstrual cycles. But for both, dehydration seemed to be the trigger. Both increased their water intake and the migraines are now very infrequent (maybe one every couple years). I’m not saying dehydration is the only cause but it is something to investigate.</p>
<p>Mine went away during pregnancy, came back about the same after, but have basically disappeared after since menopause. Yeah! I still get headaches occasionally, but not migraines. Mine started in childhood, but got much worse after puberty and most were cycle-related.
For OTC drugs, I take generic Excedrin; tylenol, motrin and aleve don’t help much, but the Excedrin has made my life better.</p>
<p>Like geezermom, I only started getting migraines once menopause hit. Always with aura, and if I take Advil for migraines immediately, it substantially lessens the debilitating pain. I think cutting back on Equal and Diet Coke has helped decrease the frequency. Switched to stevia as a sweetener and cut out soft drinks.</p>
<p>Had a brain MRI last year for some other issue. Showed lots of little white spots, which the neurologist said was from the migraines. He wasn’t concerned about it, but some research reported that the white spots are basically dead spots resulting from the migraine. The meds the neuro offered don’t stop the migraine, just the pain.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t get migraines but a good friend does (been a lifelong thing but got worse with peri-menopause - she’s 50). Anyway, I convinced her to see a neurologist and it turns out she was getting ‘rebound’ migraines because she was taking OTC painkillers every day - I think Advil and/or Goody powder). Since she stopped that and cut back on red wine, her migraines have slowed considerably. Just thought I would share.</p>
<p>I just started getting migraines shortly after menopause began. I learned that at least for me, seasonal allergies were a trigger, along with dehydration.</p>
<p>So if I take Nasonex routinely and drink lots of water, it makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>This was all new to me and I learned about it by visiting an allergist for something else.</p>
<p>D1 started having migraines few months before she started her period. There was one episode that was so bad half side of her a paralyzed. The doctor thought she maybe bleeding internally in her head. After many MRI and CAT scans they determined it was caused by migraine and hormonal related. They told her to cut out caffeine (no coke), and to take Motrin (aspirin), not Tylenol, at the on set of a headache. She was told not to wait until it becomes full blown. She was also advised to drink a lot of water. For the first few years, she would get it few times a year, but as she got older the frequency has gone down (I don’t remember the last time she has had one). I think it does get better with young girls as they get adjusted with hormonal change in their body.</p>
<p>My migraines disappeared when I hit menopause (which was like hitting an off-switch for me - no issues related to menopause whatsoever).</p>
<p>My D has suffered terrible hormonal migraines. She tried birth control pills, which she was told might help, but that made them worse (I had the same issue with b/c). She finally went to a naturopath who is associated with a local hospital’s cancer center. The naturopath helped her with supplements to even out her hormones. After about three months, she noticed a real change. She still occasionally gets a migraine, and Trexamet (sp?) helps with those … she doesn’t like to take it, though, since she once took a test while on it & at the end had absolutely no recollection of what had been on the test. She can manage the smaller migraines she gets around her period with Excederin Migraine, but I don’t think I’d recommend that for a 13 year old due to the aspirin in it (I know a 13 year old girl who died from Reyes Syndrome after taking aspirin).</p>
<p>D also finds that being very intentional about eating properly helps. And Coke during a migraine seems to help her.</p>