Why do some menopausal women get migraines for the first time? Everyone knows the “typical” migraine patient: Female and onset of migraines between age 25 – 35, right?
Migraines can start as young as 7-8 years old and run all the way into the 70′s.?? The number of children getting migraines is increasing.?? The oldest women I see getting migraines for the first time are in their 50′s, and not much older.
The question is why? Theoretically, women with migraines are supposed to get better once they enter menopause, but I really haven’t seen that, either.?? For many women, if they already had migraines for years, their migraines got even worse after menopause.
So what is going on? It’s all in the hormones – and possibly, more importantly, – it’s in the relative balance of hormones between the estrogens and progesterone. For good measure, I will throw in another hormone – thyroid – that acts as a wild card.
For one thing, we are seeing an epidemic of women with severe menopausal symptoms. In past centuries, this didn’t happen.?? Of course, in past centuries, we didn’t see this epidemic of migraines, either.?? So there must be some sort of external stimulus for migraines, regardless of the age and for severity of menopausal symptoms?
I have been saying for years that birth control pills have wrecked several generations of women. Throw in traditional, synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and you have most of the answer.?? For those who managed to escape taking both birth control pills and HRT, there are xeno-estrogens.
All of these external stimuli shut down and poison the ovaries.?? The ovaries manufacture sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone (and testosterone).?? Once the ovaries are poisoned, the game is over. Then we wait for bad things to happen from migraines to ovarian cysts and endometriosis to breast cancer.
Menopausal women by definition have had their estrogen levels fall off a cliff. It stands to reason that if the ovaries are not making estrogen?? in sufficient quantities, then maybe they are making the other sex hormones, too? When that happens, you get migraines.
The good news is that migraines and menopause are both hormonal conditions caused by a lack of natural hormones. The solution is rather simple – just add back the deficient hormones (mixed with some other ingredients) and presto – symptoms are resolved.
The same is true for menopause, albeit a little easier. A great reference website for menopause is
Andrew Jones, M.D.
Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas