Comment by BobaFloutist

Comment by BobaFloutist 2 days ago

Are you a woman? Do you take homona birth control other than the "Mini pill"? My wife read online that it's not safe to take typical hormonal birth control on the standard pill if you get migraines with auras, because it increases your risk of stroke and mentioned her migraines to her gyno, who was like "Oh shit yeah we have to put you on the mini pill then." Which was crazy, because aura migraines wasn't on the laundry list of possible conditions on the intake form. Anyway, she got fewer migraines after changing birth control, so...maybe relevant?

smeej 17 hours ago

I am a woman. I have never used birth control of any kind. (I know, I know. Unicorn. But I'm long-term celibate for personal reasons, so unexpected pregnancy is not a concern.)

It is a bone of contention with my gynecologist that I am not willing to suppress my (screened and confirmed to be) perfectly healthy "ovulation axis" on the off chance it might decrease my headaches.

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spondylosaurus 2 days ago

IIRC the birth control and migraine relationship is twofold: (1) unlike traditional BC pills, mini-pills don't contain estrogen, which is beneficial because of the link between estrogen and migraine frequency; and (2) unlike most traditional BC pills, most mini-pills are "monophasic," which means you have less dramatic hormonal fluctuations throughout each cycle.

I do know some people see an improvement on migraines even on traditional BC, but the hierarchy is pretty much: nothing < traditional BC < mini-pills.

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smeej 17 hours ago

I can definitely say that the couple cycles where a NaPro doctor had me supplementing both estradiol and progesterone at different points of the cycle led to the most incredible pain I've ever experienced. I fired the guy rather shortly thereafter when he ignored my existing meds list and wrote me a prescription for the headache that would have landed me in the hospital were I not a careful reader, so I don't know if it might have gotten better if it were tuned in better.

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