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A reader reached out to us earlier this week with a question about the pain she’s been having in her eyes. Not just any pain, but a sharp pain that occurs before and during her menstrual cycle.

“I always feel pain in my eyes before or during my period.

My question is:IS IT POSSIBLE THAT  MY PERIOD HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE PAIN IN MY EYES?AND WHY?

please..I do need your help.”

Well, we’re not accredited, educated doctors ’round here. So we reached out to Dr. Prudence Hall, a former gynecologist, and director of The Hall Center in Santa Monica, California for an explanation as to what could be going on. Dr. Hall said it sounds like the makings of a menstrual migraine. And despite the discomfort, they’re all too common.

“Right when your period is starting or sometimes during the period or a few days into the period, women get all sorts of weird headaches,” Hall said. “The pain between the eyes is very classic. If not there, then it’s right between the eyebrows, or sometimes it’s on the side of the head, or sometimes it’s towards the back of the head. Sometimes it’s extremely mild and only happens when women have orgasms around that time. Other times, it’s really severe.”

She blames such pain on a dip in estrogen.

“It’s caused by a drop in the estrogen that happens right before the period and during the period,” Hall said. “Women’s estrogen levels begin to drop three or four days before the period and stay low for a few days during the period. And that really results in all sorts of body pain. If you give yourself a little bit of natural estrogen around that time, regardless of age, most of the time, that gets rid of these cyclical, horrible symptoms that women have. Or mild symptoms. It’s like menstrual cramps, but it’s happening to the head.”

As for the natural estrogen, she doesn’t recommend a pill, but rather, a very, very mild cream. Dr. Hall says you should use a fourth of a milligram of estrogen cream a couple of days before the period that goes into the cycle. It can be applied to the inner thigh, stomach or butt cheek, and she says a couple of applications a day (morning and evening) can solve the pain.

But if it doesn’t help, that pain could be a symptom of something else.

“Sometimes it’s things like an intolerance to Gluten or dairy, and that can cause inflammation in the body and in the brain. Then the drop in estrogen can make it worse.”

So if your head is knocking around that time of the month, estrogen, again, a teeny amount, can go a long way for you. If it doesn’t, you may have issues with Gluten and certain dairies. And if all else fails, I personally recommend a good long nap and some ice cream. But then again, I’m no doctor…

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