Hi, I hit 50 and the menopause in May. Was doing quite well but 3 weeks ago had an almighty crash with worsening of MAV symptoms. Dr Surenthiran indicated last time I saw him that MAV can either get better or worse with the menopause. The latter appears to be the situation for me. Is any one else out there finding symptoms worse with menopause? Any advise on medication? lord knows I’ve tried most and as my VRT lady remarked helpfully ‘’ some people just don’t respond to drug’’
Hi,
Yes i would say its worse for me at meno, i have been told i had mav all along started when the hormones were kicking in at about 11yrs, back then it was vertigo, all sorts inbetween, fluctuations from pregnancies, and then in peri at 43 hit with rocking + + + etc, kinda calmed down for a while then 3 weeks ago relapse into same symptoms at peri, i am now 51. I was taking mirtazapine for it when i was 43 for few yrs on and off it did help with the anxiety insomnia and a i dont care about it feeling till it did calm right down to a liveable level, i was also offered propanolol and sodium valporate which i declined as mirt seemed to be ok…except only thing bad was for me weight gain…i am back on it again am now at 15mg and hoping it will calm it down again…it also flings me into a depression…if i dont take meds quick enough.
lorraine
Hi Ruby, thanks for replying. I 've been on mirtrazpine for depression for years. It doesn’t help me with the constant dsyequillibrium as such. Hope yours calms down and you feel better. I guess we are both at the mercy of our hormones at the moment.
Fiona,
I’ve had migraines since the age of 9, very infrequent (more than 1-2 years between attacks) but when they did come they lasted 4-6 days, very bad. My last one was about 8 years ago and I went through menopause 6 years ago. The vertigo started after menopause. I have read that migraines can change form after menopause. I always hear that migraine gets better after the big M, but I guess not for all of us. Not fun, I’ll take the headache over the vertigo any day.
Around 40 years of age, I developed very bothersome “car sick dreams.” I would have dreams in which I was doing something such as riding up and down an elevator that twists and turns and I would wake up extremely carsick, much much worse than any carsickness I have ever experienced. Maybe this was the beginning of MAV for me.
I started on verapamil last week as a migraine preventative and oddly enough, since I started it I have been bothered by a “light migraine.” I say light, because my other ones were a 9 on a scale of 1-10 and this one only seems to be about a 4 or 5. I can’t understand why I would suddenly get a migraine after years of not having one when I am now taking a preventive for it.
book
HI Book - a few other people have said that verapamil gave them bad headaches - I think Scott was one??
I well remember reading that then again once the medication stops the dizziness the condition has been known to revert to migraine headaches.
Although this thread is ten years old it’s still as relevant and I certainly can relate to it easily. The Neurologist told me my condition pattern was completely backwards for it to be hormonally related and seemed surprised I had even mentioned it but I now find @bookworm and I followed a near identical pattern (my history lacks the migraines through my fertile years) so I am not unique. Indeed I never dreamed I was.
Snap. Never experienced vertigo until five months post menopause. Very interesting @bookworm’s references to “car sick dreams”. A few, 4-6 times, through my adult life pre menopause I had strange bilious type attacks that could have been migraine without the vertigo and two, until reading this post, I’d completely forgotten twice I had really bilious attacks with a bad headache each following exposure to excessive mobile lighting stimulation, the first a huge night-time carnival all noise and hundreds of thousands electric lightbulbs and on the other occasion my first and only ever trip into a night,-time disco complete with all those rotating and roving lights. Sad it might be but I feel quite good to discover I may not be as unusual as first thought. Helen