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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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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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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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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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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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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.
