Sheila is a 30 year old woman who came to see me with bad headaches at the beginning of her period. They had always been a problem and made her periods even more difficult to cope with.
Lots of women with endometriosis have headaches at period time. Sometimes it is obvious that these are a type of migraine headache, but other times they just seem to be bad headaches. There are two types of period headaches:
1. One type due to a rise in prostaglandin chemicals at period time
2. Another type due to a fall in estrogen hormone at period time
Before deciding on how best to help her headaches, I asked if medications like ibuprofen or naprosyn helped the headache. They did. This means that her headaches were due to a rise in prostaglandins, rather than a fall in estrogen. The best treatments for this type of headaches are either:
1. Regular ibuprofen/naprosyn started 1-2 days before the headache and continued for a few days, or,
2. A mirena IUCD in the uterus.
Sheila had a mirena iucd inserted in the uterus, because she also had painful periods and hoped that this treatment might help more than one problem. I inserted the Mirena under anaesthetic, because it can be painful to have one inserted in women who have not had children, and especially in women with a painful pelvis. Sheila had some irregular bleeding and some crampy pains for the first few months, but 3 months later, she had no headaches at period time and only very light pain free bleeding at period time.
There are different treatments for women who don't find that ibuprofen or naprosyn help their period headaches, and for women who get headaches at other times too.
I have to say, every time I come to your blog there is another interesting post to read. I
ReplyDeleteknow Dacula GA chiropractor. The best chiropractic clinic helps people in Dacula GA with
back pain, neck pain, headaches.
dacula chiropractic
Dear Dacula Chiropractic,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. Physical therapies, exercise and movement are such an important part of headache management and wellbeing. I am sure you make a big difference to your patients.
Best wishes,
Susan
w
ReplyDeleteEndometriosis is no cure. However, there are many treatments, each of which has its advantages and disadvantages. It is important to create a good physician-patient relationship, so that they can decide what is best for the patient.
ReplyDeleteyp thanks alot this helped alot because when i have period pains i used to get really bad headaches and i was really confused and didnt no what to do
ReplyDeletethis helped alot and gave me lots of info
thanks very much
xxxxx :)
Migraine is a disease that causes much pain and why doctors prescribe synthetic drugs to relieve pain as Vicodin, Lortab, Lorcet, etc.
ReplyDelete