If your head hurts on the same days each month, from about 2 days before your period to day 3 of it, hormones are the likely reason. If the pain throbs and comes with nausea and sensitivity to light, that sounds like menstrual migraine. It's common: up to two thirds of women with migraine notice attacks around their period, and these attacks can be treated.
Why does my head hurt before my period?
In the days before your period, oestrogen levels drop, and in people prone to migraine this drop can set off an attack. Around your period the body also releases more prostaglandins, the substances behind period cramps, and they make migraine more likely too. These attacks are often longer and more severe than at other times.
Migraine or an ordinary headache?
Migraine usually throbs, often on one side, and gets worse when you move. It can make you feel sick and make light and sound hard to bear, so you want to lie down in a dark room. A tension headache feels like a tight band pressing on both sides, and you can usually get on with your day. The two are treated differently, so the difference is worth knowing.
Some people get an aura before a migraine: zigzag lines or flashing lights, tingling, or trouble finding words. It usually lasts less than an hour, and attacks around a period more often come without it. Aura matters if you take the pill or are choosing one; more on that below.
What helps?
Take ibuprofen or paracetamol as soon as the pain starts, before it builds. During an attack, lie down in a dark, quiet room. In the days before your period, eat at regular times, drink water and keep to your usual sleep: a skipped lunch or a short night often helps set off an attack.
If your attacks come like clockwork, a doctor may prescribe triptans, a type of migraine medicine, for a few days around your period. Try not to take painkillers on more than 2 days a week, or they can start causing headaches themselves.
Common questions
Does coffee help or hurt?
Too much caffeine can set off an attack, and so can cutting it out suddenly. If you want to have less, cut down gradually, and remember caffeine is also in tea, cola, chocolate and some painkillers.
What should go in a headache diary?
The date and time, how bad the pain was from 1 to 10, your cycle day, what you took and whether it worked. Add sleep, meals, caffeine and stress that day. Doctors call it menstrual migraine when attacks hit at least 2 periods out of 3, so keep the diary for at least 3 months.
Will it get better with age?
For most people, migraine slowly eases over the years, and it often improves after menopause. In the run-up to menopause, while hormones swing, it can get worse for a while.
In short
- A 3-month diary of headaches and periods shows the pattern
- Take a painkiller as soon as the pain starts
- Eat at regular times and don't skip lunch
Source: NHS: Migraine
Educational content; it does not replace professional medical advice.