Ange72

I initially thought the same, but I was wrong, very wrong with my attempt to supplement estrogen. As with you, soon after starting I was under attack. I added progesterone into the mix but no improvement. As I had mentioned in my previous post, zero attacks during pregnancy for me. I even once said I might just stay pregnant forever so that I don't have Headache but life didnt play out that way. During pregnancy there are 6 main hormones in play. Estrogen, progesterone and prolactin increase and stay at higher levels until birth, hcg increases then slowly decreases, oxytocin jumps in at the end, but relaxin jumps up then levels out and gradually reduces again until birth. Now relaxin relaxes blood vessels to increase blood flow. Relaxin also increases prior to menstation to start preparing the uterus for pregnancy. Relaxin kicks in about day 14 and peaks at day 21, then drops down quickly. Now interestingly, my HA cycle always started day 22-23 and lasted two weeks which coincidentally lines up with the increase and decrease in relaxin hormone.. might be onto something here

And that was a goodie.. Post attack eye attached

Hi, I've had PH for 38 years, I've lost count of how many times I've requested oxygen. It is always denied. Up until about 3 or so years ago, there were clear pain free periods between attacks and between cycles. Now I have constant pain, always around a 2-3 level between attacks with attacks several times a day (sporadic) anything from 6-10 level and now there is no cycles, it's all the time. Example today, 1am woken with level 6, took naproxen lasted 20 minutes, went back to sleep, woken again at 3am with a 7 lasted 20 minutes, woke at 5am with another 7, took naproxen lasted about 30 minutes then no point going back to sleep as alarm went off to get up for work at 5.30am. Got to work at 7am, 8am, level 8, off to hide in the bathroom, for 15 minutes, had tried to ride it out at my desk but couldn't. 11.30am another 8, 2pm, another 7, got home at 4.30pm, 5pm rolls around and hit with a 9, more naproxen, ice pack out, off to hide in my bedroom. All the while I have a lingering low level pain between attacks. Today is the worst I've been in a while. Going to hit the indomethicin tonight at bed time. Have had verapamil in the past, did nothing. Very difficult to get anything here in New Zealand. I was misdiagnosed with CH in my teens, was only a few years back of doing my own research that I heard about indo and managed to convince my doctor to let me try it, it worked and from there rediagnosed with PH. Episodic PH has become chronic HC I'd rather try natural solutions, all these medications just make me feel rubbish on top of headaches. I like to be able to function. I've had some success with keto in the past. I only started keto again on 1st January so I'm wondering if this rough patch is just my body working out what I'm doing to it and it will settle down after a course of indo I did have a bit of a carb binge over the Christmas period so that won't have helped. 7pm and another coming on now, off to get ice and go hide out.

No I don't need to wait but results shouldn't take too long hopefully. I've never been able to get hold of oxygen unfortunately. I only have indomethicin which I only use when headaches become unbearable as it is horrible stuff. The side effects are not pleasant. In my HC the attacks only usually last 20-30 minutes with the worst of the attack being about 10-15 minutes in the middle. For that I use my icepack, pressure on certain spots on my head and deep slow breathing to relax and just breath my way through it. I've tried various different methods of aborting over the years, but nothing really reacts quickly enough. Most attacks are through the night and I'm usually slow to respond. I try to just go back to sleep hoping it won't actually come to anything. Not usually how it works out though.

I have paraxsysmal hemicrania directly linked to hormones. Started age 15, two weeks in cycle, two weeks out. This continued until age 24 when I fell pregnant. I had zero attacks during pregnancy. Exactly 1 week after I had given birth, attacks started again, opposite side, moved from right to left. Attacks for about a year following the birth of my son became sporadic but the attacks were way more intense than I had previously experienced. I went on the depo injection, I found this stopped cycles until about a week before my next injection was due, then once I'd had my next injection the cycle would come to an end. Repeat this cycle until age 43 when GP told me I wasn't allowed depo any longer. Enter perimenopause and for the last 10 years, frequency has gradually increased to now chronic for the last 3 years or so, however attack intensity has reduced. Now post menopause and still constant but less intense attacks. I started on mht estrogen and progesterone November 2024. I had to stop after about 6 weeks as the headache intensity became severe again. Now just battling on. I have had some success with keto previously, not 100% but it definitely helped, I've just started back on keto again so we will see what happens. I have also just had my vitamin d tested, awaiting results, as I intend to start the vit d regimen to see what impact that has.