I wish we talked more about menstrual migraines: a thread.

I didn't know they were a thing, much less a thing that could be managed and treated. I only got relief by happenstance, because my mother mentioned in passing to her own OBGYN that I was having awful headaches for a full week every month.

I had assumed, much like every other symptom that comes with menstruation, that you simply hunker down and deal with the pain quietly, however it manifests, because that's part of the monthly bleeding bundle you're dealt and too bad. I didn't even think to mention it to my GYN.

I was in my late teens at that point, and had been on birth control for a few years already to manage other period issues. Thankfully my conservative parents weren't so conservative that they wouldn't let their daughter go on birth control to manage excessive bleeding (fun).

My mom's GYN quickly named a potential culprit (menstrual migraines) and gave me something to talk to my own gynecologist about. I had a wonderful nurse practitioner who, geography permitting, I would still see to this day. She quickly set me up with a new birth control schedule.

The positives: I only have a period once a quarter or thrice a year, give or take, when my body overrides the steady stream of hormones from my birth control pills. Much better than monthly migraines, and a little more control over my body and experiences.

The negatives: I know that for roughly a week a quarter, I could have as many migraines as my body feels like throwing at me, and a guaranteed migraine the day I restart my pills. I have migraines for other reasons, though my triggers are largely under control (ish). Except this.

It's a weird process to try to schedule your own migraines so that you can be fully out of commission if needed. Sometimes I'm lucky, and it's just a day of pain and nausea with varying degrees of light sensitivity. Sometimes I lose verbal processing skills, so weekdays are out.

I'm very lucky to have health insurance, to have doctors I trust and feel comfortable advocating for myself with, and to have a job that not only has paid sick leave, but also has a deep bench of understanding managers and colleagues in the event that I can't avoid time off.

It feels strange to talk about it, but @JA_Davids being so frank about her experiences with IVF / infertility reminds me that the only way to talk about these things is to just talk about them. We don't talk about them because...*we don't talk about them*. Silence begets silence.

I wish I had known earlier that a monthly week of migraines wasn't necessary, and that I could have spared myself those years of pain and nausea. I wish I'd had a better mindset about quiet suffering and the assumption that pain, when it's period-related pain, is non-negotiable.

I am grateful that being able to recognize my menstrual migraines also helped me recognize my *regular* migraines – things I had assumed were just "really bad headaches." Now I can manage them, and while medication doesn't help me (unfortunately), I have them far less frequently.

Migraines are why I have a drink (tea, water) in my hand at all times of the day. It's why I'm the person sipping my way through every single meeting, an ongoing battle to stay hydrated enough to ward them off. It's part of the reason I don't drink alcohol much at all anymore.

In any case – I hope reproductive health discussions expand to normalize menstrual migraines, so that other people don't need to go through the same thing I did, the same thing others before and alongside me have gone through. It turns out, we don't need to suffer just because.

and I guess while we're here, if you've also been unsuccessful in treating regular (episodic, non-chronic) migraines with medication, what do you use? I use a combo of excedrin migraine / extra caffeine / extra hydration / CBD / just try to limit painful stimuli to get through it