First of all, I apologize in advance if parts of this post don't make sense. I've got massive brainfog right now, and it's making coherency difficult. If anything needs clarified in any way, please let me know!
A few months back, my doctor put me on the Pill (Lo-Ovral) to try and regulate my periods. It worked wonders - and without it, I tend to not bleed for months at a time, followed by at least two weeks of bleeding (or, in the case that led to me going on birth control, three months).
About a month ago I realized that the weird visual disturbances I've been having aren't a sign of a brain tumor or anything, just migraines (usually) without headache. And while it's nice to have that figured out, my understanding is that people with migraines shouldn't take the Pill due to greatly increased risk of stroke.
What alternatives are there for period management that aren't contradicted by migraines? Or am I completely wrong about not being able to use the Pill?
I don't know yet what's causing my irregular cycle, but I'll be addressing that next time I see my doctor, which is when I want to bring up the migraine thing and discuss alternatives. (She suspects ovarian cysts and had referred me to get an ultrasound, but that... hasn't happened yet. Long story.)
And if it's relevant... I've never had sex, and I'm gay, so having sex that could lead to pregnancy isn't in the cards, but I really like being on birth control regardless because I'm absolutely terrified of getting raped and ending up pregnant without access to abortion services. /: I don't know if that's at all rational, but...
The brainfog is making it hard to figure out what to search for and how to process the vast amount of information. I'm sorry if these are silly questions, but I can't figure this stuff out on my own right now.
A few months back, my doctor put me on the Pill (Lo-Ovral) to try and regulate my periods. It worked wonders - and without it, I tend to not bleed for months at a time, followed by at least two weeks of bleeding (or, in the case that led to me going on birth control, three months).
About a month ago I realized that the weird visual disturbances I've been having aren't a sign of a brain tumor or anything, just migraines (usually) without headache. And while it's nice to have that figured out, my understanding is that people with migraines shouldn't take the Pill due to greatly increased risk of stroke.
What alternatives are there for period management that aren't contradicted by migraines? Or am I completely wrong about not being able to use the Pill?
I don't know yet what's causing my irregular cycle, but I'll be addressing that next time I see my doctor, which is when I want to bring up the migraine thing and discuss alternatives. (She suspects ovarian cysts and had referred me to get an ultrasound, but that... hasn't happened yet. Long story.)
And if it's relevant... I've never had sex, and I'm gay, so having sex that could lead to pregnancy isn't in the cards, but I really like being on birth control regardless because I'm absolutely terrified of getting raped and ending up pregnant without access to abortion services. /: I don't know if that's at all rational, but...
The brainfog is making it hard to figure out what to search for and how to process the vast amount of information. I'm sorry if these are silly questions, but I can't figure this stuff out on my own right now.
The pill can increase stroke risk among migraineurs but it doesn't automatically mean a no go. I have terrible migraines that lay me down for days, but I've been on the pill in the past.
Also, have you talked to your doc to see if these visual disturbances are a side effect of the pill? Has a neurologist diagnosed them as migraines?
The visual disturbances started way before I started the Pill. I only connected them to migraines recently, but I'm pretty sure that's what they are. But I'll be bringing that up with my doctor too, so I'll find out for sure pretty soon.
Just as a heads-up: the spoiler tag mark-up isn't going to act as an effective trigger warning for everyone. Would you be able to stick in a plain-text trigger warning or an LJ-cut as well, maybe? Thank youuuuuu! :-)
And thank you for the information, as well. I was thinking that there was some simple difference between things that were okay and things that might not be, but I couldn't remember that it was estrogen so I had no idea what to search for...
And yeah, Aura-migraine without pain sounds like what ou describe -- my spouse gets them. Progesterone-only methods are less of an increased risk (though apparently not zero increased risk; I looked it up recently), and IUDs migh be worth looking at.
Please forgive typos - I'm on my tablet and my glasses are off...
Good luck!
The best suggestion I can offer is to talk to your doctor about it, if that's possible, and see what they have to say. If your gyn can't offer you the information you're looking for, maybe see about going to talk to a neurologist about the headaches. They should be able to tell you whether or not it's actually migraines or something else.