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Awful Migraine Headaches…Please Help

by A
(Muscat, Oman)

Hello Wray & all ladies on the forum,

I think I'm not submitting my problem in the right time as I can see that Wary is on sabbatical. I hope she got better soon.

I'm a 33 year old female. I had migraines since childhood, it's probably genetic as my grandmother, my father and two of my youngest sisters have it. But they got very sever & frequent since 2009.

I've been trying different treatment with no improvement. I now have headaches daily. I've started bioidentical progesterone plus some other supplements (including vitamin D & magnesium) in August.

My doctor had started me first on 20 mg starting on day 7 till next period. At first I started to feel some improvement, but then things seemed to halt. In addition to that, I still have bad headaches before & during my period. Hence, I started taking it daily. Still not much improvement & he increased it to 20 mg twice a day. Still not much improvement & I started to notice facial hair growth and hair loss. I panicked and told my doctor. He decreased my dose back to 20 mg daily and added pregnenolone. For two weeks I was having constant bad headaches. My doctor then lowered my pregnenolone dose.

Still having bad headaches and feeling desperate to get help. I found your site, read about progesterone therapy and how doctors usually prescribe low dose. I tried then to increase my dose to 300 mg on my own & started to get some relieve. I then talked to my doctor & and demanded that we increase the does. He told me that he usually uses 200 mg with his patient but in my case eh couldn't since I'm using OTC cream (I live in Oman & don't have access to compounding pharmacy). We agreed that I use 200 mg daily of progesterone. This meant that I have to stock on OTC cream.

I think after around a week of high dose, I got my period and it was one day late. Things started to get settled during my period. I've lowered my dose to 100 mg during menses. Then after my period ended, I started to get bad headaches again. During that time, I also started to use Cefaly, which uses electrical simulation to help with headaches and increase my threshold for migraine. I don't know if this was a coincidence or it did make my headaches worse. I stopped using it when I noticed that. I was so desperate to try anything to get relieve.

I talked to my doctor again asking to increase my progesterone dose. He requested to do tests again to check my progesterone to estrogen ratio. He also have some doubts that I've a sluggish thyroid even though my FSH, T3, T4 were normal. He also asked for TOP & Tg antibodies test.

It's a bit difficult to communicate with my doctor over distance but this is what I can have since there are no doctors in my country offer treatment with bioidentical hormones. I had high hopes when I started this treatment. They are affecting my whole life to the point that I had to stop my PhD study & return home after only one semester of study.

I decided to increase my dose on my own to 300 mg daily. I needed immediate relieve, probably my doctor doesn't understand this. When I did this, I was having a bad attack that usually comes 10 to 7 days before my period. It did help give me some relieve by the end of the day. Today is day 3 with the 300 mg does, I still have headache and feel discomfort in my head that I feel some how increase when I apply the cream. I use 100 mg in the morning, 100 mg distributed throughout the day & 100 mg at bed time. On day 2 of this new dose, I had bad pain in my knees & low back. I was having also neck pain with my headaches in the last two weeks.

Sorry for all these details but I felt I needed to include this much to give a clear picture of my current situation.

My question is: Should I increase my dose again? I was thinking of that since I still feel awful. I want to get better as soon as possible since I'm getting back to work by February. I'm a lecturer at a university & I stopped giving lectures for a year now. My boss was kind enough to not put me on schedule but she cannot do this endlessly.

Hope to hear soon from either Wray or other ladies who have been on high progesterone doses.

Thanks in advance.

Comments for Awful Migraine Headaches…Please Help

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Jan 22, 2014
 Awful Migraine Headaches...Please Help
by: RJ

Hello A!
Wray had advised me when I was suffering from menstrual headaches to apply Natpro on the temples and along the side of the neck right under your ear...it helped...I usually never get headaches any longer since I'm on such a high dose. Is it possible your blood pressure is high? I personally wouldn't advise your doctor any longer. Sounds like he's confusing you more. Your body seems to be giving you your answer....the higher dosage of progesterone is giving you some relief. It's not an overnight fix...takes quite some time for the body to adjust to the natural remedy. I'd stay at a high level of Natpro until things level out for you. You don't need a compounding pharmacy if you are able to buy Natpro. Natpro is a wonderful product and is just as effective as anything you can get from a pharmacy. Less chemicals too. I'm proof Natpro is excellent. My son suffered from bad migraines...was in a bad accident a year and a half ago...Feverfew has helped him immensely. He will take it daily for the rest of his life. Lavender oil helps him too. We put the essential oil in a burner...like incense...and it helps him out. God Bless! RJ
Jan 23, 2014
 Update
by: A

Thanks a lot JR for the reply. You are right about my doctor. I decided to follow my body. I've increased my dose until I've found a dose that seems helping my body. I've been on 600 mg now for 9 days & feel a lot better. I've ordered Naptro & hope it will arrive before I run out of my current progestrone cream (Now brand). I'm using almost one bottele every two days. It's expensive but I'll stick to it untill I get my migraines under control. I'll do my best to upddate this thread every few weeks so other women can benefit from my experience.

Take Care
A
Mar 20, 2014
 how to titrate down after using 500/day for PMS migraine - 6 days long.
by: Ruthie

Hello. I've had the loveliest experience curing terrible 6-8 day long PMS migraine, every month, using Prometrium capsules vaginally, 100 mg twice a day plus more transdermally when migraine coming on, until symptoms subsided. i've used up to a total of 300 extra mg transdermally. using it on face neck hands arms ears shoulders. i'm 49. doc says labs show no sign of menopause, everything was "normal". so getting her to let me try prometrium was a hard sell, and she insisted I use it orally, only 100mg/day. (BAD GIRL- I am AWOL)lol.

the results have been extremely good. I'm amazed. Ive taken 200 mg vginally for 8 days, and since I had migraine symtpoms for 6 of those days, added 300 mg cutting open the capsule and using under ears, temples, etc as directed. amazing. it worked! Plus Ive also had a remission from depression and anxiety and insomnia. Just sleeping is so lovely. my body pain is also gone. I had severe adrenal weakness and that is better. no weakness, My fatigue is gone. I feel like my old self. i feel well, relaxed, with enough energy to do my day, and enough patience to handle others. that has been in such short supply for a year now. so I'm quite astounded. I'm also cured of pretty bad urinary incontinence too. wow.

the gyne wanted to operate on bladder and do ablation for heavy bleeding. i asked him for natural progesterone he said no. my gp said no for several years I have been asking to try it, for migraines, for anti-aging, for adrenals, for mood. no no no no i heard. like ten years i've asked for it. many of those years i had 15 days a month of migraine. totally incapacitated. she's put me on dozens of meds, sent me to neurologist, etc etc etc. and i just get sicker. on my own, i figured out how diet affected migraines. also getting off ibuprophen, and dealing with some trauma, also helped reduce amount of migraines. but i still got 6-8 days a month. i've lost so much of my life for so many years due to this problem.


I'm confused about the migraine treatment protocol you write about, "using up to 500 mg /day and lowering it gradually over several weeks."

What I've been doing this week, as I said, is using 100 mg vaginally, twice a day, plus as a migraine " comes on", I've opened casules and rubbed 100 mg, as much as I can get out of the capsule, its hard to do...i rub nn skin. in no time, the migraine subsides, or rather stops coming on for several hours, but it comes back on again, and i opened another capsule, rubbed on skin. etc. its taken 500 mg /day to keep migraines at bay, 300 on skin, 200 intravag. normally, the migraines stop once I start bleeding, meant to get period tomorrow. so I thought I would just go down to 100 mg vaginally, twice a day when I don't have migraine. but your warning to tritrate down slowly over several weeks confuses me. Could you give me an example please. I'm confused how to titrate the dose, using prometrium capsules the way I am. any suggestions?

Mar 23, 2014
 how to titrate down after using 500/day for PMS migraine - 6 days long.
by: Joy

Hi Ruthie

I can't help you with reducing prometrium capsules as I am unfamiliar with it, preferring to use progesterone cream instead, this I can help you with.

At 49 you are in Peri-Menopause heading towards Menopause which can be a difficult for most women. It is also a time when progesterone should be used every day with no breaks. As the monthly cycle becomes irregular it will be extremely difficult to use progesterone while following one’s cycle.

Inserting progesterone in the vagina is such a good idea as it absorbs very well there however, please make sure that you use a progesterone cream containing the correct progesterone concentration –see here. Whatever you do, do not take any form of oral progesterone as 96% of it gets destroyed by the cut and liver.

It always amazes me why doctors are so quick to either perform ablations or hysterectomies and prescribe all sorts of drugs when heavy bleeding is involved, progesterone is excellent for this, such a pity that they do not study the research papers. Well done on not allowing this, it is most unnecessary.

The migraine protocol that Wray mentions means that once you find the correct amount of progesterone cream that helps your particular symptom, then you can slowly start to reduce the amount of cream used. If you reduce too soon and by too much your symptoms will return. With migraines up to 500mg of the correct amount of progesterone, usually helps, some need less while others need more. Please read How to use Progesterone Cream. You might find Wray's page of Migraines helpful to you too.

Please read the Estrogen Dominance page, this is extremely important, and equally important is Vitamin D, do you know what your level is as a deficiency reduces the benefits of progesterone.

Hope this helps.
Aug 20, 2017
 Progesterone and headache
by: Anonymous

hello,

Every time I try progesterone (cream or pill) I get headaches.
Aug 21, 2017
 Progesterone and headaches
by: Joy

You do not state what cream you are using or how much. Please read the above thread and all the links it provides on how to use progesterone correctly and estrogen dominance as well as headaches.

I do not recommend any oral progesterone, they are not the best Delivery Method, as 96% gets destroyed by the gut and liver.

Hope this helps.

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