Migraine in men over 50
Hello,
I am a 49 yrs old man from Belgium and I am suffering from serious migraine attacks since my childhood.
Unfortunately since 2012 I also suffer from cluster headaches. Previous year however, my migraine attacks magically disappeared and not got a real migraine attack ever since. However the shadows caused by CH can feel very migrainous but without the nausea and photophobia.
Now I am thinking that I maybe have outgrown my migraine attacks or they have been "pushed away" by the cluster headaches. I have asked my GP recently and he told me that I do not put high hopes on it that my migraines are definitely gone. He told me they most likely gone into a temporary remission and will come back later.
I know its rather usual for women to grow out of them during or after menopause (my mother got rid of them this way) but is there anything known if men get rid of them as well around that age ? Or do they stay longer with migraine... maybe lifelong ?
As I know that my cluster headaches are here to stay and likely won't go away anytime soon I am not really waiting for those migraines to come back. So if anybody has any information about this, I would be very glad to hear that and it is also a way for me to prepare myself for if they eventually come back.
Thanks a lot and Best Regards !
siegfried
Hi siefried,
Welcome to the Migraine.com discussion forum! Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Many of us have more than one type of headache disorder; migraine attack and cluster attacks for example. Migraine is a genetic neurological disease with flare ups or attacks. You may want to think of it like asthma - it's always there, sometimes with frequent attacks and other times fewer attacks. Migraine disease
Migraine attack patterns and symptoms can change over time and even go into remission so to speak. I wish I could tell you exactly when migraine attacks and/or cluster attacks will stop, but at this point, no one knows the answer to this!
Keep us posted on how you are doing,
NancyHi Nancy,
Thanks a lot for the response and the good guess because they came back 🙁
I had a cluster headache remission of 1,5 month (I am chronic) until begin of May and when the clusters returned, the migraine came with it.
However the migraine attacks lost a bit in intensity but the cluster headaches are getting stronger but fortunately they last only 10-15 min per attack.
Migraine and cluster attacks always come together and having these two at the same time is absolutely no fun 🙁
siegfried
Hi siegfried,
UGH! That sounds pretty awful. I'm sorry you are going through this.
Hang in there!
Nancy
As a mid westerner male who has suffered migraines since age seven and severe migraines for 40 year I just have a quick observation on this topic.
There are 2 types of male MD's here.
If you are lucky, you might find that one in one hundred male physician who actually has personal experience with migraines. If this is the case, hang on tight because they will actually listen.
The other 99% look at it this way. If you can't fix your migraine with whisky and aspirin, something is wrong with you, so go away and don't bother me. If you do, you will suffer my wrath.
It took a twenty year battle just to get past. "You can't have migraines, your are not female."
Next year I will turn 65 and can be dismissed entirely as being old and on medicare.
Will we ever get past the dark ages here?
Hi Softmuse,
I bet you've echoed what some of us are thinking. Have you had an opportunity to see a true migraine/headache disease expert? A doctor who is board certified in headache medicine, which is different than being certified in neurology? Something you may want to look into.
Wishing you a low pain day,
Nancy Harris Bonk, Patient Advocate/Moderator
