Perimenopause Migraines: When the Body Calls You Inward

In the years before periods finish, the body can bring changeable symptoms. This can be a frustrating time, trying to figure out what’s wrong, where changes are coming from, and what can help.

Some people may start to have migraines for the first time, or others may see a return of migraines from years ago. Some may find that migraines get worse, more unstable, or more persistent – whether they had hormonal migraines in the past, or migraines from other triggers.

Medications and other conventional treatments may not help as expected, and this leads many people to search for other meaningful supports. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine have a lot to offer people in this stage of life.

Why migraines change in perimenopause: the physiology

Perimenopause is not just a matter of changing hormone levels. Western medicine increasingly understands it as a time in which the hormones, nervous system, immune system, inflammation, and lived emotional experience are tightly intertwined, which helps explain why migraine can become more frequent or less predictable at this time.

Migraine is also a sensitisation issue, so when the perimenopausal body is already more reactive and the brain becomes more sensitised, then common triggers such as poor sleep, stress, hot flushes, dehydration, anxiety or mood changes can more easily tip the system into a migraine episode.

The second initiation: a Chinese medicine view of perimenopause

Chinese medicine views menopause as a natural and meaningful transition phase in life. It’s a transformation that’s just as significant as puberty – for the body, the mind, and the emotions, and even for someone’s whole personality. Just as a child becomes a young adult through the process of adolescence, similarly an adult becomes a wise custodian for society through the process of perimenopause and menopause.

When the menstrual cycle is active, the intelligence of the body works like a tide, with resources building and gathering during the month and then releasing and emptying. When it’s time to shift into a new way of being through menopause, that movement needs to change.

The body is like a web, with all systems interconnected. So a profound change like this takes time. All connected systems need the chance to move their own rhythms and cycles into the new state, together.

Blood is intimately connected with mind and consciousness in Chinese medicine. When Blood ceases to release downwards and outwards each month, it means that there should be plentiful resources to nourish the Heart. These resources allow the ripening of wisdom that is traditionally associated with maturity, eldership and custodianship.

If the body is depleted through years of stress or chronic exhaustion, then this transition can feel quite rocky. There is pain such as migraine or join pain, and fluctuations such as hot flushes and mood changes, as the body tries to redirect resources with a relatively empty tank as its underlying condition.

The good news is that Chinese medicine has developed an intricate knowledge over centuries of time-tested medical wisdom, handed down through generations, through observing and testing what is supportive for this special phase of life.

It’s about strategies that deeply nourish the body, calming fluctuating or erratic movements, and gently cooling the peaks of heat while warming and energising the energy reserves.

Dark retreat: a Chinese medicine view of migraine

At this clinic, we really take time to listen to the language that your body is speaking through signs and symptoms. A clear example of this is the way that migraine often asks for quiet, darkness and stillness – with no social interaction and even no thinking.

We can view migraine as the brain’s way of requesting rest and replenishment. In Chinese medicine, nature’s cyclical movements and the natural human condition of activity and inner retreat are all part of our view.

While we don’t glamourise pain and suffering, there is a way to understand the significance of the body’s requests, and to be explicit in meeting those requests for the maximum benefit. We combine this with therapies such as acupuncture for nervous system calming and regulation, and Chinese herbal medicine and dietary therapy for nourishment and replenishment.

On a practical level, this means that a person’s migraine treatment program may include exploring their personal preference for ensuring that they get this stillness and replenishment on a regular basis, proactively, as part of their holistic migraine prevention protocol.

What acupuncture and Chinese medicine offer for perimenopausal migraine

At this threshold, acupuncture and Chinese medicine are used to support the whole system rather than just chase symptoms. Acupuncture has been found in modern clinical studies to be as effective as medications for preventing migraine.

In plain terms, treatment aims to strengthen the body’s reserves, especially the resources that help keep the mind steady, the circulation smooth, and the nervous system less reactive. It also works to ease the kind of internal tension that can make migraine more likely, while helping the body hold on to what it needs during a time of change.

We often focus on building nourishment, calming overactivity, and helping energy move more freely through the channels that tend to become tight or congested under stress. At the same time, treatment can help clear the kind of “heat” that shows up when the system is running too hot, whether that feels like irritability, poor sleep, flushing, or headaches.

It’s common and understandable at this time for people to want to “go back to how things were”. Our view tends to be trusting the body’s wisdom, listening to its requests for help and support, and opening the way for a new and vibrant third phase of life to come forward.

Are you curious, or ready to begin?

If you’d like to learn more, or if this already resonates and you’re keen to begin, we’d love to help you.

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Dr Lois Nethery (TCM) is a highly recommended AHPRA-registered Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with 20+ years of experience with migraine and headache natural treatment. She has created a unique migraine framework that addresses body, mind and spirit. Her system includes a range of effective and evidence-based complementary therapies such as acupuncture, gua sha, cupping, moxibustion, acupressure, dietary therapy, lifestyle therapy, meditation, EFT (tapping), light therapy, sound therapy and breath medicine. These are combined into a comprehensive system to address the sensitive nervous systems of people with migraine and chronic headaches.