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[Janice68]

Autumnlady been reading the posts here. i too eat sauerkraut apparently it helps the digestive system. Have to say not keen on it but I do eat it it's got a lot of health benefits Like helping the  immune system!
I might get some manuka honey in too does that have anti inflammatory effect like ginger?
Jan x

[Autumnlady]

Hi Elizabethrose, Sparkle and Jan and thank you for you helpful replies.

Jan, the Manuka honey is an anti inflammatory. It's said to be very beneficial for the body. I am not struck on the sauerkraut either tbh but will stick with it for a few months and see if it works. I just want an easy fix if I

Sparkle, the reflux did start during perimenopause. 14 years ago when I would have been 43. I didn't have IBS but I used to have a fair bit of heartburn when I was in my 20s/30. I have started using unsweetened Almond milk on cereal and I only have gluten free cereal. I try not to have bread but it is difficult sometimes. I found the gluten free bread high in calories so have stopped using it.  I bought one of those wedge pillows and it does help but I do keep sliding down the bed lols! What doesn't help is our house has a slight forward tilt so I am inclined to slide down the bed anyway. What a state to be in!

[Autumnlady]

Sorry about that ladies, my post flew off before I had finished replying! Must have caught the wrong key!

Elizabethrose, thank you so much for your information and offer of help.  I am still feeling jittery in case the visual aura strikes again and my mind is in overtime as to why I have started having this problem later in life. My optician didn't seem worried and just said that they are scary to experience and can affect one eye or both. It has helped to have someone describe the symptoms like you have with that odd experience of something suddenly not being there when you know that it should be and in fact is. That must have been terribly scary to suddenly have someone's head missing! It was the tip of my granddaughter's nose that had gone for just a few seconds and it terrified me. 
So far the tingling has been separate from the aura. When I have had the tingling in my face it does seem it is in the place of a hot flush as I have noticed the pattern. And suddenly I stop having the tingling bouts, which I can have every day for weeks or months,  and instead have the flushes for weeks or months, only for them to go and the tingling return.
I have experienced some of the other symptoms you have described, like the sore scalp. This actually began after my periods stopped too. I have had bouts where I feel not here and spaced out and this has probably been since my early 20s.  I have noticed it is when I am very anxious and stressed. It is the same with dizziness and vertigo. I have had three terrible spells of vertigo that have lasted weeks - again since I stopped my periods. But I have always suffered dizziness to some degree since my teens when I was at school and I put this down to hormones. My daughter suffers the same with the dizziness, as do some friends, both young and old.
I have read the silent migraines can come on at menopause and can be hormonal. Do you agree with this?
 Do you have regular migraines and have you found anything helps to keep them away?

Thanks again!

[Elizabethrose]

Oh Autumnlady, I feel so sorry for you, this is all such a pain!

I'll try to address your points, hopefully I won't miss any! Firstly let me just say that all you are experiencing is not unusual. There's a massive benefit from not getting the headaches with your aura BUT it's obviously tricky recognising what you are dealing with. My mother started experiencing silent migraine with massive visual disturbance after meno. She was inordinately lucky in that she had an amazingly easy peri and meno. The migraine aura lasted for a couple of years and then disappeared completely. I think she had the migraine headache only a few times.

Don't be frightened of the visual aura, you know what it is now, it won't harm you, just settle yourself till it passes. If you don't then get the headache you're lucky, you're quids in! There are all sorts of visual aura, if you are anxious about googling it I could find some links for you. Personally i have to know everything about what is happening to me as it makes me feel more in control, however we are all different.

The point I was trying to make about the tingling is that I get it as an aura symptom but also as a hot flush symptom. I'm still getting massive oestrogen surges and plummets: when the oestrogen drops the flushes start building again. At first they are just like pins and needles climbing my face: later though, as more time passes the pins and needles disappear and are replaced by full on hot flushes. Interestingly, I was once prescribed an epilepsy drug to use as a migraine prophylactic and I had almost constant tingling with that, again on the left hand side of my face.

I too get terrible vertigo and dizziness with some migraine though thankfully only occasionally. The difficulty for you is that you don't have the migraine headache which you can't fail to recognise, all of these symptoms could be an aura, you just don't realise it.

I absolutely agree that migraines can be triggered by peri, meno and hormones generally. I have been very lucky to have seen some very very well regarded migraine specialists and hormones specialists and have subsequently had a lot of questions answered (and I do ask a lot!!).

I don't know what your current medical situation is. If you are already taking HRT, it could be that you are reacting to it. They may be able to make some changes that will help calm the migs. MaryG reacts very badly to progesterone, it causes silent migraine for her. She has a wealth of experience in trying to find an HRT balance that doesn't exacerbate the silent migraine. She may not read this thread so I would suggest you send her a PM and I'm more than sure she'd be delighted to run through her experience and may be able to offer some advice. She's a lovely lady and only comes on this site to offer advice to others as she has her situation managed well at the moment.

Your last question has made me hesitate slightly as my experience has been a tough one and to be honest I don't like to frighten the pants off some new posters who are just starting out on this journey, looking for solutions and trying all sorts of HRT and drug combinations. I have tried a lot, it's all been managed brilliantly well by trusted Docs, however, nothing has worked for me. I am still getting very frequent migraines,  but they are much reduced in frequency and intensity and I am getting by. I use Frovatriptan and Diclofenac suppositories to treat symptomatically, however these can't be taken before the headache starts so won't suit you.

I feel inordinately positive that things will keep improving for me. Peter Goadsby and Anne MacGregor quite categorically state that my sort of migraine are best managed by going into a natural menopause, avoiding medical and surgical menopause unless illness requires it. All has improved but I need to have my hormones level out and I'm still late stage peri so it's a waiting game for me at the moment!

If there's anything I've missed or you have any other questions, please do ask: i'm really happy to help  x

[Mary G]

Elizabethrose, thank you for your kind words but you are the real expert on migraines and know far more than I do!

Autumnlady, I'm sorry I missed your posts but it sounds like we have a very similar problem.  My silent migraines started in June 2004 which was 30 years to the month after I had my first period.  I was waking up one morning and could see this shimmering, zig-zaggy pattern moving around that lasted for about 25 minutes - I now know this was scintillating scotoma.  I immediately knew it was a migraine but I didn't have a headache afterwards, I just felt strange and spaced out.  I had a Mirena coil at the time that was fitted for contraception purposes and I now know that the reason I had the migraine was because I was no longer producing enough of my own hormones and the synthetic progesterone in the coil had become too dominant.

I had several episodes over the next couple of years, found out I was menopausal and starting using oestrogen patches with the Mirena coil still in place but they were not strong enough and didn't give me anything like enough oestrogen to counter the migraines so I had the coil removed.  By this time I was post menopause and didn't have any more natural periods but I had a dreadful problem with my thermostat and was constantly sweating (no hot flushes or night sweats) even though I didn't actually feel hot.  I then went onto a continuous combined oral HRT but again, not enough oestrogen and the synthetic progesterone triggered the silent migraines.  I eventually sought the advice of Professor Studd who prescribed 3 pumps of Oestrogel and a small bead of testosterone everyday and 7 x 100mg Utrogestan (vaginally) every month.  It was great at first but the migraines came back during the Utrogestan phase so now I take the Utrogestan every 5 weeks or so but, most importantly, I now take 25mg DHEA tablets everyday and produce my own oestrogen again and that seems to be the key to success in keeping the migraines away.  I also take vitamin B12 and magnesium supplements everyday.  In my case, there is a definite correlation between producing my own hormones and being able to counter the effects of artificial progesterone in HRT preparations.  I never had any problems with my own progesterone (no PMS etc.) and I was able to take the BCP which is stuffed full of synthetic progesterone without triggering migraines when I was in my 20s and producing my own hormones although with hindsight, I now realise that I didn't feel that great and had constant nasal drip, frequent sore throats, grew hairs in stranges places, had breast pain and gained weight.

Obviously this is my own personal experience and you may be very different and your trigger might be completely different to mine but you (and others reading this) may be able to relate to some of it and if reading this helps someone then I have done my job!  Like Elizabethrose, I also consulted Professor Anne MacGregor and she was brilliant and understood my problem immediately and she suggested I stick with the 25mg DHEA tablets and take 300mg of aspirin everyday during my Utrogestan phase. 

My body decided to completely reject all forms of artificial progesterone post menopause and I can't really tolerate any form of progesterone used in HRT and I should really have a hysterectomy (Professor Studd recommended it) but now is not a good time and I am hoping to limp along on this regime until I can pluck up the courage and take the plunge.

So to summarise:

I didn't have a history of migraines or PMS pre-menopause;

I have never been intolerant to my own progesterone;

I was able to use synthetic progesterone (BCP and Mirena coil) without migraines pre-menopause;

Synthetic progesterone/high doses of Utrogestan are my only migraine trigger;

Producing my own oestrogen via DHEA tablets seems to counter the effects of synthetic progesterone/Utrogestan and prevent migraines.

Sorry for the ramble, I hope that helps!

[Autumnlady]

Elizabethrose, Sparkle and MaryG I can't thank you enough for your time in replying to me. I am so grateful to read all your thoughts and explanations.
I am not taking any hormone replacement or meds apart from the omezaperole. I worry so much about side effects I avoid meds at all costs. But during peri meno I did take several courses of Northisterone (progesterone) They worked well at the job they were meant to do and what I noticed was that whilst taking them and for 3 or 4 weeks after I felt off balance all the time. It was subtle but clearly there. I got to expect I would feel that way if I took them. Makes me wonder now with what you said, Elizabethrose, if the dizziness was a form of the migraine.
I have no idea what my hormone levels are like right now post meno for 4 years. It would be interesting to find out.
Apparently my mum's mum suffered terrible migraines in which she was laid up for days on end unable to get out of bed. But I don't know what symptoms she had and I am not sure I can find out. There is a chance an older cousin will know. I can remember my mum having headaches but they weren't migraines. In her much later life she did say a few times she was seeing the zig zag lights and she did not complain of a headache.

Sparkle - I daren't move my bed to the other side of the room as it is near the window and I dread large spiders coming down the curtain onto me Arrggghhh! lols.

Thanks again and I will no doubt be needing to ask more questions as I remember them

[Elizabethrose]

You are most welcome Autumnlady, I do hope we've been able to help or at least put your mind at rest.

I was thinking about you last night: were you given a diagnosis of silent migraine and did they do a basic neurological test? This is very simple, they usually check your balance and dexterity, check out your vision and ask lots of questions: this is usually used to rule out any other neurological conditions. I wonder whether it may be useful to be referred to a specialist.

I think silent migraines are slightly trickier to treat than the migraine headaches, in that a great many drugs can only be taken when the headache part of the migraine starts not in the aura stage. There are prophylactic drugs that work to prevent migraine from happening, though these usually have quite comprehensive side effects, and I realise you don't like to take meds.

Most migraines are triggered, but the list of triggers is endless and often personal to the patient. You'll hear that people should avoid chocolate and cheese but they are not a trigger for everyone. Often when in prodrome patients crave certain food types, frequently carbs, and then when the headache kicks in they assume that it was the craved foodstuffs that they'd indulged in that was their trigger. It's all so difficult to decipher. My major trigger is sudden hormone change: that in itself won't always trigger a mig but if I throw into the equation another trigger like lack of sleep or missed meals or lack of fluid intake, and endless others, the combined triggers will stimulate a mig.

I think I would recommend you keep a daily diary: not something that's going to take over your life but something that will allow you to record when you have any aura symptoms. Spend a few minutes every evening jotting down how you are; any aura symptoms, lack of sleep, unusual stress or upset, unusual foods, alcohol, anything that could amount to causing you to feel off. After a while you may start to see a pattern. This information is invaluable to specialists and regular docs too. It's difficult to remember what we've experienced, when: when it's written down you have evidence.

I wish you well, please ask if you need more info, I'll be very happy to help. x

[Autumnlady]

Hi Sparkle and Elizabethrose - you certainly have helped with telling me your own experiences. My doctor has carried out the neurological tests you mention several times over the past few years and has been satisfied so has not yet referred me anyway. These were done for the dizziness and off balance episodes and then for the aura. I have not seen my doctor about this latest one but will tell her when I next see her. I have a nurse appointment in November so will tell her too. I had known about the flashing lights or zig zag lines before I had my migraine but had not realised that it could affect visually in the way it did, as in my granddaughter's nose missing. It was a relief when you told me, Elizabethrose, how you experienced someone's head missing. Very scary though. I am trying to get things into perspective and to be calm about if it happens again, so your words were reassuring, thank you. I have noticed that if it is very sunny and windy out, when I am back indoors it feels like my sight is sort of fluttering/flashing for a few moments. Not sure if this is due to going from bright sunlight into dull light and my eyes focusing on the change or not. My vision is excellent apart form this but it is worrying me to the extent I am only walking my dogs round the block on my own and I daren't go further to the shops on my own just in case. I know I have to get help with this as I can't carry on allowing it to have such control over me. My mum was just the same in that she became agrophobic due to dizziness when she was out when she went through her change. I didn't think I was as bad as my mum.
 but I will be if I let this escalate.

I hope you don't mind me adding this as I know other people have and are going through so much more than I have and am, but I lost my mum, their dog and my dad all in the space of 19 months and I saw all of them take their last breaths - sorry but I am heartbroken. I looked after mum for many years and the last 4 were especially bad. Then I looked after dad and their dog. I had to make all his decisions as well as the things going on in my own life. My husband had to come out of work a few weeks before mum died due to a knee injury and condition and has been unable to work since, so I have had a lot of big life changes going on in a short time as well as coping with my own menopause. There is more but I won't go on. I have said enough! But do you think all of this could be having an affect on my hormones too, as in the appearance of the aura migraines?
I am just remembering the advice about Vitamin D and magnesium. Can anyone recommend strengths please? I am in UK.

Sparkle I am glad my info on the reflux has helped you look at other options. Mine is playing up right now and I think probably due to the emotional upheaval I am going through. I am not sure about this sauerkraut as I had a coughing bout when I took some earlier when the vinegar taste(though it's not vinegar) hit the back of my throat. I have found the silicol gel heals my throat more than anything so I reckon I will go get some more of that for a while. Though I will have another go with the sauerkraut unless it keeps happening.

Oh what a wonderful time this peri meno and menopause is lols!

[Janice68]

Oh bless you Autumnlady! Life can be so hard!! I lost my dad then went into having  a op that caused so many health problems then stress from a job I did. Then the meno and so many symptoms anxiety etc too many eh?
Gave up work but looking for part-time work now fed up with being at home now I want my life back now!! baby steps and all that!!
Bless you
Janx

[Autumnlady]

Oh my, I am so sorry to hear of your losses too, Sparkle, Jan and Menomale. It all takes so much for us to adapt to. I won't say getting over as I think we just learn to live with it. 

Regarding the sudden loss of your sister, Sparkle and how it affected your hormones, it has reminded me of my aunt who lost her husband when he was just 44. She stopped her periods and never had another. So it just shows what shock can do to the body. Thanks for the vit D info!

Good luck with returning to work and getting some life back Jan. I'm sure some normality will do you the world of good.

Menomale, thank you for your experiences of migraines. I have had a read of the link you sent. It does seem that all this dizziness and off balance I have suffered for years could be to do with silent migraine! I would never have connected the two. Just goes to show we are never to old to find out something!  A bit of an eye opener too. My hubby suffered the most horrendous painful migraines when we first met and there was I thinking I didn't have them. Seems it might not be the case!

Thanks again ladies and take care

[Mary G]

Autumnlady, I'm also very sorry to hear about your loss, my brother died suddenly and unexpectedly aged just 55 in 2014 so I know how difficult it is to cope with shock and grief. 

Menomale, sorry to hear that you are a fellow migraine sufferer, there seem to be a lot of us on here.  It is worse when you don't know the trigger or have many different triggers. 

[Autumnlady]

MaryG I am so sorry to hear about your brother and being so young too. It really must have been an awful shock x

Menomale, it is disheartening that so many doctors and even the neurologists don't know what they should about the condition. It amazes me that after all these years of humanity just how little we do know about the body and how it works. Scary really.

[Autumnlady]

Thank you Sparkle x

How are you doing with the reflux right now? Mine is playing up and I woke in the night aware it was hitting the side of my throat. I think the sauerkraut is not helping tbh so I will probably stop with that one. A shame as I liked the idea of what it's supposed to do for a healthier digestive system. I am back with some live yogurt instead of a morning and have been sipping unsweetened almond milk. Hope it works.

[shell05]

Hello all menopausal ladies! I've been chatting to a few lovely ladies on another thread and we have been saying that it would be a good idea to have a list of some of the less well publicised symptoms of menopause - it's very well documented re flushes, crazy periods etc., but some of the symptoms we suffer are so weird and scary, that until we come across a post by chance where another lady has the same symptoms, well, we feel downright terrified and think we're the only one! Even when we approach the docs with them, unless you get lucky and have a doc who actually knows something about meno, they won't even accept that it's caused by hormones! But we know different don't we - of course some of us may have symptoms that are NOT due to menopause, but there's an awful lot of us in meno experiencing similar things.

I'd love to hear what your symptoms are if you get a spare minute, here are mine:

(I'm 54 and 4 years post meno, so no periods, just recently started HRT: Femoston Conti ultra low dose).

1). Day and night flushes.
2), Crippling anxiety which comes and goes.
3). Weak legs and arms, comes and goes, sometimes whole body weakness
4). Generally feeling rough like I could be starting a virus.
5). No energy - tiredness and sleepiness.
6). Heartburn/acid reflux.
7). Feeling overwhelmed, like I can't cope.
Lack of interest in anything.
9). Surging 'rushes' from chest upwards - adrenaline?
10). Feel pressure in head, like it's gripped in a vice but not strong headache.
11). Weird vision, not blurred, but sort of 'vague'.
12). Stomach upsets.
13). Weird jangling along jawbone and in salivary glands.
14). Flashes of irritability.
15). Sensitive to noise.
16). Can't always cope with a long conversation.
17). Bloating.
18). Feel of being off-centred, spaced out.
19). Excess mucus in throat, constantly clearing.
20). Often wake with right nostril blocked.
21). Sudden breathlessness; could be anxiety.
22). Bad obsessive thoughts.
23). Brain fog/can't think straight/forgetfulness.
24). Can't cope with pressure, ie work stress.

There will be more and I will add them if/when this current spell of brain fog clears!
I'd love to read your lists, it might really help someone else who feels they're going mad with some new weird symptom - and boy, some of them are REALLY not fun at all are they!

Unhinged xxx

Left nostril for me. Thought I was getting a cold. I feel ya pain with the rest!!

[shell05]

I can totally understand every single one of them. I had a really weird pain in my armpit (I know, sorry!) Like the hair follicle was sore, then the next day, gone.
What's all that about??!!