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I wish we talked more about menstrual migraines: a thread.
I didn& #39;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& #39;s part of the monthly bleeding bundle you& #39;re dealt and too bad. I didn& #39;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& #39;t so conservative that they wouldn& #39;t let their daughter go on birth control to manage excessive bleeding (fun).
My mom& #39;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& #39;s a weird process to try to schedule your own migraines so that you can be fully out of commission if needed. Sometimes I& #39;m lucky, and it& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t talk about them because...*we don& #39;t talk about them*. Silence begets silence.
I wish I had known earlier that a monthly week of migraines wasn& #39;t necessary, and that I could have spared myself those years of pain and nausea. I wish I& #39;d had a better mindset about quiet suffering and the assumption that pain, when it& #39;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 â things I had assumed were just "really bad headaches." Now I can manage them, and while medication doesn& #39;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& #39;s why I& #39;m the person sipping my way through every single meeting, an ongoing battle to stay hydrated enough to ward them off. It& #39;s part of the reason I don& #39;t drink alcohol much at all anymore.
