To all you ladies who lost your ovaries ..

I had my TVH 4+ weeks ago .. kept my ovaries. Didn't want to get plunged into menopause any earlier than I had to.
However yesterday I had a grim reminder of my ovaries still hanging around .. my monthly premenstrual migraine.
So .. I know you gals grappling with HRT issues etc. are out there and I feel for you, however us gals who kept our ovaries aren't out of the woods either!
Grr .. no-win situation!
Anyone else have pre-menstrual migraines? And how do you deal with them?

Kathy

I dont get migraines .. bt I get nausea as part of PMT .. I do have GERD liek symptoms though thats why I had the ph motility test done .. it was horrible .

mei

I don't get them all the time, but sometimes. and sometimes, but not all the time an extra cup of coffee helps. I have no idea why, but there you go.

Cool! I now have an excuse to have that extra cup of coffee!

Kathy

p.s. I live in Italy --- the coffe is pretty amazing.

Mom used to have migraines regularly...her doc told her when she felt one coming on to drink coffee then go lie down in a cold dark room. Said something about migraines being caused by the blood vessels constricting and not allowing the blood to flow properly, and the caffiene makes them expand.

Well, I kept my ovaries, and I still get 1 migraine a month, just so happens it was yesterday, so I guess my body hasn't figured out yet that!

I asked my Dr about it, as I am on Estratest and he said that sometimes, since I am "hormonally balanced", that the body keeps some of it's symptoms. Other than the monthly migraine, that's the only PMS symptom I still have...go figure!

	Quote:
Originally posted by Sassy Gal Mom used to have migraines regularly...her doc told her when she felt one coming on to drink coffee then go lie down in a cold dark room. Said something about migraines being caused by the blood vessels constricting and not allowing the blood to flow properly, and the caffiene makes them expand.

It's actually the opposite, but same theory. When a migraine starts, the blood vessels first constrict, then dilate. Caffeine is a vaso-constrictor and will constrict the dilated blood vessels, thereby helping with the pain. Many of the migraine pain relievers have caffeine in them for this reason. On the other hand, some people get migraines from too much caffeine (although I've never been one of them).

As for losing ovaries and menstrual migraines - I had a TAH BSO on 4/27 and just this week (Sunday/Monday) had a pretty bad migraine. I'm not so sure I'm ready to associate it with hormones, though - I think I stressed myself into that headache. (And let me just add an aside here - in case you ever wondered, vitamins don't do a darn thing to relive the pain! I woke up about 3:45 AM with the pain so I stumbled to the bathroom in the dark and fumbled for my bottle of fioricet. I shook out two pills and took them but thought they seemed a little bigger than normal. Went back to bed, but the pressure of the pillows on my head was too much, so I got up and sat in my recliner waiting for my drugs to kick in. Instead of feeling better, I kept feeling worse, with nausea thrown in. After about 45 minutes (the fioricet usually starts working in 15 minutes), I decided to go take something else. At that point I turned the lights on and discovered my mistake. I had taken, not one, but two, One-a-Day WeightSmart vitamins - vitamins which make me extremely nauseous if not taken with food. sigh. )

The main reason for me having my ovaries removed was my menstrual migraines; however, that has never been my only headache trigger, so I never expected the headaches to totally go away - just to decrease in frequency. I hope, I hope!!! However, I also am not able to take estrogen for about 6 months due to endometriosis, so even though I'm taking progesterone, it may be that there *is* some hormonal component to my headaches until things level out.

Oops, my bad! Thanks for the correction, Melanie. I just remembered it had something to do with the blood vessels constricting and dilating...

I didn't "lose" my ovaries...I GLADLY gave them away!!!