I started having horrible migraines in December.  I saw my doctor 2 weeks ago, and mentioned it to her.  She gave me a migraine tracker and I've been tracking them ever since.  5 migraines in the past 13 days.  There are two possible "triggers" for me that I can test for.  Last fall, I switched birth control: from the progesterone only depo shot to the combo NuvaRing.  I skipped a month for financial reasons.  Migraines started when I went back on the ring.  My mom had migraines when she was put on hormone replacement therapy, so I'm wondering if the estrogen in the ring is my problem.  I'm already switching to a combo pill this month (my new insurance considers the ring to be non-preffered brand), but I'm debating whether or not to see if my insurance will cover the copper IUD so that I can eliminate hormones completely.

However, the other trigger is easier to test for.  In December, after 11 months of trying to lose weight on my own, I joined Weight Watchers.  I went from the occaisonal artificial sweetener to replacing almost all sugar with artificial sweeteners to save "points".

Last week, I decided to completely eliminate ALL artificial sweeteners from my diet and see if it helps at all with the migraine situation.  If it does help, I might add them back one and a time and see if I can figure out which one it is.  Or I may just steer clear of all of them.  I haven't decided yet.

My question is, how long do artificial sweeteners stay in your system?  How long do I have to be off of them before I can say "Okay, I still have migraines.  We haven't found the answer."  Today is only day 5 without them, so I know I shouldn't expect to see any results yet (though I was hoping that I would and makes today's migraine even more annoying), but I'm just not sure how long I should give myself before moving on to another option.