How Women Can Identify Their Migraine Triggers

Migraine is a common condition that affects both men and women but is more common in women.

Every person living with migraines has a particular set of triggers that can set off a migraine. Finding yours can take some time, but can reduce the number of attacks you have.

What is a migraine?

Migraine is a complex neurological condition that usually involved an intense, throbbing headache on one side. There are many other symptoms including sensitivity to light and sound, nausea and vomiting.

A migraine may occur over a period of hours or days and it’s usually necessary to lie down in a dark room for the duration of the attack.

Identifying your triggers

There are many potential triggers that could cause a migraine. Sometimes it can be a combination of triggers that add up. For example, strong scents may not cause migraine by themselves, but coupled with a skipped meal could trigger an attack. Many women experience menstrual migraine, which is connected to their cycle. Many women find that their migraines get better after menopause, especially if they are using HRT to level their hormones.

Know the difference between a symptom and a trigger

It’s to confuse the symptoms of an impending migraine with a cause. For example, many people crave chocolate in the early stages of a migraine, before they begin to feel unwell. It is thought to be due to a lack of magnesium. Then, when the pain of a migraine headache starts, it’s easy to think it is the extra chocolate that caused it.

You may be able to keep eating your chocolate after all.

Tracking your lifestyle for triggers

Keeping a migraine diary can be a laborious task, but is well worth it in the long run. It can help you identify patterns in your migraines and any particular triggers that might be apparent.

Try and make a record of the following thing.

When you sleep and wake and the quality of that sleep.
Your activities
Stress levels
Weather
What you eat or drink
Your bowel movements
Your cycle
The symptoms you get when you have a migraine

There are a number of great apps available that you can use to record all of this information easily, and can even give your reports to share with your healthcare provider.

Avoiding your triggers

It’s not as simple as it sounds. Identifying triggers isn’t an exact science. If it was, people would be able to avoid them easily. But you can reduce the number of attacks you get. Plus, it can be extremely difficult to make significant changes to your routine or life.

Getting into a good routine, eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly is a solid basis for reducing migraine frequency and is good for your overall health and wellbeing too.

Key points

Migraine can be debilitating when an attack occurs. Getting a handle on your triggers and finding a combination of medical and complementary treatments that work for you is the key to getting a handle on them and reducing the impact on your life.

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