What Are Menstrual Migraines and Why Do They Occur?

Headaches are one of the most common afflictions known to man, and even more so to women. Just about everyone has experienced the pain of headache at sometime during their life. Fortunately, the majority of individuals will only experience headache pain once in awhile and they won't be very disruptive to that person's life. However, for other people, headaches can be totally disabling and can greatly impact a person's life in a negative way. And migraines are right at the top of the list of painful afflictions.

Migraines are seen in women three times as often as in men because of their female hormones. When a woman experiences a migraine that coincides with their menstrual cycle or as a result of menopause, they are called menstrual migraines or hormonal headaches. As the hormone levels rise and fall throughout a woman's monthly cycle they can become out of sync with each other, particularly estrogen and progesterone. As these hormones become out of balance with each other the symptoms can grow to be severe

Menstrual migraines feel just like and other migraine headache and will typically be a throbbing and pounding pain on one side of the head. The pain is usually moderate to severe and may last a few hours or a few days. They are often accompanied by nausea and vomiting, but other symptoms can happen before, during, or after the headache. Other common symptoms are increased sensitivity to lights, sounds, or odors, numbness or tingling in the face or upper extremities, fatigue, depression, and many others.

Hormonal headaches, or menstrual migraines, can happen at just about any time during the female cycle and also during menopause. It all depends on when the hormones rise or fall. Some women may go many years without ever experiencing a menstrual migraine, but then have them appear for the very first time during menopause. Other women may have migraine attacks due to their cycle only once in awhile, but not always. When this happens there is often a secondary trigger that helps set off the attack. A woman may experience a migraine during her cycle one month when she is under a lot of stress, but then not experience one the next month when she feels no stress.

One popular method of finding these additional triggers or combinations of triggers is through the use of a migraine headache diary. Unfortunately, most people do not maintain a headache diary correctly and therefore have a very difficult time finding the triggers that are causing their pain.

There are many forms of treatment for menstrual migraines, but the methods that have the least side effects and best long term results are the natural approaches. Most women can improve or completely restore their body's natural hormone levels and balances through proper nutrition, exercise, and nutritional supplements.