The first time I saw a neurologist for my migraines, she told me to stop taking birth control pills right away. Because I get sensory disturbances called auras with my migraines, she said, the pill—any pill—increases my stroke risk enough to be unsafe. Her advice meshed with the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which deem combined oral contraceptives—common birth control pills containing both progestin and estrogen—an "unacceptable health risk" for women who get migraines with aura. I took my doctor's advice and switched to an IUD, but that's when my migraine problems took a turn for the worse.
In addition to my typical aura migraines, which swarm my vision with pulsating zig-zag lines, I started getting migraines once a month that robbed me of my memory. Each time they hit, I was unable to remember what month or year it was, how old my kids were, what time I needed to meet my son's school bus—even how to use the remote control for the TV.
Alarmed, I dug into the research on migraines and discovered something surprising: According to a recent analysis published in the journal Headache, many of today's birth control pills are not only safe for women who get any kind of migraine, but they can also help prevent the most debilitating types—which would help explain why mine got worse when I went off the pill. According to this paper, the CDC's sweeping recommendations against the use of any combined oral contraceptive are based on a flawed, out-of-date interpretation of the science.
Read more on Tonic
Advertisement