Hi Alison_J
from me too.
Sorry to hear about your migraines and symptoms - which I presume are due to menopause as you have joined up here?! I was wondering what your cycle is doing and whereabouts in menopause you are? I presume you have started skipping periods and perhaps your periods are getting further apart?
HRT is not out of the question even if you suffer from migraines so don't rule it out just yet although if they do not have a hormonal cause it is more important to discuss this fully with a specialist before deciding. Here is what it says on this site about (mainly hormonal) migraines and HRT:
Migraine
Migraine is often triggered by hormonal fluctuations and therefore may occur around the time of a period. Such migraine may improve at the time of the menopause. Some women find that migraine may be triggered by the daily hormone fluctuations which can occur with oral (tablet) HRT so the transdermal (patch or gel) route is usually preferred with a history of migraine.http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/atoz.php#GlossMAs for doing things naturally - I fully understand your view and I felt exactly the same until symptoms were so debilitating that I couldn't work properly mainly due to lack of sleep and the disruption caused by the hot flushes. This is why I went down the route of bio-identical HRT - that is using hormones ( all available on NHS) which are identical with the hormones that are produced in our own bodies - ie estradiol (for the oestrogen) and progesterone (Utrogestan) which are fair less likely to cause or aggravate migraines than the stronger synthetic oestrogens of the contraceptive pill, and the synthetic progestogens. Some thing to think about for the future maybe?
Not sure where the propanolol fits in re any further medication or advice, but I presume you have a condition requiring this - I know it is a heart medication but I understand has a consequence (as it is meant to do) of lowering blood pressure so perhaps this could be aggravating your problems and migraines etc, including sickness? Perhaps the dose needs adjusting now you are peri-menopausal.
Good idea to have blood tests - as a baseline and to check whether all is functioning properly at this stage in your life. Now is also a good time to take a look at your lifestyle (if you need to!) re smoking, alcohol, diet, exercise, body weight, stress etc and see if there is anything you could do which would help you to feel better naturally and to minimise some of the negative symptoms.
Let us know if we can help in any way
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Hurdity x