pushing the menstrual migraine out of the picture

In late October, I had my regular checkup with my neurologist. I let him, as well as the nurse practitioner, know how horrifically painful my menstrual Migraine had become. The night before my period comes, the pain sets in behind my eyes, following a brief aura marked by blurry vision and eye twitching. It's a Migraine, all right, but its pain is different somehow, different from the other Migraines I get the rest of the month. I get it in the evening and, sure enough, my period's there the next morning.

Six days later, the pain will start to recede. Hundreds of dollars in medication later, I start to function moderately normally again.

As I've probably said before, I can't do what a lot of women who have menstrual problems do: because I have Migraine with aura, it's dangerous for me to take the combination pill (birth control), which could help lighten my periods and therefore lessen the pain. So I have to muster through it, right?

Wrong. There are options. And my doctor presented one to me.

I'm at the end of my cycle now, and I've not had the menstrual Migraine that's plagued me for at least a decade. I can't believe how great I feel. Starting two days before my menstrual headache begins, I take Frova once a day; twice a day I take Naproxen. Now that my period's gone, I can stop the regimen and not take these drugs again until my next period.

I can't believe the menstrual Migraine's not here. Something I saw as an inescapable reality has been, for at least this month, escaped.