Ask Lemmy

No, I am in my 50s now. Migraines started at 18, were worst in my 30s, so painful that I didn't understand when the doctors asked to rate the pain, so bad that when I went through natural childbirth my only comment was "well, it wasn't as bad as a migraine, at least.". And yes almost always with vomiting. Turned out it was birth control pills making them more intense but I didn't know that until I stopped them. Hormonal IUD did not have that effect, nor does menopausal hormone treatment. Now I do still get them, much less often and they do vary in severity now, not straight to 11 on a scale of 10.

I will also say they are well managed with the sumatriptan injection, 90% of the time or better it works and doesn't even feel dopey, just fixes it. For 20 years now, it's worked. The problem was that when it didn't work it sometimes was a 3 day thing and I couldn't drink at all, even a sip of water caused vomiting. This bad has only happened like 6 times total, you used to be able to go to the doctor and get pumped full of something like heroin, it didn't touch the pain really but put me so far away from it and I'd sleep and wake up without the headache. But now, because it didn't really work, and there's such a backlash against opiates, they won't - even though this is a once every 4-5 years thing and nothing else works either. Now nobody but emergency room will touch it and all they do is IV liquids so you don't die from dehydration, and something in it to stop the puking. But it leaves the headache there.