In 68% of girls, menstruation occurs with a significant deterioration in he alth. Often a factor in headaches (cephalgia) 1-3 days before the onset of menstruation is PMS. However, in addition, on the eve of menstruation, the head aches, the pain radiates to the temples, forehead, or the back of the head, and nausea is also due to pathologies. In this case, it is recommended to undergo a comprehensive examination.
Doctors identify a number of physiological or pathological factors, as a result of which the head begins to hurt before menstruation. To eliminate cephalalgia, complex methods of therapy are used. Why does the head hurt during menstruation in women? More on this and more in the article.
Key Factors
Why does my head hurt during menstruation? There are many reasons. She is able to provoke an unhe althy diet, a girl’s physique, including a changeweather. However, in some cases, the pain syndrome takes on a systematic form: pain occurs monthly, brings great discomfort to women. Next, we will analyze the key prerequisites for the appearance of pain.
Changes in hormonal levels
Normally, during menstruation, a girl's estrogen levels drop and progesterone levels increase. For what reason is this happening? Progesterone is a pregnancy hormone that prepares a girl's body for the potential formation of a fetus. Given that pregnancy does not occur, a decrease in progesterone levels follows from the increase. These changes cause headaches. In addition, patients notice that not only does their forehead split, but their eyes also hurt.
Migraine
Girls often get headaches during their periods. It comes in the traditional way - with nausea, flies before the eyes, migraine. Painful feelings capture half of the head, can shoot into the ears, near the jaw. There is also a difference from an ordinary migraine - during a menstrual attack, there is significant nausea, in some cases turning into vomiting, powerful impulse headaches that are not amenable to painkillers. The girl becomes irritable, constantly wants to lie down, may 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 provokes a migraine during menstruation is a violation of the cardiovascular system. They belong to:
- Vegetative-vascular dystonia.
- Spasms of blood vessels.
- Atherosclerosis.
- Hypotension.
How are periods and headaches combined? The structure of blood vessels is greatly influenced by hormone surges, and in addition, the fact that during menstruation the load on the arteries increases. Arteries, veins, capillaries do not have time to stretch, pumping considerable volumes of blood, for this reason a spasm appears and, as a result, pain. The air supply to the brain is reduced, while the migraine is spasmodic, squeezing in nature.
Violation of the water-s alt balance
During menstruation, girls experience swelling, there is even a slight increase in weight (up to 1.5 kilograms) due to a deterioration in the outflow of water. This happens because the body has to reject the tissues of the unfertilized uterus. Edema is formed on the limbs, face, and may appear in the brain, while there is a pressing or arching pain in the head. Painful feelings can touch the back of the head, crown, diffusely spreading throughout the head.
Medication effects
In case the question arises as to why the head aches during menstruation, you need to think about whether the reception causes discomfortsome drugs? Girls receiving oral contraceptives sometimes experience spasmodic pain in the head during menstruation. Patients who have reached the age of 40 can complain more about the appearance of pain, and in addition, girls suffering from vein thrombosis.
Headache occurs due to the fact that birth control pills make changes in the hormonal background, interfering with the normal maturation of the egg. At the same time, the formation of her own hormones changes in the girl, the activity of the vascular system is disrupted.
Anemia
Abundant (if the pad with the most “drops” needs to be changed more than once every 2 hours) or prolonged periods can cause anemia. The lack of hemoglobin in the blood causes a decrease in the amount of oxygen supplied to the brain cells. At the same time, women's skin turns pale, there is a feeling of severe exhaustion, lethargy, dull headaches, dizziness, blurred vision.
The provoking factor of headache in this case, it is necessary to note the decrease in blood pressure, which appears with anemia. Although the lack of oxygen can also induce pain in different parts of the head.
Intoxication
If there is pain in the head during menstruation, it is likely that the source of discomfort is intoxication. With menstruation, the rate of erythrocyte sedimentation increases, which indicates the formation of an inflammatory process. Dead tissue not completely removed fromorganism, produce toxins, which, in turn, enter the vascular bed. In this case, the girl shows signs of an intestinal infection: loosening of the intestinal tract, watery stools, cramps in the lower abdomen, headache (more in the forehead area, squeezing like a hoop, pulsating).
Osteochondrosis
With osteochondrosis, the ridge undergoes certain changes, due to which the arteries and nerve fibers are pinched in one or many areas. Because of this, oxygen is supplied to the brain in small quantities. During the period of menstruation, the female body gives all its strength to other processes, and the nutrition for it becomes much less. Due to the lack of elements, oxygen starvation begins and compressive headaches are noted. This is one of the reasons why menstruation causes headaches and nausea.
Symptoms
With whether a head can hurt during menstruation, we figured it out. And to understand that headaches are provoked precisely by the beginning of the cycle, you can use the following symptoms:
- throbbing kind of pain;
- high saturation;
- pain in the eyes.
Among the accompanying features are:
- abrupt mood swings;
- increased susceptibility to light;
- blood pressure jumps;
- pain in the female mammary glands;
- dizziness, vomiting, nausea;
- increased hand hyperhidrosis;
- changing diet and eating habits;
- indigestion;
- pain in the heart;
- constantexhaustion;
- feeling guilty, feeling hopeless and sad;
- swelling of limbs and face.
The occurrence of PMS is in no way associated with the level of stability of the nervous system. To this day, experiments are being carried out to establish the root cause of similar changes in the body of girls during the premenstrual period.
What to do: headache during menstruation?
If you have a headache, your doctor will prescribe pain relievers.
There are 4 pharmaceutical categories for the treatment of cephalalgia:
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: acetylsalicylic acid, Nurofen, Paracetamol, other NSAIDs. They are effective in the case of migraine against the background of inflammatory pathologies.
- Analgesics. Painkillers in this category can help eliminate cephalalgia with injuries in the head area, pathologies of the ridge. Intensively used in combination with NSAIDs.
- Anspasmodics. Medicines in this category are effective if the head hurts due to vasospasm, VVD. Antispasmodics do not eliminate seizures initiated by atherosclerosis, compression of the cervical artery by a vertebra, and similar blood vessel conditions.
- Combined anesthetics. "Spazmalgon", "Finalgon" and similar medicines effectively relieve cephalgia of a different nature.
Menstrual pain, as the main factor in why before menstruation headaches and nausea, is removed with substances from the category of small triptans. They areeliminate the attack together with the accompanying symptoms of the disease: photophobia, nausea, and so on. Potent medicines are Zolmitriptan and Almotriptan. After taking them, menstrual migraine stops in 20-60 minutes.
Women after 45 years of age, in order to normalize their well-being, 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 the National Assembly, 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, cephalalgia can simply be removed by physiotherapy and aromatherapy without the use of medicines. It is recommended from the 2nd half of the monthly cycle to saturate the air with the incense of lavender, sandalwood, sage or other essential oils with a soothing aroma. Preferably in the days between periods, take a bath or shower with a decoction of linden blossom, valerian roots, pine branch concentrate.
If your head hurts a lot during menstruation, cephalgia will be removed:
- Cold bandage applied for 15 minutes. to the site of pain localization.
- Massaging the temples, circular strokes in the face, scalp area.
- Massage of the neck and shoulder area.
- Foot bath with water temperature no more38°C.
Five days before the onset of menstruation, you should start eating foods rich in fiber. They effectively cleanse the intestinal tract. If a girl has a migraine every month and is constantly constipated, a week before menstruation, she should include boiled beets in her diet. With manifested PMS, it is necessary to eat greens, nuts, fruit and vegetable salads, dishes from pumpkin, oatmeal, rice, and beef. At the end of the luteal phase, sour-milk products, smoked meats, pasta, and sweets are excluded from the menu.
Preventive treatments
It's easier to prevent a bad headache during your period than to treat it - it's not a secret at all. And for this you need to follow a number of recommendations:
- Respect the daily routine and fully relax (be sure to take breaks during the work period for warm-up and entertainment).
- Give up all, without exception, unhe althy habits.
- Eat the right diet.
- Ventilate the bedroom before going to bed.
- Set aside at least 6 hours of sleep a day.
- Go outside daily.
- Cure every disease (including the common cold) immediately.
- Avoid stressful situations.
- Do not ignore vitamin complexes.
- Set aside 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 head hurts before or during menstruation. You can deal with the problem as itappearance using a variety of methods. Or you can forget about it for a long period by changing your own lifestyle: devote more time to sports, sleep and proper nutrition.
