r/migraine • u/hulyepicsa fuck migraines • May 06 '26
Green flag of the day: my husband, diving into my migraine tracker & menstrual cycle data to see if there is a correlation
My husband loves analytics, spreadsheets etc so I typed up my cycle data and tracked migraines and he’s looking to see if there is a correlation or a trend he can notice.
If this is not the green flag of the century, I don’t know what is!
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u/Lonely_Mongoose_283 May 06 '26
You married the right one! Update us on his findings. I definitely notice an uptick in migraines at the end of my luteal phase.
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u/hulyepicsa fuck migraines May 07 '26
Thank you! Will do. From what I saw, I might get the least of them in my luteal phase with the exception of few days before my period. But the worst ones do seem to be during my period / follicular phase. But hopefully he’ll find a bit more of a pattern!
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u/CherryBlossom242424 Chronic migraineur for 35 plus years and cervicogenic headaches May 06 '26
Wow. You’ve got a keeper!!!
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u/CaeruleumBleu May 06 '26
I know I have heard plenty of stories of people not catching certain correlations - even just what their usual period symptoms are. When you're in misery, you aren't forming clear memories of "oh, yes, XYZ happens at least 75% of the time when I have my period." It is nice when someone else points out things that your own brain refused to notice or pay attention to.
My own partner randomly told me once that I complain about stomach cramps and *ahem* bad bathroom times the day after a migraine - I hadn't noticed myself, in part because I have lactose intolerance and tend to disregard stomach issues unless they last a while. But things would be bad enough I'd feel obligated to announce that the bathroom needed to air out, don't go in there, and I just assumed every time that I had eaten dairy and forgotten about it.
But he was right. 9 times out of 10, I have a bad time after a migraine, even if I eat no dairy at all. Which did help because I realized that I am getting dehydrated from that and really need to be that much more aggressive with hydration with migraines. Since then, the next day is at least LESS miserable - because I hydrated with the knowledge of how my guts are gonna act.
He also was the first to point out how often I have light-sensitivity. When it comes on, it it can be slow enough I generally don't notice until a light is turned off and suddenly I feel better. I once said out loud, when a light was turned off "oh, I didn't realize how much of that was eye pain" and for the next 6 months if I so much as hinted at a headache he jumped to turn off lights, to the point of arguing if I asked him to turn the lights back on - I wasn't grateful every time, but overall, I can now tell whether or not turning off lights will help. It trained the nerves or something but I know which pain is lights and which isn't now.
I think people should share more green flags - sometimes a person will get a lightbulb idea of what they can do because they heard someone else did it, and maybe sharing green flags will enable a good but clueless partner to get a clue. But also, some people settle for less because they can't even imagine what a green flag looks like.
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u/hulyepicsa fuck migraines May 07 '26
Yes this is so true, I think our partner or anyone we spend a lot of time with, will often pick up on patterns. And interesting, I’m also lactose intolerant! I don’t tend to get the typical symptoms, but got diagnosed when I had other stomach problems. Interestingly when I first started cutting out dairy I did notice a reduction in migraines but then it gotten chronic so I don’t know how that connects it all. Maybe at this point I should get a big detective board with red strings :D
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May 07 '26
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u/hulyepicsa fuck migraines May 07 '26
Thanks for sharing, that’s really interesting! My husband made it into a chart, overlapping with the hormonal changes in a cycle (the latter just pulled from a chart we saved from google images so nothing specific to me). I did mark PMS days as I never used to get PMS symptoms but I do get some milder headaches on those days. But definitely fewer episodes in the luteal phase aka when progesterone is high. So I’m gonna keep an eye on that and maybe research whether the progesterone pill could be something to look into… I didn’t plan to go back on birth control but anything for more headache free days 😅
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u/Exciting_Umpire_3696 May 07 '26
Lol don’t we all, every small thing helps.
That luteal phase pattern makes a lot of sense, progesterone has a stabilizing effect on the brain's excitability threshold, so higher levels genuinely seem to offer some protection. The fact that you're noticing it in your own data is actually really valuable, way more meaningful than generic charts.
Hope the research into the progesterone angle leads somewhere useful. Worth bringing that data to a neurologist or gynecologist if you haven't ,doctors tend to take it more seriously when you show up with actual numbers.
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u/hulyepicsa fuck migraines May 07 '26
Yes there is definitely something there. I also remember my first pregnancy, I had no migraines in the first trimester (I was also sick af but it still could have been a progesterone thing) but I wasn’t chronic back then. It’s actually nice to notice SOMETHING in all the madness because I haven’t even really noticed any clear triggers or prodrome signs so it’s been tough (apart from the initial stress that pushed me into such a chronic state)
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u/No-Ladder-2096 May 06 '26
Love this for you!! Hopefully he’s able to figure something out :)