Energy Levels

Women 40 and above: What Causes Hormonal Headaches and Migraines?

August 25, 2022

Hi, I’m Angela
I'm a functional medicine practitioner & hormone expert working primarily with women in their 40's and 50's to create lasting health.
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Yes, please!

Do you suffer from hormonal headaches and migraines? 

If so, you’re not alone. Many women in their 40s and above experience these types of headaches. But what causes them? And what can be done to ease the pain? 

In this blog, you will discover the various causes of hormonal headaches and migraines. I also offer some tips on how to manage them. We hope that you find this information helpful!

I’m Functional healthcare professional. I have been working in women’s health for many years. I have a passion for those women in their forties and beyond. I’m helping them understand how to get the balance back in their hormones naturally. 

Hormonal Headaches 

I have the information about hormonal headaches you could use right away.  Women may have hormonal headaches on and off, possibly throughout their life since they’ve been cycling women. Many haven’t had them until they get into their forties and beyond, as they transition into menopause.

It’s happening from a hormonal perspective and is incredibly debilitating to you. You will know where the root cause of these hormonal headaches came from, what you can do about it, and how to take action right away.

When you’re having headaches like many women, you cancel some events at work or social. You’re having struggles with your family and home life. You have to turn off all the lights while lying down. In some extreme cases, you will be canceling all life events when headaches are happening for two to three days.

Recently, I was supposed to go for a fun weekend with a friend. She had to cancel the meeting at the last minute because of her migraine. It was so bad she couldn’t drive to where we needed to meet. She had to stay home, rest, and recover, and was so disappointed.

We hadn’t seen each other in a couple of years and were looking forward to this meetup. These are the kinds of things that can happen. You need to understand where these hormonal headaches are coming from and why they are getting more frequent as you get into your forties and 50s.

Primary Female Sex Hormones

The two primary women’s sex hormones are estrogen and progesterone. The headaches have something to do with the levels of these hormones lowering as you go naturally into transition to menopause. These things happen to every single woman. Even if you are doing something to help monitor and modulate the hormone levels. 

Estrogen Dominant Situation

Your progesterone levels are lowering and a little quicker than estrogen. They’re both declining as you transition into menopause. The two hormones are also out of balance triggering hormone headaches. When the two are out of proportion with each other where progesterone is lower than estrogen,  it creates an estrogen-dominant situation.

Hormonal Fluctuations

It’s what can trigger hormonal headaches at some points in the cycle. The reason is that hormone levels change and fluctuate at some points. The hormone levels are getting lower on the lead to your period. These headaches happen significantly triggered when you are still having your regular period.  

Some of these hormonal fluctuations will happen earlier. They can occur before and after day 14,  just a few days close to ovulation or the last part of the cycle. As you start to have your period, hormonal fluctuations occur with all these changes leading to hormones being out of balance.  

We can’t change the fact your hormone levels are lowering as you get into your forties, especially in your fifties, or transitioning into menopause. The best you can do is to know what is happening with your hormones.

You need to know your numbers as a start. You must learn what you can do to adjust and balance these levels as your hormones are lowering. There are many natural things you can do from a lifestyle perspective. One of the common myths is just to take a migraine medication like an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication like Tylenol, Advil, or other products out there.

Temporary Relief

You can get through the symptoms, and you’ll be fine for another few weeks or until the cycle returns. The remedy often doesn’t work. Some of them will take these things and may notice some relief. Often women don’t get complete alleviation and are still quite symptomatic.

Despite utilizing these treatments or symptom management techniques, you will still have these hormonal headaches occurring frequently. It’s because you’re not getting to the root cause of the problem. The hormones continue to fluctuate, shift lower and get more out of balance. You need to stop using symptom management as a way to handle these migraines or these hormonal headaches. You need to understand you can do these things under control naturally and maintain your hormone imbalance for the long term.

Blood and Hormone Testing

For these things not to reoccur over again, we need to look first into your hormone levels. We will determine the level and verify where they are out of balance. One way to do this is through blood tests. You can often get this done locally, and your insurance may or may not cover these tests. 

If you’re interested to FIND OUT your CONDITION through Laboratory Tests,  CLICK HERE.

Blood laboratory tests look at estrogen and progesterone levels. Aside from tests, you also need to get more advanced hormone testing like the Dutch test. The Dutch test looks at the levels of your hormones. It also checks how your body utilizes the processing of these hormones. Your body detoxifies and eliminates what’s needed.

The tests are a bit more complex than just looking at the levels to understand whether the hormones are out of balance. As a functional medicine practitioner,  I administer these tests to people almost all the time, especially women suffering from symptoms of hormonal migraines and headaches.

Procedures and Solutions

You can start to understand how your hormones are involved in this process. Then potentially, it will be the basis for getting the balance back. One solution naturally is through good nutrition. Others include stress management techniques,  specific exercises, and also sleep adaptations.

These are some natural lifestyle solutions, but they have to be customized. These solutions must be specific to you for them to take hold and be successful. It’s not just more of a blanket or general approach, telling you to sleep more. You can lessen your stress using specific solutions given to you.

It’s not enough to use those more broad-based lifestyle techniques. When we use a Dutch test, we can specifically understand what’s happening with your stress hormones and how they impact the hormonal headaches, migraines, and imbalances in your female sex hormones.

Potential Triggers

Those are all potential triggers for why you’re getting migraines every month, and testing is the key. Testing is not just about hormones. Surprisingly, the hormones are sometimes the trigger themselves, but they’re not the cause of hormonal migraines and headaches.

You might think it’s the cause of what’s happening in time with some points in your cycle. Other triggers will set the hormones out of balance very commonly. It has to do with a high toxic load or burden in the body. It’s a bit complicated over a lifetime as you get into your forties and beyond. During these periods, whether you like it or not, there is accumulation and exposure to toxins in the environment daily.

Toxic Loads

Over time these toxins accumulate in the body for some women, more so than others. These are some reasons for genetic predispositions to take place. Those toxins will trigger changes to your hormones but also create imbalances.  A toxic loader burden alone can also trigger migraine and headaches.

One solution is to check if there is a high toxic load or burden. It’s performed through proper laboratory testing with a functional practitioner. When there is a toxic load, we can get specific with the corresponding solution to help you rebalance the toxic load in your body.

Your Road to Recovery

Most women I worked with got better with this type of approach. It can sometimes be more complex. Sometimes you need to dig deeper and figure out beyond the potential triggers that cause migraine. These are common, and of course, there are basic lifestyle techniques you can use and put in place.

Drink Enough Water

You make sure you’re not dehydrated. Drink enough water during the day. You need to drink a minimum of two to three liters or one gallon to one and a half gallons of water daily.  It will help you keep hydrated to prevent some triggers in your system. You also need enough sleep from seven to nine hours daily.

Stress Management

You need to do your best to keep stress in check by being resilient and having some techniques. These are some lifestyle things that you could address and put in place right away. However, they may or may not make all the difference. You still need to have proper laboratory testing and work with a functional practitioner to deal with the root cause of these hormonal headaches.

If you want to learn more about these, please feel free to reach out to me. You can connect with me through my website. I would be more than happy to speak with you on a free complimentary call to discuss your hormonal headache,  migraine, and other potentially hormonal imbalance symptoms that I imagine you have.


It might be a good fit for us to work together. We can help you figure out what’s wrong and the root cause of your condition. I can develop a strategy in a plan customized and individualized for you only, which is natural to help you restore your health and wellness for the long term. Go to my website: www.angelaSimpsonFunctionalMedicine.ca. You can book a FREE complimentary consultation with me. Please don’t hesitate. Contact us now! 


If you’re experiencing hormonal headaches and migraine problems and would like help getting to the bottom of it, we’d be happy to schedule a discovery call with you. During this call, we can discuss your symptoms in more detail and come up with a plan tailored specifically for you.


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DISCLAIMER:  The information in this email is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All content is for general informational purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/health professional

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