Treatment Situations - helping women understand headaches causes and treatments. In some situations, special treatment measures are required for migraine. For example, migraine therapy can be challenging when a woman has menstrual migraine or is pregnant, and in older women. A menstrual migraine headache may last for several days or be relieved only to recur daily for several days.
Management includes use of the usual acute migraine medications, such as the triptans.
The effect of other triptans on menstrual migraine has not been studied. If acute therapy doesn't help, preventive therapy may. If a woman isn't routinely taking preventive medication the rest of the month and has regular cycles, she may be able to use preventive medication just in the days before her period. Less common preventive therapies are ergotamine tartrate, bromocriptine, danazol, and tamoxifen. They can prevent fluctuating estrogen levels.