In 68% of girls, menstruation occurs with a significant deterioration in health. Often, the factor of headaches (cephalgia) 1-3 days before the onset of menstruation is PMS. However, in addition, on the eve of menstruation, the head aches, pain gives off to the temples, the forehead or the back of the head and makes you sick due to pathologies. In this case, it is recommended to undergo a comprehensive examination.
Doctors distinguish a number of physiological or pathological factors, as a result of which the head begins to hurt before menstruation. To eliminate cephalgia, complex methods of therapy are used. Why does a headache occur during menstruation in women? About this and another - later in the article.
Key factors
Why does my head hurt during menstruation ? There are many reasons . She can provoke an improper diet, especially the physique of a girl, including a change in weather. However, in some cases, the pain syndrome acquires a systematic form: pain occurs monthly, brings great discomfort to women. Next, we analyze the key prerequisites for the appearance of pain.
Hormonal changes
Normally, during the period of menstruation, the girl drops the level of estrogen and the number of progesterone increases. Why is this happening? Progesterone is a pregnancy hormone that prepares a girl’s body for potential fetal formation. Taking into account the fact that pregnancy does not occur, an increase follows a decrease in progesterone levels. These changes provoke a headache. In addition, patients notice that they not only have their forehead cracked, but their eyes also hurt.
Migraine
Girls often have a headache during menstruation. It comes in the traditional way - with nausea, flickering flies before the eyes, migraines. Painful feelings capture half the head, can shoot in the ears, near the jaw. There is also a difference from ordinary migraine - with a menstrual attack, significant nausea is noted, in some cases turning into vomiting, powerful impulsive headaches that are not amenable to painkillers. The girl becomes irritable, constantly wants to lie down, can react hostilely to people around her. A migraine attack during menstruation lasts from 10 hours to 2 days.
Pathology of the vascular system
Another reason that triggers migraines during menstruation is a violation of the cardiovascular system. They include:
- Vegetative-vascular dystonia.
- Blood vessel spasms.
- Atherosclerosis.
- Arterial hypotension.
How are menstruation and headache combined? Hormone jumps have a great influence on the structure of blood vessels, and in addition, the load on the arteries increases during menstruation. Arteries, veins, capillaries do not have time to stretch, pumping considerable volumes of blood, for this reason there is a spasm and, as a result, pain. The flow of air to the brain decreases, while the migraine is spasmodic, constricting.
Violation of the water-salt balance
With menstruation, girls experience swelling, even a slight increase in weight (up to 1.5 kilograms) is noted due to the deterioration of the outflow of water. This happens due to the fact that the body must reject the tissue of the unfertilized uterus. Edema is formed on the limbs, face, and may appear in the brain, while there is a pressing or bursting pain in the head. Painful feelings can touch the back of the head, crown, diffusely spreading throughout the head.
The effects of medicines
If the question arises of why the head aches during menstruation, you need to think about whether taking certain medications causes discomfort? In girls receiving oral contraceptives, sometimes, spasmodic pain in the head is observed during menstruation. Patients who have reached the age of 40 years can complain more about the appearance of pain, and in addition, girls experiencing suffering from vein thrombosis.
Headache appears due to the fact that birth control pills make changes in the hormonal background, interfering with the normal maturation of the egg. In this case, the girl changes the formation of her own hormones, the activity of the vascular system is disrupted.
Anemia
Abundant (if the gasket with the largest number of “drops” needs to be changed more than once in 2 hours) or long periods can cause anemia. A lack of hemoglobin in the blood causes a decrease in the amount of oxygen entering the brain cells. In this case, the women pale skin, there is a feeling of severe exhaustion, lethargy, dull headaches, dizziness, blurred eyes.
In this case, a decrease in blood pressure, which appears with anemia, should be noted as a provoking factor for headache. Although lack of oxygen is also able to induce pain in different parts of the head.
Intoxication
In case pain occurs in the head during menstruation, it is likely that the source of discomfort is intoxication. With menstruation, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate increases, which indicates the formation of an inflammatory process. Dead tissue, not fully removed from the body, produce toxins, which, in turn, enter the vascular bed. In this case, the girl shows signs of intestinal infection: a weakening of the intestinal tract, watery stools, cramps in the lower abdomen, headache (more in the forehead, squeezing as if with a hoop, throbbing).
Osteochondrosis
With osteochondrosis, the ridge undergoes certain changes, due to which the arteries and nerve fibers are compressed in one or many areas. Because of this, oxygen enters the brain in small quantities. During the period of menstruation, the female body gives all its power to other processes, and nutrition for it becomes much less. Due to a lack of elements, oxygen starvation begins and constrictive headaches are noted. This is one of the reasons why a headache and nausea occur during menstruation.
Symptoms
With that, can a headache during menstruation, we figured out. And you can understand that headaches are provoked precisely by the beginning of the cycle by the following symptoms:
- throbbing kind of pain;
- high saturation;
- pain gives in to the eyes.
Among the concomitant signs distinguish:
- sudden changes in mood;
- increased susceptibility to light;
- jumps in blood pressure;
- pain in the female mammary glands;
- dizziness, vomiting, nausea;
- increased hand hyperhidrosis;
- change in diet and taste habits;
- digestive upset;
- pain in the heart;
- constant exhaustion;
- feeling of guilt, feeling of hopelessness and sadness;
- swelling of the limbs and face.
The emergence of PMS is in no way associated with the level of stability of the nervous system. Until today, experiments are being conducted to establish the root cause of similar changes in the girls' body in the premenstrual period.
What to do: headache during menstruation?
In case you have a headache, your doctor will pick up painkillers.
There are 4 pharmaceutical categories for the treatment of cephalgia:
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: acetylsalicylic acid, Nurofen, Paracetamol, and other NSAIDs. They are effective in case of migraine against the background of pathologies of an inflammatory nature.
- Analgesics. Painkillers in this category can help eliminate cephalgia in case of head injuries, ridge pathologies. Intensively used in combination with NSAIDs.
- Antispasmodics. Medicines in this category are effective if the head hurts due to spasms of blood vessels, VVD. Antispasmodics do not eliminate seizures initiated by atherosclerosis, compression of the cervical artery by the vertebra, and similar states of blood vessels.
- Combined anesthetics. "Spazmalgon", "Finalgon" and similar medicines effectively relieve various types of cephalgia.
Menstrual pain, as the main factor in why headaches and turbidity occurs before menstruation, is removed with substances from the category of small triptans. They eliminate the attack together with the symptoms accompanying the disease: photophobia, nausea, and so on. A potent medicine is Zolmitriptan and Almotriptan. After taking them, menstrual migraine stops in 20-60 minutes.
Women after 45 years of age, in order to normalize their health, are prescribed herbal preparations (Remens, other homeopathic preparations). In diseases of the endocrine system and adrenal glands, non-biological analogues of hormones are used.
If migraine is observed due to depression, against the background of sleep pathologies and other pathologies of NS, in this case, the doctor prescribes sedatives. The doctor chooses the medicine personally for each patient.
Non-drug treatments
In the event that the head hurts not due to pathologies, it is easy to remove cephalgia by the methods of physiotherapy and aromatherapy without the use of medications. It is recommended that from the 2nd half of the monthly cycle, saturate the air with the incense of lavender, sandalwood, sage or other essential oils with a soothing aroma. It is preferable to take a bath or shower on the days between periods with a decoction of linden blossom, valerian roots, pine branch concentrate.
If your head hurts during your period, cephalgia will be removed:
- Cold dressing applied for 15 minutes. to the site of pain localization.
- Massaging the temples, circular stroking in the face, scalp.
- Massage of the neck and shoulder area.
- Foot bath with water temperature no more than 38 ° .
It should be five days before the onset of menstruation to start consuming foods rich in fiber. They effectively cleanse the intestinal tract. If a girl has migraine every month and is constantly constipated, she should include boiled beets in the diet a week before menstruation. If PMS is manifested, it is necessary to eat greens, nuts, fruit and vegetable salads, dishes of pumpkin, oatmeal, rice, and beef. Fermented milk products, smoked meats, pasta, sweets are excluded from the menu at the end of the luteal phase.
Preventative procedures
It’s easier to prevent the fact that during menstruation a headache hurts rather than a cure - this is not a secret at all. And for this it is necessary to observe a number of recommendations:
- Observe the regimen of the day and fully relax (certainly take a break during work for warm-up and entertainment).
- Refuse all, without exception, unhealthy habits.
- Eat the right diet.
- Ventilate the bedroom before going to bed.
- Allocate at least 6 hours a day for sleep.
- Take out fresh air daily.
- Every disease (including the common cold) should be cured immediately.
- Avoid tense environments.
- Do not ignore vitamin complexes.
- Allocate at least 20 minutes. per day for physical education (hatha yoga or simple morning exercises will do).
Almost all girls want to find out why the headache before or during menstruation hurts . You can deal with the problem as it appears, using a variety of methods. And you can forget about it for a long period, changing your own lifestyle: devote more time to sports, sleep and proper nutrition.