Hysterectomy for menstrual migraines.

I'm 29 and suffer for two weeks a month from PMDD. I want to bury myself in a hole and not come out. My migraines are under control (1-2 a week) with beta blockers and triptans. Right before my period I get horrible migraines that aren't helped with any combination of meds. Has anyone had hysterectomy or uterine ablation to alleviate migraines?

I have often wondered if this would work for me, to at least get rid of SOME of the migraines I have during my cycle.  Then I remind myself that it's only one trigger, and probably wouldn't be worth my time and pain and suffering from the surgery.

Michele

About 30 years ago I asked my doctor about this. She said it might help some but she refused to refer me to a surgeon for this saying no surgeon would ever do it at my age. Was about 40 at the time.

Yeah the only person I know at your age who got a hysterectomy it was for severe and life threatening endometriosis.  I don't think it would be considered an appropriate treatment unless it was something life threatening like that.  Plus you have to remember that afterwards you're going to have to take more medications to replace your hormones which could possibly worsen your migraines.

We definitely feel your pain though and hope you can find other things to improve your PMDD.

If it helps you at all, I used to have severe migraines right before my period that also did not respond to medication. I now take the mini-pill, which eliminated that completely. It has only progesterone in it, not synthetic estrogen which can worsen migraines, and there's no "week off" so there's no sudden drop in hormones. I get my period once every 3-4 months on average and it's nothing compared to what it used to be, and I maybe only get a moderate headache the day or two before.

There is a lot of good advice in all above posts.
Seaine comments about mini pill make great sense, and might be worth considering. This way you might be able  to resolve the problem of menstrual migraines, which are at present caused by sudden hormonal changes.

Having hysterectomy  is very risky: it might not resolve you problem, in fact it might make things worse as several older women here will vouch, that migraine does not stop when your periods stop, at menopause, in  many cases  they actually become much worse, or more frequent for some people.

It is also true, that some women stop having M after menopause, but not many judging how many women over 50 visit these pages, so there are no guarantees that hysterectomy will help you in any way.

Hysterectomy means going into a premature menopause at your age and for many this means sometimes getting daily migraines, instead. There are also many other problems connected with menopause which can be very difficult to live with.

You are much to young for such drastic step anyway, and you can end up with no result, and more problems instead. In any case, I do not think that any responsible surgeon would agree to carry out such serious operation, as a  migraine preventative. And if you find one that does, I would not trust such a surgeon anyway.

I agree with Mini. A hysterectomy is a drastic solution that shouldn't be tried until absolutely every other avenue has been exhausted. And the other posters are correct: migs don't necessarily stop after menopause; in some cases, they can become worse. Have you tried birth control pills or bio-identical hormones? The latter helped my menstrual migs tremendously; didn't stop them entirely, but certainly cut down the number. Consider balancing your hormones rather than depriving yourself of them via hysterectomy.