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        New Message Board Archives >> 2002 Posts >> Hormone question for the women
        
(Message started by: WendyHowe on Nov 16^th, 2002, 7:43pm)

Title: Hormone question for the women
Post by WendyHowe on Nov 16^th, 2002, 7:43pm

I cannot find any information on this so can you help?
Are Clusters hormone related in women? (I know more men are sufferers than women but there are a lot of women on this site)
Migraines definitely are and sometimes controlling hormones/reaction to hormones can cure them. Is this a possibility with CH?

Wendy

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by suzy617 on Nov 16^th, 2002, 7:47pm

Hi Wendy, I've been on hormone replacement therapy for 8 years, clusters for 21 years. There hasnt been any difference with the HA's from before or now. I'm betting hormones dont play a role in this.
suzy

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by WendyHowe on Nov 16^th, 2002, 7:56pm

Hi Suzy
I suppose maybe I'm just looking for a rational explanation where there isn't one but it just struck me that if there are some similarities in what the brain does during CH and migraine, and some of the same treatments work, then perhaps some of the causes might be the same.

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by suzy617 on Nov 16^th, 2002, 8:04pm

I wish you were right. I would stay on HRT pills for the rest of my life then. Can you picture all the guys taking them, do you think they would grow boobs or something? ;D

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by WendyHowe on Nov 16^th, 2002, 8:09pm

Yes! and they would learn to put the toilet seat down, pee without splashing and put things in the dishwasher instead of on the draining board

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by Ueli on Nov 16^th, 2002, 9:03pm

I think my brains have not yet entirely turned into a sieve, and therefore I believe to remember that many women here have reported they were never hit with CH during pregnancy. In my not authoritative male opinion that could have something to do with hormones.

Ueli ;D

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by kim on Nov 16^th, 2002, 9:10pm

Mr. Big: ;D

Fat n happy. No eddache. Belly empties and so it begins........

B4 the hormones, ? and after the horoblemones ;D Answer that and ya get the BIG PRIZE ;D

???B4 an afta an still no PRIZE ???

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by Georgia on Nov 17^th, 2002, 11:55am

Ueli - I have a question. During pregnancy, a woman's body produces more estrogen and progesteran (one of the results of which is to prevent the woman from becoming pregnant twice), yes? Now, birth control pills, as I understand them, trick the body into thinking it is pregnant by introducing more estrogen and progesteran into the system, thus preventing pregnancy. So, would taking birth control pills stop ch in women by raising the hormones that pregnancy (which seems to stop ch) naturally releases?...maybe at high enough levels?

Many moons ago, before I started getting ch, I tried getting on the pill. The dr, however, would not prescribe it to me without consent from my neuro because of my migraines. My neurolgist would not give his consent, saying that OC's make migraines worse. So what I am wondering is....hormonally, would the pill stop ch and make migraines worse? Any one with experience either way with this? Am I asking too much by thinking there must be some logic to this whole thing?

Thanks in advance.

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by WendyHowe on Nov 17^th, 2002, 3:12pm

Dear Georgia et al
My rational mind likes your thinking. I was completely headache free for the whole 9 months of my pregnancy, then literally two days after the birth it started again.
My GP (who is very not clued up about CH but knows migraine as she is a sufferer) thinks this bout of repeated headaches is hormone related as I had an early miscarriage four weeks ago. As all the symptoms I am having are cluster headaches, not migraine, again my logical brain suggests that cluster triggers may also be hormone related. I can't think that it can all be that simple, but perhaps hormone fluctuations set them off where the individual already has the physiological make-up to get them.
The other thing that may be relevant is that many physical problems women suffer from hormones are not actually the levels of them, rather it is the individuals response to those fluctuations i.e. the levels are not dramatically wrong and test as basically pretty normal on blood tests, it is just that the woman's body and mind react more strongly than others for some reason.
Logic then says, are cluster sufferers just such women i.e. those who react dramatically to minor fluctuations?

Theorising over. I CANNOT find ANY research at all about this.

Are there any doctors out there who can shed light on it?

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by ave on Nov 17^th, 2002, 3:42pm

Here goes: the levels of estrogen are very much higher during pregnancy than during an ordinary cycle, or during the pill induced cycle.

With hormones you do not deal in straight doses (like 1aspirin, 2 aspirins) but with bordervalues - if it is more than X it may turn on condition A and if it is less than X it may turn on condition B.

Pregnancy causes very high estrogen levels, but also a completely different condition of your body, with a completely different balance of a great many other hormones.

So the pill in ordinary doses does not give you these high estrogen levels, you cannot be sure they really make people painfree and they may be dangerous without the counterbalances in real pregnancies.
Check up on it, for I seem to remember somebody getting cluster attacks right through pregnancy!

Oh, and who am I to say all this - I am not a doctor! But I have been giving contraceptive counseling for over 20 years. O know just a little.

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by Elaine on Nov 17^th, 2002, 4:08pm

I am going through ( don't tell anyone ok) Metapause that means your losing your estrogen. I am finding I am not haveing as many clusters. But I also have other things going on medically so I don't know.
Any women going though Metapause ( we won't tell anyone) that can tell us if they have seen any difference bad or good?

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by WendyHowe on Nov 17^th, 2002, 4:09pm

Dear ?Annemarie?

Understood. Pregnancy is probably not the best example as it is a bit extreme, and lets face it, however bad the pain is, getting pregnant to cure it is a bit drastic! (I'm bloody tempted though).

What about the women who suffer extreme physical and psychological reactions to fluctuating hormones e.g. PMT sufferers? They are very often also migraine sufferers, and of course for all I know could be CH sufferers (I am too new to this one to comment as I have only had one bout)

Are women with CH also the women who have been or are PMT/ovulation pain/other cyclical symptoms sufferers? If they are, surley this is really worthy of proper medical/clinical investigation as there now ARE treatments for controlling the body's response to the hormone fluctuations and this could perhaps in turn, affect the CH?

Wendy

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by Ueli on Nov 17^th, 2002, 6:06pm

Georgia,
I'm not at all an expert on birth control pills. :D
But if I remember right, the topic was discussed quite some times on the old message board. The results went from better over indifferent to worse, and from some the type of the pill made a difference. Do a search on the old message board, or maybe Den has something about this in his huge collection of posts. ;)

PFNADs
Ueli

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by Charlie on Nov 17^th, 2002, 8:26pm

My unproven theory about pregnancy and CH is that the most important function of humans is to make more humans. Somewhere in our makeup, is something that tell our bodies to put everything on hold that gets in the way until this is accomplished.

Cool idea there Georgia. Dumb me, it never occurred to me that this may be a chemical thing. Strange because no doubt it is.

Charlie

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by suzy617 on Nov 18^th, 2002, 6:23am

Elaine, I went thru early menapause at 39. I have never noticed a change in CH from before that until now, 8 years later. My cycles have more or less been the same thru out my 21 years having them so I would say hormones play no role in mine.

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by cerebus on Nov 18^th, 2002, 12:06pm

This is very interesting....
The big choice......get pregnant, get on "the pill" and grow boobs and become an emotional wreck that urges me to shave in places that it just aint natural for men to shave...hrmmmmmm. ::) ;D

well, if some study somewhere finds the answer I'll be one of the first to sign up! or will I? LOL!

Just a thought......there has to be something about
pregnancy that suppresses the hypothalamus trigger response for CH that is non- hormonal. Perhaps a surge of another brain chemical during the pregnancy period that is un-researched. The only reason I say this is because the body is in "baby-protect" mode the whole time and somehow I have to believe that it is not just the increase of hormones. There has to be more going on in the brain, at least from what I've read in this string.
Capt. Brown

keep thinking though, Its those of us who think "outside of the box" that make real progress happen. ;)

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by Bob P on Nov 18^th, 2002, 1:03pm

Article in the OUCH Research Library talks of stopping CH with testoterone treatments.

Maybe you ladies just need to grow some hair on your chest.

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by kim on Nov 18^th, 2002, 7:18pm

Shut UP Bob ;D Chin hair is bad enough ::) Estrogen, chemicals, early menopause (shhhh............) CHRIST! What NEXT ;D

I'd rather be eternally pregnant. :)

Cindy Luuuuuuuu(loo). ::)

Title: Re: Hormone question for the women
Post by Jarvis on Nov 18^th, 2002, 7:38pm

Hey...if pregnancy works I'll try it. I got chin and chest hairs too. :)