Kashish Sharma
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Typical symptoms of a menstrual migraine could be a throbbing pain in one side of the head, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to bright light and sound.
Periods never come with a whimper but with a bang. In other words, they come with a range of other symptoms like constipation, diarrhea, and lower back pain and among all these, migraine also finds a place. For some women, periods often come with unpleasant headaches. Recently, a biomolecular study has found that changes in a certain peptide or molecule are closely associated with migraines during that time.
The neuropeptide called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has been long known to play an important role in migraine and more upcoming clinical studies are confirming it. A recent study has shown an increase in levels of CGRP during the menstrual phase which might be the reason why women might be suffering from migraines during their periods.
Menstrual migraines might not be very different from migraines without aura or sensory symptoms. They typically start around the onset or during your periods. Another thing known for years is the drop in the hormone estrogen during periods and its association with migraine. Whether the drop in the hormone is causing the CGRP to rise is not yet known, however as per reports, it can open a new scope of research.
The study involved 180 women who had at least three episodic migraine attacks in the month leading to the study. The subjects were divided into three groups, women having regular menstrual cycles, women taking contraceptives and women who had menopause. Blood samples were taken from women having regular periods during menstruation (near ovulation). From women on birth control, samples were collected twice, once roughly around day 4 of the participants' hormone-free intervals, and again during days 7 14 of their hormone intake. For women who had menopause, their samples were collected on a random day.
The results had shown that in women with migraine and regular periods, the level of CGRP in the blood was higher during menstruation than in women who did not get migraines. The study also found that women on contraceptives and that post-menopause did not exhibit the same increase in CGRP levels whether or not they experienced migraines.
Typical symptoms of a menstrual migraine could be a throbbing pain in one side of the head, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to bright light and sound. The following are a few things that a person can do to improve the symptoms-