Migraine

Hi,

Have any of you had any success (or lack of success) trying to use birthcontrol medication or other hormonally related medication to reduce migraine? I was on Alesse for 6 months but it made mine significantly worse but I hear that different brands can have different results with migraines. I'd love to hear your experiences, good and bad. I'd even just be interested to find a birthcontrol pill that won't affect my migraines.

Jackie

Birth control pills and migraine is one of those things that's very individual. A lot of women find that they can't tolerate any brand of birth control without it making their migraines worse. Some women do seem to find some relief, though. Typically those that do find relief find one brand or another to be a "favored" one. It's mostly a matter of individual trial and error under the care of your doctor, really. The only way to know for you how one brand or another will affect your migraine status would be to carefully try it, with your doctor supervising.

Thanks. I'm more wondering if anyone has had any success using hormones to reduce migraines. I don't think my doctor would appreciate me going through 50 different brands if I'm not sure that at least someone has had some success. I'll have to convince my GP that this can work, it just depends on which particular medication.

Jackie

I have taken Alesse too, it made mine worse, or so I think. I found that the 91 day packs like Seasonale or Jolessa work really well for those who have hormone triggered Migraines and get them around that 'time of the month'.

I take Jolessa now and it is the same strength consistantly which helps too - and I take it for 3 months straight with one placebo week.

Not only do I not get Menstrual Migraines anymore - I have been on the birth control for so long now, I hardly get a period at all, much less every three months. This has helped a lot. Not having the ups and downs of different strength hormones with those other pills has also gotten me into a more normal pattern. Not to say that any pattern is normal - but those once a month killer Migraines are no longer.

Hope this helps a bit.

I have been taking loestrin 24 for the past 6 months now. I feel as though it has reduced the amount and severity of the headaches that i get around that time of the month. It is a low estrogen bc pill that has less placebo pills in the last week so you have less days of interruption of estrogen. So unlike seasonal, you still get a monthly period.

Hi Jackie,

I'm sure lots of people have success with taking bc pills and reducing the frequency and severity of their Migraine attacks. I'm also sure lots of people don't. But here's the thing - no matter who tells you what bc pill they use, it really doesn't matter. YOUR body and YOUR hormones may or may not react the same way that Eileen's do to that bc pill. As droolie said it is a very individual thing. You may very well have to try 2 o 3 different ones.

There are over 100 medications that can be used for Migraine prevention. BC isn't your only option, but may be a good one for you. Unfortunately with most medications we try as Migraine prevention, it is a trial and error thing. It can take new medications three months or longer, before we see a reduction in our Migraine frequency and severity. If we don't give the medication a fair trial, we'll never know if that would have been "the pill" and are basically cheating ourselves. That is the downside - the upside is when they work, we feel so much better.

Mybe it feels as if you've tried so many things out there, but there are so many medications that can be used for Migraine and headache prevention that it's literally impossible. You can find a list of potential Migraine and headache preventives in Migraine preventive medications - too many options to give up!

I hope this helps.

quote:

Originally posted by jackie_hubert:
Thanks. I'm more wondering if anyone has had any success using hormones to reduce migraines. I don't think my doctor would appreciate me going through 50 different brands if I'm not sure that at least someone has had some success. I'll have to convince my GP that this can work, it just depends on which particular medication.

Jackie