question for the ladies (migraine-hormone connection)

I know that hormones play into my migraines because I always get a horrible 5-7 day migraine around my period. That being said, I do not have a regular cycle and must be on some form of birth control in order to regulate it. This past year I tried acupuncture, and the acupuncturist was convinced that if I could get my cycle to normalize, the migraines would also improve. Unfortunately the treatments were too expensive and I stopped before getting any real migraine relief (although it did change my hormones and cycle).

Has anyone heard of this before? Have you tried acupuncture or hormone therapy treatments and has this affected your migraines?

I have 40 year history of migraine with multiple triggers. I was on a 3 day M every 10 days. A few years ago I used twice a week acupuncture and within a month M ceased. I continued acupuncture for 3 months and had no M for that time. I stopped acupuncture because of cost. M came back with the same frequency within a few weeks of stopping acupuncture. If I had the money and lived close to my acupuncturist I'd still be using the treatments.

I'm on continuous birth control to help mine, as I have PCOS. This means I'm on a single level (nothing with tri in the name) and I skip the last week's placebo pills. Not having a shifting hormone level helps me a lot. It does throw friends when I casually mention that my last period was last Christmas, but if it helps the migraines and the ovarian cysts, it's a win-win for me

I take the minipill which is continuous, although I still have my period once every few months. I have a migraine everyday regardless of whether or not I'm on my period.

I get different headaches right before my period; my triptan doesn't work on them and instead I have to take anti-inflammatories. I got my first migraine when I was 12, shortly before I got my first period. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be a connection.

I had pretty much the same experience with acupuncture as cassiej. It worked for me as long as I had regular treatments, but when I had to get different health insurance, acupuncture wasn't covered, and I couldn't afford $100+ every week.

I also took bio-identical hormone creams (estrogen and progesterone) in the years just before and after menopause, and they helped tremendously with the menstrual migraines. I still got them once in a while, but when I did, they were much less painful. Now that I use Cefaly, they're about once a month, except during the change of seasons, then I have them for several days in a row.

I tried acupuncture. It was very successful in stopping the migraine I was having. But then I would still get one the next day. At $100 a pop plus an hour drive to get there, it just wasn't practical. However, considering that I am deathly skemish about needles, I have to report that it was pretty much painless.

I got a lot of benefit from taking natural bio-identical progesterone. I went from having headaches 80% of the days to only 20%, which was a huge improvement. It kept me functional for years. But you definitely need to look for bio-identical progesterone. The kind you get in birth control pills is not and can make things worse. See a naturalpathic doctor to get this.

Now that I have finally hit menopause I have stopped all the hormones and supplements, and I seem to be doing ok without. I'm just using the Cefaly periodically and watching my diet.