Menopause and migraine - going crazy

I've had migraine since puberty and am now perimenopausal and - yikes! My average of 10-15 migraines a month has now skyrocketed to virtually daily migraine. I know all about triptan rebound and have been trying to keep away from the Maxalt, but I can't, I just can't - and lately, to my horror, the Maxalt has not worked for several of my migraines. I had to book off sick from work for the first time in years - Maxalt, the third triptan I've tried, has been that foolproof for me, until now. I've been in desperation using B2 and magnesium daily, and I hate the idea of a stronger prophylactic - eons ago I took Sibelium, which worked marvellously to prevent my migraine, but triggered such havoc with my mood that I didn't dare touch a prophylactic again. I'm told that often in perimenopause sufferers of migraine without aura inexplicably begin to experience migraine aura, without the head pain - others suddenly stop suffering from migraine - yet others develop an exacerbation, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones!

What to do, what to do??! thanks for letting me vent!

It sounds like it's due to hormone fluctuation. Perhaps a doctor could measure your hormone levels, or give you a hormone supplement? I don't know much about this area but I'm assuming there's something that can be done.

Prophylactics don't effect mood as a rule. Trying to manage migraine with abortives only is extremely difficult. It's far preferable to get them under control with preventatives and use abortives as necessary. The less you use them the better they work. I would talk to your doctor about doing trials on a few of the first line preventatives.

-Platy

Platypus wrote:Prophylactics don't effect mood as a rule

Um.. really???  Every single one of them affected my mood! All the antidepressents did, most of them made me feel like an emotionless zombie or strange in some other way. Topomax made me into a different person, according to my friends and family. Even the beta blockers made me depressed.

I have been getting migraines for 14 years.  I was getting them 4 days a week and so bad I could barely walk at times.  This is what I found and now I get 1 or 2 a week.
First, I found that I had heavy metals in my body and started getting EDTA Chelation by IV.  This helped for 9 months but insurance does not cover it and it is very expensive.  After I stopped treatments, migraines returned.  I returned for treatments and it did not help as much as it had in the past but I find if I go for Mannitol, the migraine goes away in less than 2 hours.  Mannitol relieves the migraine but does not prevent it.
Second, I have gone gluten and dairy free.  It is not easy but it works.  I went from 4 migraines a week to 1 and sometimes 2 after 3 weeks of being gluten/dairy free.
I have yet to find anything that works for everyone and have tried a lot of things that worked for others yet did not work for me.  I have been gluten/dairy free for 3 months now and still it works.  If I have gluten or dairy now, by accident, I get stomach cramps with 2 or 3 days of migraines to follow.  After that, I am good again.  I have only had gluten/dairy 3 times by accident and after getting cramps, looked at what I had eaten to find it in the ingredients.

Hope this helps.

Peri-menopause messed me up too. I've had great success with bio- identical hormones. I am practically migraine free now. See if you can find a naturalpathic doctor in your area who specializes in hormones. They must be bio identical and natural. The synthetic ones will mess you up worse than before.

Seaine wrote:

Platypus wrote:Prophylactics don't effect mood as a rule

Um.. really???  Every single one of them affected my mood!  All the antidepressents did, most of them made me feel like an emotionless zombie or strange in some other way.  Topomax made me into a different person, according to my friends and family.  Even the beta blockers made me depressed.

There isn't *anything* generally characteristic of the migraine preventatives -- mood effect or anything else. They come from all classes of medicines. It's reasonable to generalize about anti-seizure medications or beta-blockers, (bearing in mind of course that it's your anecdotal experience, not statistical), but that's the tip of the iceberg.