Could my migraines be hormone related?
In my early 20’s, I can’t even tell you the number of times I Googled the question, “Could my migraines be hormone related?” Usually, articles from sites like WebMD would pop up stating one sentence that read something like, “Women are more likely to experience migraine than men, which is thought to be hormone related.”
OK, but how? I’m the type of person that wants to know the ins and outs of WHY I’m in pain. Telling me it’s a possible cause is not enough for me. To be honest, this simple Google search I found myself doing led me to what has now been over a decade of research on the topic of how hormones can trigger headache in women.
Let me first just say that I am not a doctor, and nothing in this article is intended to prescribe or diagnose. It’s simply my findings for my own self, my own headache triggers, and what I personally feel could be the culprit for so many women suffering around the globe.
When I was 22 years old, I went from a new apartment living, newly married, corporate employee sipping cocktails on the weekend to a miserable, chronic migraine sufferer seemingly out of the blue. I had dealt with headaches through adolescence, but nothing to this degree. So, I did what most people do: I sought out a neurologist. In fact, the first neuro I saw was a “Headache Specialist.” Perfect, I thought.
After more than a dozen appointments and feeling a bit like a human guinea pig, I had tried almost 10 different abortive medications for migraine, Botox for migraine, and even anti-seizure IV infusions to try to get the pain under control. Nothing worked. Oddly enough, despite the fears instilled in me by the internet, my brain scan was perfectly fine.
Days became weeks which became months which became years. 18 months after I began this journey, I developed 14 kidney stones, which we are led to believe came from all of the various medications tried during that time. You could say I was in a very, very dark place.
But yet, every year when I would see my GP or my OB/GYN, I would ask the question, “Could my migraines be hormone related?”
And each and every time, I was met with the response, “Not likely.” Their reasoning was because I was having this pain all the time, not just around my period. My argument was that the only time I had ever had this pain before was during adolescence, when on my period, when I was also using oral contraceptive pills.
One day, on a hike in the woods with my dear friend, I reached into my pocket for my handy painkiller I kept on me at all times. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had reached a breaking point. My friend looked at me and said, “You can’t give up now. Try one more doctor.”
She gave me the name of her M.D., who specialized in holistic methods first. I told her no way. I had seen dozens of specialists, and by this time I had even had 4 neck surgeries to ablate nerves in my neck! No way that yet ANOTHER doctor was going to be able to help. I had given up hope.
But she was my friend, and I trusted her. And I knew I couldn’t give up. I had a lot of life left to live and didn’t want to spend it miserable.
So I went. I met with my now Dr. nearly 12 years ago, and over the course of the next 4 months, my life was changed.
She did bloodwork and saliva testing on my hormones that I had NEVER had done before. (When I later told my OB/GYN, she admitted she’d never heard of these tests. Boy does that say something.) We found that my body was severely progesterone deficient and in a constant state of estrogen dominance, which this new Dr. seemed to think could be my headache trigger.
Estrogen dominance refers to your estrogen in relation to your progesterone. If too large of a ratio exists, it can put your body into a variety of symptoms: headache, bloating, weight gain, fatigue, and more. Yep. That was me. I was experiencing ALL of that, but of course the headaches were all I cared about in the moment.
She started me on bioidentical progesterone cream compounded by a local pharmacy, along with some supplements to help my body detoxify excess estrogen. Within 4 months, I was a new person.
I started to sleep better.
I had energy in the mornings and could get out of bed.
The headaches had been drastically reduced by 70% or more, and were starting to follow a more cyclical pattern.
I wasn’t depressed and anxious.
I was me.
Since then, I’ve remained exceptionally grateful to this doctor for her knowledge and her guidance over the years. She’s played a vital role in my wellness, not just with hormones but with food sensitivities, holistic remedies, and more. Functional medicine changed my life.
And now, I want every woman to know what they should know about their own bodies. I wish every doctor in America had this knowledge, but the truth is, it’s hard to find the ones that do. I tell my coursetakers often that finding the right practitioner who does the right testing is half the battle.
So where am I now with migraine? I’m in a very good place. In my early 30’s, I experienced another dip and chronic migraine episode, during which time we tested again and increased supplementation. Now, in my late 30’s, I deal with maybe 2 migraines per month at most. I’ve learned so much about my body: how to track my cycles using my SYNC scope so that I know when to anticipate estrogen surges and therefore increase supplementation accordingly, and what things can help lessen the blow of an attack. Natural things, not pharmaceutical.
Just last week, I had yet another woman reach out to me on social media asking the question, “Do you think my headaches could be hormones?” And I just had to smile. Her life is about to be changed for the better.
This personal mission I’m on, that I’m so passionate about, is to educate women on hormone health and help them get to the root causes of any imbalances and then live in alignment with their physiology. I now know that those years of suffering were meant for this. They were meant for me to be able to help others in the way that I’m doing now.
So to answer the question, “Could my migraines be hormone related?” I tell you… Girl, if you have to ask that, you’re onto something. You are your own best doctor. Let’s get started.
xoxo,
Jenny