Migraine and Birth Control Pills

By ccowan6100 Sunday, November 04, 2007

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So I wanted to let other people out there know about my experience, because the birth control pill might affect other people the same way, and OBGYNs don't seem to know about this. The ones I have talked to since this experience seem surprised that the pill could affect someone this way -- even my sister, who is an OBGYN in another state, seemed surprised, and we have a third sister who had the same experience I had! The third sister is a decade younger, and went through this younger, so I don't think my older age on the pill was necessarily the culprit.

In the interest of complete disclosure, I also have begun taking a number of supplements that may be helping control my migraines. These include a major multivitamin, riboflavin, magnesium, Co Q-10, feverfew, and butterbur. While these supplements are a big help, I do think the birth control pill was at the root of many of my problems. I still have to make sure I eat, sleep and exercise regularly -- messing up my routine still causes a migraine. But getting off the pill has made a huge difference, and I hope this helps other women who might be in the same boat.

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Comments (11) | Add comment

Nancy Harris Bonk, Health Guide

11/ 5/07 11:32am

Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!

Migraine is a genetic neurological disease. Seeing as other family members have suffered from Migraine there's your genetic link!

For some women being on the pill in addition to hormones can trigger a Migraine. If you have more than 3 or 4 Migraine attacks a month it may be time for a preventive medication. Migraine Preventive Medications - Too Many Options To Give Up! You'll see there are many other options than topamax. If your Migraine attacks are handled with Imitrex and supplements a preventive may not be necessary.

Thank you for creating a SharePost. SharePosts are a form of blogging, and there are many things you can do with them. You can share an experience, suggest something that's helped you, use SharePosts as a Migraine and headache journal, and many other things.

We also have a discussion forum that you may want to check out. Especially if you have questions or are looking for information, you may find the interaction on the forum to be quite helpful. To get to the forum, just look for the orange box marked "Manage" and click on the Migraine Forums link. Because our forums are maintained by a third party, you'll need to register for the forum. You can use the same information you used to create your community log-in if you like. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can click HERE.

Along with your personal "My Home" page and the discussion forum, you'll find links to a great deal of helpful information on the main page of our site, http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the forum or send me a message through my profile.

Welcome again,

Nancy Bonk
MyMigraineConnection.com Expert

PS: If you receive this message from more than one of us, please excuse the overlap. Thanks!

Heather

11/ 9/07 1:01pm

I'm 46 and have had hormone driven headaches for years. Trying the BCP steady did not take them away. Reaching that age where the hot flashes and sleeplessness were too much the doc. put me on HRT.Not realizing it was the HRT. I suffered 2 weeks with the worst migraine I've ever had. Now when the headache is that bad it takes you a while to reason out what the cause is. But I do think the doc. should shoulder some responsiblity, as he's well aware of my hormone driven migraines. And I now realize don't fool with Mother Nature. I'll put up with the hot flashes rather then the migraine. I've also started vitamin B-complex and calcuim/magnesium. And I'm migraine free! Hope this helps someone else. Big Smile

allisoncarey

11/ 9/07 3:46pm

I had the exact same experience in my 20's. It was so bad that I went off the pill and never went back on. I sometimes tease my daughter, Mary, that she was the only child ever born because of a headache! (After she was born I had a my tubes tied since I was done having kids at that point.)

Anyway, I never had a migraine again until 2 years ago when I entered peri-menopause and now they are back with a vengeance. So yes, I absolutely believe that migraines can be affected by hormone fluctuations, including those induced by BC pills.

I'm glad you found an answer for yours on your own since we all know how dibilitating constant migraines can be.

:- ) Allison Carey

Carolina M

11/10/07 7:19pm

Hello everyone,

I am 25 years old and I suffered a stroke due to being on low dose birth control pills and having migraines with aura. All my Dr's told me that I will never be able to take BC pills ever!! This is very dangerous! My ob/gyn prescribed them to me since I had not had a migraine in almost 2 years but then after only 5 months of being on the pill I had the stroke. Please warn your Dr's about this! Its very scary!

Carolina

itsdebee

11/11/07 9:16am

I had a neurologist tell me to try birth control pills for my hormone driven migraines. I took one pill, had a horrible migraine right away......lightwise........the neurotin did the same thing. I have done very well on bellamine......a preventative that the fda just took off the market. I have been on this medication for over 20 years and have been cutting the dosage back in preparation for trying something new. My neurologist now recommends inderal. Anybody else know anything about this drug as far as hormonal migraines?

I am hoping that I will eventually get thru the change of life and then be able to shelve these meds all together, like my mom did.

Tara

1/16/08 10:31am

Thank you sooo much for this post. I have been looking for information on bcp's and migraines and the "official" medical opinions are very mixed ("some women have relief from the pill, so stay on it").

Here's my story: I have been on birth control pills for about 7 years. Initially, I just got daily tension headaches. So, I took some tylenol. I didn't see the connection back then. Then, I had a stressful year and started getting terrible migraines. Still didn't see any connection to bcps. This year, I finally asked my GYN if something could be done on the birth control pill front. She told me to go on the continuous dose bcp (like you did). Since going on that, I have had non-stop daily headaches- they feel like low-grade migraines- and then these frequently (about 4-5 times per week) spike up to major migraines at night. In the three months that I have been on the continuous dose bcp, I have had at least 7 episodes of migraines that have lasted 5 days or longer, even though I treated them with my triptans (imitrex or frova)- in the past, triptans had always worked to alleviate almost all of my migraines. I have been to the ER twice for these and have been on steroids to treat these 4 times (yes, 4 times in 3 months- that is a whole lot, eh?).

Thanks to you (and other posts from women like you), I plan to stop my birth control pill for a few weeks. It certainly can't hurt as I am absolutely at rock bottom.

However, it is amazing how resistant my gyn is to this idea. Hmph.

Tara

5/26/08 7:47pm

Hey, it's tara again (replying to myself I gues).

As an update, I went off of BCPs in January 08. A month later, I had a significant decrease in my migraines (down from 5/wk to 3/wk and much less intense). I continue to get better and better. Last week, I had only one migraine!!! (I am doing some other things now that may be contributing to my recent successes, such as acupuncture and chinese herbs, and breaking my triptan cycle... but I still think the lack of BCP is a big factor).

Getting off of BCPs was the best thing I ever did.

Saybel

10/ 2/08 5:34pm

I'm in my 20s and I have been on BCPs for 4 years now. After many doctor visits and many different preventative treatments nothing has helped me deal with my migraines. My fist year i tried the preventative drugs suggested by my neurologist, by the second year i got off them and decided that taking a daily preventative pill meant to treat another desease was not a good enough solution for me. By the third year all i was depended on was my imitrex which at time would be two packs of 9 pills a month. I had changed my BCPs twice during that time and it had made no difference. On my fourth year I decided to try changing my BCPs again this time to Yaz, and I ended up having the worth crisis ever ending in two trips within a week to the hospital getting retalin injections (which is the worth thing that I have ever been treated with). Retalin has a side effect that makes you nervous and restless to the point where you can't stand still, this can last for hours. I stayed on Yaz and I'm still on it, the migraines died down to only during the week of my period (I was excited because I was only using 1 pack of imitrex every two months ) until 2 month ago when I started getting them the week before my period the week during and the week after.

I'm tired and frustrated, I been looking at IUD and DEPO-PROVERA as options. I don't really think these are the right options for me nor do i believe they will work and i fear loosing more time on another dead end.

Thank you for sharing your story, I'm going to go off the pill and see if I start to feel better and get part of my life back.

THANKS!

-S

Desperately Frustrated

6/26/09 6:14pm

I started getting migraines after going on birth control for the first time also. I have tried everything. I have tried preventative medicines for the migraines and I have also tried different birth control methods. I finally said enough and I went off of everything and I didn't get better. Then I decided to try another preventative medicine and now I am on Depakote and it drains me so much so I am thinking about going off of that. I haven't been on a birth control method for over a year now and now they tell me that I need to be on one if I am taking Depakote. I just can't win! I was thinking about maybe just going off Depakote and trying the Depo shot since they say it's progestrin only and could help me. Everyone had good posts but the majority says that going off birth control will help and I know it didn't for me. Help?

Anonymous

8/ 4/09 2:56pm

Thank you so much for your post! I had recently started taking Seasonique (in order to have only 4 periods a year) and had begun suffering from the worst headaches I have ever experienced. After contacting the doctor who prescribed the Seasonique, several trips to urgent care for Imitrex injections, a CT scan, a visit to a neurologist, numerous prescriptions for Imitrex, Butalbital & Topimax, my headaches continued and worsened.

When I went to refill my Seasonique (months 3-6), I glanced at the side effects sheet and noticed several mentions of migraines. This prompted me to do some on-line research which lead me to your post and many others.

I am so furious at the doctors who were unable to see this correlation between the Seasonique & my headaches (I have taken other bcp's successfully without incident over the years). I sufferred needlessly for nearly 3 months until I diagnosed myself. I am now taking Dermulen (3 months straight, like Seasonique) and am feeling much better. The progesterone in Dermulen is not poisoning my body the way the progesterone in the Seasonique was. A warning to all to do your research on bcp's and talk to your OBGYN about progesterone types/levels before you start taking any bcp and if you experience any headaches or other unpleasany symptoms!!

Lynne

2/16/12 6:50pm

I have also suffered with horrible migraines for many years. However, I read the Migraine cure which talked about increases in Estrogen ACTUALLY causing the migraines. I have been taking progest 100 for 5 months. My migraines are down to about every 2 weeks instead of every day. It has really helped me.

Migraine and Birth Control Pills

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