Females Have Two Main Pain Problems: Migraine and Fibromyalgia
Migraine and fibromyalgia are diseases mostly seen among women in adult ages. Both of these diseases are thought to have no effective treatment. Mental state of female patients are thought to be responsible especially in these diseases and the pain they experience may not be understood. Females going through the chronic pain and chronic depression are often incomprehensible and they are left alone with their pain.
These two diseases which are in a sense thought to be related to psychological problems of women and the states of being a woman and considered as moodiness, affectation and caprice, are actually caused by the autonomic nervous system which is the network of the body and can be treated.
Widespread body pain is accompanied by headache in 70-80% of fibromyalgia patients. For this reason, fibromyalgia which is mostly considered as soft tissue rheumatism and a field of rheumatology has become one of the diseases of my fields of work.
Stories of Patients with Migraine and Fibromyalgia
A 32 year-old female patient with migraine and tension headache who is an architect:
She had typical symptoms of fibromyalgia (such as widespread pain, tiredness, edema in her body). The patient clenching her teeth played a major role in her migraine headaches -commonly seen in fibromyalgia patients- and also in her tension headaches which started recently. Her life energy returned back to normal and her widespread body pain and headache went away with the treatment.
Before the Treatment: “I have headache, neck and back pain. Pains occur all over my body. My back pain goes down to my lower back and even to my buttocks. I have been hardly moving my neck for 1 month and my back pain never goes away. Let alone the pain, I don’t have any energy at this young age. Actually I have the desire but no strength. I cannot sit and work comfortably for a long time. I cannot stand as my back starts to hurt immediately. I actually have pain in my entire body. When it rains, my body hurts like old people with rheumatism. I have been suffering from these symptoms for 3-4 years. And I’ve been having headaches since my high school years. I mostly get headaches before my periods. I may also get them when I am hungry or very stressed. In general, I have throbbing and one sided migraine headaches. I have been having headaches in my forehead and my entire head which are not so severe and feel like heaviness in my head.”
After the Treatment: “I have got better in ways I couldn’t even imagine. Since fibromyalgia has no cure, I was trying to get used to living with pain. The treatment has made me realize that living without pain and with an energy appropriate to my age is possible. First, I started to regain my life energy and my pain gradually ended. Now I have got my energy back. I can manage many things together and still I don’t get tired.”
A 45-year old female patient with tension headache, migraine, carpal tunnel syndrome and vertigo who is a housewife:
In the past, she only suffered from migraine headaches, but in recent years fibromyalgia and tension headaches have been more prominent. She has also started to suffer from vertigo.
“I have pain in my entire body. I was told that I had fibromyalgia. I also have cervical disc hernia. My right shoulder is stiff. I cannot attach the clasp of my bra. I used to have the same problem in my left shoulder before. I had cortisone injection and it diminished. My right shoulder has recently started. I get up with a big difficulty in the mornings. I have pain in my lower back, neck and jaw. The pain in my lower back has recently started to go down to my leg. I sometimes get dizzy. My right hand gets numb. I have been told that I have carpal tunnel syndrome which has occurred following the compression of a nerve. I constantly suffer from headaches. My headaches are not severe but constant. I can have severe nausea once or twice a month. I used to have severe headaches 2-3 a month but it used to go away in the end. Now my headaches have become continuous.”
A 38 year-old female patient with migraine, cervical disc hernia and fibromyalgia:
Although this patient has migraine, fibromyalgia symptoms are more prominent. Fatigue and neck-lower back pain affect her entire life. In the meantime, cervical disc hernia and impingement syndrome (tendinitis in her shoulder, frozen shoulder) occurred. All of her complaints seemed to be linked with each other. Her only chance was that she still didn’t have dizziness as dizziness mostly occurs in this complex.
“I have stabbing pain in my right shoulder and my upper arm which has been going on for 1.5 years. Today, I have counted the number of doctors I have seen until now. You are my sixth doctor. I have become so hopeless. The pain I experience is so severe that it makes me scream. I may have pain when my son is with me and he feels so sorry for me. I love nature walks but after some walk in the nature, I feel so bad. I have been suffering from upper back pain for a long time. In the past, the pain used to come slowly and felt like knife stabbing which made my back stuck.. However, the frequency of pain has increased since the last 1.5 years. I get pain every day or every 2 days which is so severe that wakes me up. I have been prescribed some medication for neuralgia. It has helped a bit, but I have trouble with forming sentences when I take it. I had cortisone injection twice. Following the second injection, numbness in my arm increased and my arm felt like it was going to fall off. I felt even worse than before. I had physiotherapy two weeks ago. I do exercise in the mornings and evenings. But my physical problems keep getting worse. I have quit the job as I cannot work anymore. Doctors have told me that my muscles have been hardened and I have fibrositis. I know that I have fibrositis now. I have seen 6 doctors in the last 1.5 years. The doctors said, “Lower back and neck hernia can be seen in MR images. Let’s keep them under contol. Hernias can’t be the cause of your pain.” I also have pressure like pain in my right temple. Pain has also recently started to strike in front of my neck. My neck used to get stiff in my secondary-high school years. I didn’t have headaches in those years but with the pressure coming from my right temple, I started to get headaches. The pain causes sickness and makes me feel like faint. I also get sharp stabbing pain.