Migraine Mini: As if Menstruating Wasn't Bad Enough

Menstrual migraine is but one of the many incarnations of migraine disease. Treating it may not be as simple as taking birth control to manage or eliminate a period, however. Estrogen-containing contraceptives are contraindicated by conditions that increase the chance of forming blood clots or for those at increased risk of stroke. A friend of mine who was on a hormonal birth control to manage her migraine disease for over a decade wound up hospitalized with too many pulmonary embolisms for the doctors to count.

When I asked my first neurologist about migraine and pregnancy, he said about one-third of patients experience no change in symptoms, one-third experience an improvement in migraine symptoms during pregnancy, and one-third experience a worsening of migraine attacks during pregnancy. How and why hormones play a role in migraine disease is as complex as the brain itself.

"As if Menstruating Wasn’t Bad Enough" 4×6 inch mixed media on canvas.

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This series is as much about the issues of drug prices as it is about my life with migraine disease. My maintenance medication has a sticker price of $1200 per month. Why do they cost so much? I assume they are made of gold… so I crafted these little golden pills. So each of 30 completed works of art costs as much as one day of my migraine meds: $40

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