Hormonal Migraines: Why Migraines Strike Before Your Period

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Why do your migraines always strike right before your period?

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What if your body is actually trying to tell you something, something that could help you

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prevent the next one?

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Migraine Heroes is a podcast for chronic migraine sufferers, who've seen countless doctors with

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no results.

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Learn how to reduce your migraine attacks without endless medications or constant sacrifices.

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Hello, I'm Diane Ducarme.

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I've helped over 500 people break free from migraine, even after suffering for up to 60

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years.

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My mission in life?

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To bring this relief to a million people, using a unique blend of Eastern medicine and Western

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science.

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In this episode, you will learn why your body triggers a migraine in the days before your

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menstruation and how you can spot the pattern before the pain hits.

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What specific strategies you can use right when you sense the trigger coming, and how

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an integrative approach combining Eastern methods and Western science gives you the

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real tools to reduce these period-related migraines.

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Stay with me till the end, because by the end of this episode, you will have one more

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hack in your toolkits to try to avoid those migraines that hit just before your menstruation.

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When we talk about migraines that line up with your cycle, we're talking about what

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researchers call menstrual migraine, or menstrually-related migraine.

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By definition, in the West, these are migraine attacks that occur between a couple of days

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before your period up to three days after the bleeding begins.

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It's a surprisingly common pattern, and one with real impact.

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Women make up a majority of migraine sufferers, and these attacks tend to cluster around moments

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of hormonal changes, puberty, menstruation, postpartum, and perimenopause.

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But it actually goes even further.

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A large Danish study involving over 12,000 participants highlighted indeed that menstrual

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migraines are also significantly more severe than non-menstrual ones, lasting longer,

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hitting harder, and responding less to typical medication.

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I want to insist this is the average, not everyone's the same.

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In fact, roughly half of all women with migraines notice a clear link between attacks and their

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cycle.

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But what's really going on?

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One of the most widely accepted explanations is the oestrogen withdrawal hypothesis.

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In the days leading up to your menstruation, oestrogen levels plummet, and for some women,

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that sudden drop acts as a spark that lights the migraine fuse.

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Your brain is indeed used to a certain hormonal rhythm, and when that rhythm dips suddenly,

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the entire system, mood, pain, and blood flow, wobbles.

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And for someone who's already predisposed to migraine, that instability can easily tip

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the balance even further.

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A 2023 review in the Journal of Headache and Pain confirmed that women with menstrual migraines

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show a steeper oestrogen drop during the late luteal phase compared to those without migraines.

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And that is not just about the drop.

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In fact, in the days leading up to your menstruation, your whole system enters a kind of transition

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phase, and during this time, the trigeminal vascular system, the network of nerves and

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vessels involved in migraine, tends to become more sensitive and more reactive.

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As the body prepares to shed the uterine lining, subtle inflammation and vascular changes can

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ripple through the whole system.

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The blood vessels in the brain start to tighten, while inflammatory messengers rise, and that's

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often when the familiar pre-period migraine begins to build.

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Now that is the explanation from the West, and I agree with it, but to me, and all of

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the data we see at Migraine Heroes, it still fails to explain the reason why the oestrogen

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would drop in the first instance.

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When traditional Chinese medicine looks at migraine that appeared before menstruation,

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it doesn't see it as a hormone dropping.

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It sees it as a movement changing direction.

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The body, preparing to release blood and toxins, begins to draw energy inward and downward,

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but if that descent is blocked, if the qi cannot move freely, pressure begins to build,

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in particular if there are a lot of toxins involved.

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In this quiet tension between holding and letting go, the migraine is born.

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As menstruation approaches, the liver must coordinate this descent, guiding blood toward

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the uterus and qi toward release, but when stress, exhaustion, toxins, or emotional strain

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constrain the liver, the qi stagnates.

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Instead of descending smoothly, it rebounds upward, bringing its fullness that surged

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to the head.

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That's when the temples tighten, the mind grows restless, and the body feels caught

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up between two movements, one trying to release and the other one resisting.

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When these systems regain their rhythm, the descent happens naturally, and the head, no

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longer under pressure, grows quiet again.

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The migraine before your menstruation, from both perspectives, western and eastern, describes

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the same truth through very different languages.

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Science sees the estrogen drop, destabilizing serotonin vessel tone.

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Traditional Chinese medicine sees qi and blood losing harmony in their natural descent.

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Both point to a body transition, trying to find equilibrium in a moment of change.

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So if your migraines come before your period, they're not a sign of weakness, it's not

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a punishment, it's a message.

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Your body's saying, help me flow, help me let go.

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Your cycle isn't working against you, it's simply showing where your balance wavers.

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Through rest, warmth, nourishment, and compassion, you teach your body that it's safe to release.

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And little by little, it learns that it doesn't have to shout to be heard.

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It's the wisdom your body carries each month.

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So what can you do in your home if your migraine hits just before your menstruation?

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You can take a cup of chamomile and goji berries infusion, 8 to 10 berries, that will help

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your liver become stimulated and detox faster.

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Now do not have it once your menstruation has started, or you will bleed more.

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Do not have it when pregnant, do not have it if you are on a FODMAP diet because you

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have an irritable bowel syndrome.

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And remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom.

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You are powerful, you are resilient, and you are no longer alone.

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Keep rising, Migraine Hero.