During the mid-life phenomenon known as menopause, changes in headache type,

duration and intensity are more common. Throbbing, explosive headaches can pain
the sides of your head, and your energy become totally depleted. The slightest
opening of an eye can cause a ripple of pain to burst on one side of your fragile
head, leaving you in physical ruin. Menopause is known to heighten such
uncomfortable, sometimes unbearable symptoms.

Menopause and headache changes, specifically, migraine headaches cause a

repetitive stronger-than-normal headache that resides on one side of your head.
During menopause, a woman’s hormone system goes awry in part because estrogen is
not being produced at normal rates.

Most women nearing the end of a menstrual lifecycle discover that their
progesterone levels can become significantly decreased and cause symptoms such as
headaches they never had before, or worsen ones they have.

During menopause, other things like foods such as cheese, avocado, nuts, meat
tenderizers, and chocolate have been known to bring on a migraine. Other factors
a woman must look for are certain medications including oral contraceptives,
changes in weather, fatigue, and alcoholic beverages.

During these headache changes, blood vessel walls in the brain widen and narrow
quickly, causing pain nerves to overreact and stimulate pain. The ¨throbbing¨
feeling in the head is because of this bodily reaction. During menopause, signals
that a migraine is coming can be frequent.

Some women get a warning; their eye sight may suddenly change, or bright spots or
zig zag lines are seen. They report experiencing double vision, and in some cases
temporary, partial blindness. Sometimes these changes may be followed by numbness
and tingling of the lips, face hands, weakness of an arm or le

You need to pay attention to symptoms such as dizziness, extreme mental and
physical fatigue, unsteadiness in walking, slight confusion of thinking and slight
slurring of speech. Any of these can indicate the on-set of a migraine headache.
The intensity of the headache can build until you have a full-force, throbbing
headache that typically impacts one side of your head. There are also migraines
that occur immediately.

These are quite common and women report that these headaches can last from a
couple of hours to days in extreme cases. In severe cases, migraines can cause
vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light and noise.

If you want a quick fix to migraine headaches, a technique that helps some women
is breathing into a paper bag. Inhaling and exhaling out of a paper bag can
restore carbon dioxide intake and eliminate or lessen the effects of brought on by
anxiety attacks. Using an ice cold pack and sometimes applying heat to the area
can help.

Try staying in a darkened room and lying still as this can bring relief once a
migraine has hit. Lying down provides relaxation which is critical to lessening
the pain. If you know yoga, this is a good time to practice it. Also, take slow,
depth breaths into the abdomen letting your attention watch your naval rise and
fall (which calms the mind).

Some women benefit from evening primrose oil, progesterone cream and dandelion tea
to detoxify the liver. Of course there are some women with symptoms so severe
they need drugs such as imitrex. That’s where you need to follow your doctor’s
advice.
The information in this article is for educational purposes only, and is not
intended as medical advice.