I am really struggling with headaches. Hardly a day goes by without one and some are very debilitating. Recently many of them have been really painful at the back of my right eye. I've always had hormonal headaches and could track my cycle by them. I'm currently on evorel sequi and had them more or less under control until recently. My headaches tend to be worse before patch change over. I have been getting as many headaches on both parts of the cycle, though they are more intense on the conti.
Ive tried everything I can think of to alleviate them, pain killers don't work. I drink loads of water, track what I eat, drink minimal alcahol and try and get rest but the headaches make it hard to sleep.
Hi Shropshirelass
I've been a migraine sufferer past 20 years but they were infrequent and after a sleep, they had gone. But I have been having severe migraines since the start of my peri-menopausal symptoms 3 years ago. Lasting 36 hours, vomiting, unable to function, which isn't easy when you have a full time job to hold onto.
For 3 years, the NHS GPs have treated it separately to the menopause, I was put on 50mcg Evoril Conti for my other symptoms for the migraines, they gave me every painkiller and preventative going. None of them worked. 3-4 severe migraines a month, lasting 36 hours a time. Severe fatigue, awful sleep, flushes...... Things got so bad this year, I even missed my best friend's surprise 50th party down in Cornwall because I was vomiting at home with one. :-(…...I don't book holidays or arrange too many evenings out because I know there is no point, I will have to cancel so many of them. So then I knew I had to do something. I decided to see a private GP with her own clinic. She said migraines are very common, especially when she saw the result of my oestrogen. And it wasn't surprising I still had all these other symptoms as well.
She has put me on 2 x pumps Oestrogel and 100mg Utrogestan, which I have just started. And we will keep tweaking it until I find some semblance of myself. She does want to up my Oestrogen but BP was high when I saw her so am doing a Monitor at home for a week, hopefully it will be back to normal again. I'm also on Testogel.
Naturally wise, I saw a Naturopath/Herbalist a month ago. She went through my whole diet and how I was feeling generally. She gave me a tincture to take and some food advice, eliminating wheat & really making sure my sugar is low. I don't drink or smoke, drink loads of water and have a healthy diet. And at the moment, I haven't had a bad one in the past 3 weeks, which is a minor miracle.
Magnesium is really important to take and 3 baths a week with Epsom Salts, at least 15 mins. I see you had trouble absorbing it. My Herbalist told me to take Magnesium Glycinate, she said that is the easiest to absorb. I also take Vit D + K2 spray, B Complex, Q10 Co-Enzyme and Flaxseed Oil. But of course, as we all know, the mind is a powerful thing so you have to look at everything else going on in your life as well. I hope my new regime is going to work, but at least I feel like I am doing something :-) She was very surprised at how low my oestrogen was (44 pmol/L) and that the NHS GPs had not upped my Oestrogen. She's not the only one.....
So its still very early days for me but my advice at this point would be to take control, as others have said, have an eye test, look at any other stress going on in your life and obviously speak to your GP. I put my trust in them for too long, when they said the migraines had to be treated separately from the menopause. But luckily found this place and realised I had to do something. Good luck, let me know how you get on and you can always PM me, I know how they make you feel. x