migranes and menstral cycle

I can not be the only woman who gets severe sinus headaches, I have called them migranes (migraines) for many years, with her menstral cycle.  The sinus congestion and migranes (migraines) start 2 to 3 days prior to my menstral cycle and last for 2 to 3 days after my cycle, a total of 8 to 10 days.

I do not like taking pain pills so I am currently controlling the migrane (migraine) headaches by using a decongestant nasal spray.  The nasal spray seems to work very well, but I have to use the spray for 8 to 10 days in a row.  Warnings on every over the counter medicine state I should not be using medications for this extended duration.  Please suggest a sinus pain reliever I can take for 10 consecutive days.  

[marileew]

If you are ONLY getting these headaches around your menstrual cycle, it sounds more like these are migraine headaches and NOT sinus headaches...

You can have many of the same sinus symptoms with a migraine headache... the pressure in your sinus, even a stuffy or runny nose, or watery eyes, or ENT pain. So, it can really feel like a sinus headache... but if you ONLY get them around your period, and it is EVERY period like clock work... this sounds much more like a menstrual migraine.

You don't need to take "pain pills" for these headaches at all! You can take migraine medication instead... migraine medication are called triptans and they are different from pain pills and you can get a prescription from your doctor. Migraine medication actually interrupts the physiology of the migraine and stops the migraine from happening... where as a pain pills only stops the pain, not the migraine itself. Good triptans that I would suggest are zomig nasal spray (it is what i use)... or, maxalt quick dissolve wafers/tablets or the new treximet quick dissolve tablet (although the treximet has a pain medication mixed into it so since you are trying to avoid any sort of pain medication, you might want to stick to things like the zomig or maxalt which are pure triptans). Basically any triptan that comes in a nasal spray or a quick dissolve tablet or an injection... the regular tablets that you have to swallow take too long to work and by then usually the migraine is too bad to help out with any sort of medication. The faster you treat a migraine with a triptan, the faster the triptan can interrupt the physiology of the migraine and stop it from happening.

You see... yes, taking a decongestant nasal spray for a prolonged period of time, or at all if you don't have sinus problems, can be very bad... even worse than taking "pain pills" of any sort!! A decongestant nasal spray can actually CAUSE sinus problems... they can make your sinus problems a LOT worse! If you didn't have sinus problems to begin with, and these really are just migraines, then taking a decongestant nasal spray will actually give you sinus problems!! And even if you have sinus problems, if you take a decongestant nasal spray for more than 3 days in a row, you will get rebound sinus problems.

Now, if you still think that these are actually sinus problems and NOT a menstrual migraine what so ever... then, instead of using a decongestant nasal spray, I would suggest taking a daily allergy medication, an antihistamine, like allegra OR arius OR reactine. You can buy these over the counter at the drug store. You can try out different ones until you find one that works best for you... I find that arius works best for me, but it is VERY expensive... reactine works second best for me and is affordable. You could also try using a nasal spray that won't cause rebound problems such as a glucocorticoid steroid like nasonex, but you will need to get a prescription from your doctor... and again you must use this every day as directed by your doctor, even when you don't have allergy symptoms. Many people find that using a product like nasonex daily will really help their allergy symptoms and will completely stop their sinus headaches and allergy symptoms all together.. as long as you use it daily as directed by your doctor. Unfortunately these products aren't usually covered by health plans... so, try to ask your doctor for a free sample... lots of times doctors will have free samples of naxonex!! If not naxonex, then some other sort of glucocorticoid steroid spray like nasonex... and glucocorticoid steroid sprays won't cause rebound allergy symptoms or sinus infections if you use them daily like decongestant nasal sprays will.