Hormone Headache - Different Types and Useful Remedies

What is a hormone headache, and what can be done to deal with it?

Without hormones, neither men nor women would feel pain, because it's hormones that induce the body's response to pain. However, only women are affected by hormonal headaches.

Hormonal headaches are typically brought on by fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone. This can happen during menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, and postpartum.

Among the different types of hormonal headaches, menstrual migraines are one of the most common types of hormone headaches. Menstrual migraines can come on during the period or right after the period. They can also occur during ovulation.

Menstruation and Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)

Menstrual migraines are normally caused by estrogen. Women can be more susceptible to headaches when their progesterone and estrogen levels change. For that reason, many women who take oral contraceptives, which influence estrogen levels, experience migraines.

The menstrual migraine might start out as a throbbing headache on one side of your head, and then be accompanied by sensitivity to bright lights and sounds, nausea, and even vomiting.

On the other hand, headaches associated with PMS, but that are not migraines, can have symptoms that include constipation, decreased urination, fatigue, joint pain, lack of coordination, and acne.

While some over the counter medications can help with hormone headaches associated with PMS, they are generally not good for menstrual migraines, because migraines involve a different area of your head. Instead, avoiding migraine triggering foods, finding a cool dark room to sleep in, and using cold or heat packs for pain relief usually work for the worst part of the pain.

Pregnancy

Ironically, although pregnancy can bring along a lot of other changes to the body, migraines seem to lapse during pregnancy. This could be because estrogen and progesterone do not fluctuate as much.

If a woman does experience migraines during pregnancy, it is recommended that she stick to natural health measures and not take migraine medication. Eliminating migraine trigger foods like aged cheese, citrus fruits, and chocolate is recommended, as are using cold packs for the pain, doing neck-relaxation exercises, and using biofeedback.

Postnatal and postpartum headaches are also hormone headaches. New mothers often develop tension headaches soon after giving birth. Postpartum headaches are generally attributed to the fall in progesterone and estrogen levels, which occur right after giving birth.

Menopause

Another of the types of hormone headache is related to menopause. About 25 percent of women who are going through menopause suffer from headaches, as well as joint pain and irregular heartbeats. Some women end up taking hormone replacement therapy in order to treat some of their more serious symptoms, such as osteoporosis, vaginal dryness, and depression. The fluctuation in estrogen levels can bring on headaches.

Although migraines can decrease as women age, they can worsen or increase when a woman is going through menopause. Using hormone replacement therapy, which might be necessary in some cases, can make the migraines worse over time.

Treatment and Remedies

Simple lifestyle changes can sometimes help relieve a hormone headache. Some natural ways to help alleviate hormonal headaches include regular exercise, eating a healthy diet and avoiding a lot of chemical preservatives, drinking a lot of water, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, adding fruits and vegetables to your diet, as well as sleeping for at least 7 hours a night.

More information on natural treatments and remedies for headaches are contained in the other related headache articles and pages.

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