For years I had no idea that my epic migraine attacks were tied to my menstrual cycle

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June National migraine and headache consciousness month.

As said Nicole Audrey Spector

I was at the university when I got my first migraine attack. It was so serious that it struck me for three days. On the second day I closed myself in a dark room, where I was fainting non -stop and about.

Terral, thinking that I had a brain aneurysm, I went to the Health Clinic on campus as soon as I could walk and tolerated it in the clear outdoor life. I was still really shaken when I described my symptoms to the doctor, but he checked me, told me there was nothing wrong and sent me home.

I called my mother, with whom I am very close to me, and she insisted that we visit our doctor. So she picked me up and drove me to his office. Fortunately he was worried and he got me for an appointment on the same day with a neurologist for a Brain CT scan to exclude tumors, strokes and attacks. That all clearly came back. I also had an EKG because I had the feeling that I was lost consciousness. That also clearly came back.

None of the medical professionals I saw had any idea what was going on with me. I went back to school with freely available painkillers and hoped it would not happen anymore. But it did. Every few weeks these attacks would strike out of nowhere and steer me in a brutal oblivion of pain, weakness, illness and anxiety.

Jaclyn with her mother and cousin.

A happy aspect, I think, is that it eventually came to a point where I could feel when a migraine attack was going on, so I could build a schedule around them. After my studies I started what a long-term career in public education would be-oppositable as a replacement teacher. I cut my life around these attacks, and if I felt a migraine attack start, I wouldn’t take a job.

Every time I received a migraine attack, I was convinced that I died. They were always so bad. Once, in the middle of an attack, I went to first aid. I was smeared with puke, flourished eyes and clearly in a very bad shape. The doctor on duty accused me of the “faking” of my migraine attack to get narcotic drugs. Finally, as soon as I agreed that I could arrange a ride home, he gave me an injection of painkillers. I’m not sure what it was, but it made me sleep for 12 hours in a row. But that was the only time I received real pain relief. All the freely available things I took was useless. I would throw it all up.

This mysterious pain lasted 10 years. Sometimes life with migraine attacks made me depressed and anxious. I often thought that I just got crazy, clear and simple, but I have to say that I managed to live an independent and fulfilling life, even with them. It was just very difficult. I was always the woman with a strange disease that would spontaneously take over.

When I was 28, I went to my OB-Gyn for a routine exam and told her about my migraine attacks. She really listened to me and said, “I think you have menstrual migraine.” I didn’t know it yet, but these words changed my life – in a miraculous way.

Jaclyn with her sister and niece.

I had never heard that migraine attacks are tied to your period, but my OB-Gyn explained that it was usual. For some people, when our hormones fluctuate wildly, especially during ovulation and menstruation, migraine attacks can strike. Your migraine attacks may have the feeling that they are happening randomly – especially if you are not on your period when you get a migraine attack – but in fact there can be a rhythm.

My OB-Gyn ordered that I go to a kind of contraception that would stop my period for three months and prevent my hormones from fluctuating, which was a trigger for my migraine. I wanted lighting and did not hesitate to get started. Once I got into the medicine, the migraine attacks decreased radically. I experienced them one day a month instead of six. This medicine was effective for a while, but in the end it stopped working. I switched to another contraception and that helped a lot.

During this time I saw my doctor again, just before he retired. I told him what was going on. He wrote to me for a nasal spray that was used to treat the start of migraine attacks and to remove the pain and nausea. This also worked for a while (although it had the unpleasant side effect to give me the feeling that the world was in slow motion). After a few years, the spray no longer worked, so I switched to another medicine. So far, so good. A silver lining when a medicine no longer works? There is usually something that can take his place, I found in my experience. I’m not worried.

I just turned 44 years old and I’m great. My migraine attacks are almost completely under control and when they crawl on me, I have a way to fight them before they become serious. I am really at my best – focused on my career, tire with my family and just do the things I want to do in life.

I want others to know that if you suffer from something that is diagnosed or incorrectly, will not give up. Keep talking! If a doctor treats you insensitive, go to the next medical professional. You shall Find someone who will give you and help you – even if it takes a decade. Although I certainly hope it won’t do that.

This educational source was made with support from Pfizer.

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