Hello to all and thanks for all the wisdom I'm discovering out there from your experiences.
I am 54 years old and have been taking birth control pills for 37 years. In the beginning they stopped the horrible cramps, diarhea and throwing up I experienced during my mentrual cycles through my teens and early 20's. Life was great until about 2-1/2 years ago when I got my first diagnosed migraine with all the pain & vomiting. My family doctor gave me imitrex for it and it worked great. I explained to my ob-gyn that I got a migraine most times I went off the pill for a week before starting a new pack. She told me to started taking the pill for 12 straight weeks before going off for a week. That was helpful. Now, in July when I went off the pill I didn't just get one migraine. I had to do a pill for 3 days in a row. I am now having my October period and am on my 4th day of a migraine and all the other menopause symptoms that come along with it. The fatigue after taking the imitrex beats the migraines though! I am cutting my period short and have gone back on the pill today! My ob-gyn made a remark on my last visit that I need to go off the pill on our next visit since by taking BC pills at 54 it is the same as hormone therapy and I am probably just delaying menopause as I do still have somewhat of a period when I do go off. I wonder what what the worst of the 2 evils are? Taking a boat load of imitrex or hormone replacement? The possibility or rebound headaches for overuse of imitrex scares me. I don't know what the answer is but I will need to choose one as I will not sacrifice my quality of life for several days again. My feelings are that she is not going to be very receptive to any HRT but I will find out soon! If anyone has any thoughts on this I would love to hear them!

kareng

Well as a chronic migraine suffer of 10 years and in the midst of peri, I can say they are both equally horrible. I took imitrex for 5 years than wound up with debilitating rebound headaches and angina with scary heart palps. I can no ,longer take imitrex or any other abortive due to the side effects.It is definitely choosing the lesser of 2 evils. Both imitrex and BCP carry heavy side effects both of the vascular nature. I use midrin and fioricet to ease the pain and just tough them out and YES it *****.However on the months that I don't ovulate, which happens alot during peri, I do not have any migraines.That is probably why you don't have them with BCP because BCP's stave off ovulation.The good news is that once through peri and onto menopause you shouldn't have them any more due to no more periods or ovulation but how long it takes to get there is another story.Can I ask what type of BCP are you on and is there maybe a lower dose ?

I am on the generic for ortho-cyclen it is called necon 1-35. It is suppose to be one of the lowest doses?
I can't even imagine not taking imitrex and suffering through them as you do, especially for 5 years. I hope it stops for you soon! I have found no other pain medications that do a thing for them. I think I see HRT in my future one way or another.

I started on HRT 6 months ago specifically to help control migraines and it has been a life saver for me until 4 days ago when my menopausal ovary ( I have just one) decided to crank out some E and throw me into E overload with the patch I've been on. It's been a cruel reminder of how horrible life is living with migraines again. Imitrex injectable will usually but makes me feel terrible. I have spent a small fortune on the stuff. For me there is no debate about which is worse. And I don't believe that all women achieve remission from headaches once through menopause. My mother is in her 70's and still has them. I started having them in peri and they only got worse as I got older and became more steadily deprived of E.

Both my mother and grandmother had migranes (from peri), thru meno, and until the day they died. I started getting migranes during peri too. Taking b/hrt has alleviated the migranes. Only taking estradiol while still having perids. Progesterone is terrible for me but will cycle in later. I plan on taking hrt indefinitely. Quality of life if very important to me and I will not suffer like my female relatives. Regards, JZZ And there is no guarantee that the migranes (or other lovely peri/meno) symptoms will end once in full meno.

Hi there Karen,
The relationship between hormones and migraine is very complex and will differ with each individual, so it is difficult for us to give you advice. In peri-menopause I developed such severe migraines that I was put on an emergency list normally reserved for terminally ill patients, to enable me to get emergency care if I needed it. They often lasted for 4 days and at their crescendo were worse than childbirth in the pain severity department. Imagine going through the trauma of child birth 3 times per month. When they started coming more regular than 3 times per month I failed to cope and dark thoughts of ending it all started to seep in. Oh how it would have helped if someone had taken the time to explain that it was hormonal shifts that were causing my misery. Instead doctors just tried to anaesthetise me with life destroying epilepsy medication and told me not to eat chocolate. One doctor came up with the gem that if I were a dog they would put me down! eekkk!!!! The only drug that helped was Maxalt Melt which is incredibly expensive and not without risks.
At menopause the migraines disappeared in a puff of smoke. I have not had one for 3 years after a lifetime of suffering. I have taken no HRT and have allowed my system to settle on its own. I do not think that that it is as simple as saying that falling oestrogen is causing the problem and it could well be the juxtaposition between progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone. The doctors haven't really worked it out yet, so I certainly can't. You will now have to make the decision as to what you do. In terms of migraine I say do whatever helps but bear in mind that migraine suffers are by their nature very sensitive to hormonal flux and taking HRT might cause more problems than it solves. I think that you will have to experiment with the most knowledgeable mainstream doctor you can find.

Take care,

XIII