I had my first menstrual migraine attack a month after going off birth control pills. In fact, I gave up birth control pills because migraine is one of the possible side effects and it tended to occur more and more often. I think I had migrain 3 or 4 days every second week or even every week. And, really, I forgot about migraines for the entire month, which was heaven for me! But the day the period began I experienced a real menstrual migrain, the one without aura.
Causes of Menstrual Migrain
Menstrual migraines are generally linked to hormone levels changes (estrogen). By the way, when you stop taking birth control pills, estrogen levels change so that may trigger menstrual migrane as well. In perimenstrual period estrogen levels are low, which is considered to be the cause of menstrual migrains.
However, doctors say that menstrual migraine mechanism is not yet properly studied and nobody knows for sure what triggers the attack. But changes in estrogen levels result in change in levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. Low levels of serotonin a linked to bad mood and depression (remember perimenstrual mood changes?). Low levels of serotonin the have also been linked to menstrual migranes for some time.
Diagnosing Menstrual Migraine
A true menstrual migraine attack occurs during your periods, within 5 day span (from 2 day prior to 3 day after the beginning of the period). It has all the symptoms of the migraine without aura: nausea, sensitivity to light and sound etc. The headache can the quite strong. Keeping a migraine diary to mark down the regularity of attacks during the period is a good idea. If migrain occurs at different times over your period or you have the aura, that is not necessarily true menstrual migrane that occurs when the periods begin.
The good news about menstrual migraine is that you know for sure when to expect the attack. The bad news about menstrual migrains is that it is harder to treat becuase of the trigger and ways to remove it are still under question.
Triptan drugs (Rizatriptan, Maxalt) seem to be one of the most effective ways to abort menstrual migrane so far.
