Aura migraines - are you a sufferer and do you know your triggers?

[WearsblackLoveschocolateAvoidspeople]

I’ve suffered from aura migraines since pregnant almost 20 years ago. The first time I was about 3 months pregnant and it scared the life out of me.

For me, it starts with a weird sensation in my vision, like I can’t quite see but also can not quite locate it until the blind spot turns into a flashing zig zag. This then grows bigger across my vision and renders me useless for up to an hour. I find the best thing is to go to bed, close the curtains and try to sleep it off but it effects me mentally and physically. I have this weird panicky feeling, my hands and feet become very cold and at times numb, my stomach gurgles loudly and I just can not rest, it leaves me so agitated. Lasts no more than an hour but afterwards I’m left exhausted and very light sensitive.

I’ve always attributed them to hormones due to getting them during my pregnancies then later in my late 30’s. I would get them on the 3rd day of my period. Weirdly they became less frequent following a uterine ablation and iron infusions in 2022. Since then I will experience them only a few times a year but no longer during my period, more odd random times.

Just experienced one this morning, I was sitting chatting to dh at breakfast time and realised I couldn’t see his arm 100% clearly, 15 mins or so later the zig zag flashing came followed by the panic, confusion and cold hands/feet (even though it’s boiling here today). It has now passed but I’m left exhausted, feeling slightly headachy and just weird (never really get a full on migraine). Not really sure what had triggered this one. I’m 51 and in peri and worry that will trigger more in time.

Even after all these years they still scare the crap out of me.

Anyone else experience these? Do you know your triggers?

I’ve always been advised against any meds with oestrogen due to the auras and my family history of strokes.
I can only take the mini pill.

I used to suffer regularly (only had the odd one since having DC2 almost a decade ago though)

It was linked to my menstrual cycle. Used to occur most often around ovulation.

As long as I took paracetamol immediately when the visual aura started I could muddle through. I'd need half an hour or so in a quiet / dark room though whilst the meds kicked in.

It was most definitely hormonal for me, as I say they all but stopped after DC2.

Yes they’re bloody horrific. Fingers crossed, I haven’t had one (a full blown one anyway) since I had dc1 7 years ago. As soon as I even sense one might be starting I have to take tablets and if possible drink a ton of water and lie down in a dark room with my eyes shut.

my triggers are dehydration, fluorescent strip lights or flashing lights (Christmas tree lights etc) and then strong smells. For example if I got in a lift or enclosed space with someone with really strong perfume. Also lavender, tea tree, aniseed and menthol.

I get the same, OP - first I feel uncomfortable as I cant see clearly, but never quite sure what's going on - and then get shiny zigzags and triangles on the left hand side of my vision, like a pattern. And recently started getting full blown migraines after that, with headache and nausea.

Mine are mainly triggered by stress, tiredness and lack of sleep. I take triptans - they have been great but sometimes they dont quite work; lying down in a quiet room often helps. I feel exhausted and very tired after the attack. Few times I had to work while I had an attack, worst thing ever. Awful.

Perfect storm of:

Hormones
stress
dehydration
tiredness

Too much sugar

the pill made me have auras.

morning exercise on an empty stomach or "fasted cardio" as they call it 🙄🙄🙄 I feel fine then I'll start seeing glimmers on the surface of the water or on the grass then it all goes wrong for 12 hours. can also happen for no apparent reason. today I feel like I'm getting one from not eating much and tonnes of housework- oh and the weather 🌦️

My main trigger is stormy weather, high pressure, like if it’s gonna thunder.

I get an aura too. Crinkly vision, like someone’s folded it, I can’t see facial features properly, lasts between 10-30 minutes. Sometimes numb ring and pinkie fingers.

I have Zomig tablets which dissolve on my tongue but have to take them within a few minutes of it starting or it’s ineffective.

May or may not get a headache. Sometimes they are a proper doozy. My brain trying to escape the back of my head, especially if it starts at night so no Zomig.

The next day I have a “migraine hangover”. Feels quite like a regular hangover only I haven’t had a night out before.

I've had migraines since I was about 13, the first time I had one I thought I was having a stroke

Mine seem to be linked to hormones as I tend to get them around ovulation and my period. I currently pregnant and having far less than I normally get, I was the same during my first pregnancy

I also find they're triggered by over tiredness, having my neck in a certain position and flickering lights

Mine start with an almost invisible spot in my vision, that expands and becomes a C shaped zigzag pattern that moves across my vision and eventually fades off to the side, it's almost always preceded by a wave of very specific dizziness

If I take painkillers and drink some Coca Cola during this phase, I can sometimes fend it off, if not then it continues to the headache, nausea and I stumble over my words and get pins and needles in my hands

The majority of my migraines are both aura and headache, sometimes I'll just get the aura but no headache and occasionally the headache but no aura and they are actually the most painful ones

Yes I’ve had them for years now. Usually every few months. I keep a log on my phone to track where and when. 2 in April this year, one in February. Seem to be mostly mid morning and haven’t worked out the trigger.

From the moment I spot something funny or strobing or flickering in my eyesight, within a few seconds I’ll know what’s coming. For me they last 25 mins or so and then I’m ok, although tend to feel washed out for the rest of the day. Spoke to both opticians and doctors about it and they seem pretty uninterested.

Thankfully mine are just optical and I don’t get a headache at all, just the fuzzy and zigzag vision, and then it’s gone as quickly as it comes on. I try and lie down with my eyes shut while they’re happening.

I have occasional aura migraines. I find with these and with my full blown migraines, the main trigger is light. Reading in sunlight in particular. Also lack of sleep and stress. It's quite possibly a combination of all of these, but I tend to particularly notice the connection between light exposure and migraines. In general I can't stand bright light, as in natural sunlight, and feel very uncomfortable and weirdly confused if I have no sunglasses. Don't seem to mind the 'big light' at home though😆

I get them very infrequently, maybe once every year or two. Luckily they come on very slowly so I can recognise the signs and could get to a safe place if I needed to.

They're awful and if you don't notice the warning signs they're so scary. The first one I had was about ten years ago and I just felt like I'd been suddenly rendered horrendously drunk. I was waiting at a bus stop and my vision went a bit weird. When I got up to flag down the bus, I realised my balance was completely gone and I couldn't talk. I had to go and sit back down at the stop and wait for it to pass. I thought I was having a stroke at 24!

Luckily they've never been that bad since and are very infrequent, but they are still frustrating. I notice my vision gradually getting worse now and can plan around it. I had to cancel a driving lesson once because I could tell one was starting but it's impossible to know when it will actually come on properly or be over.

I usually get one in the summer and then one in the winter which is a bit odd. The vision in my right eye is always the first to go as it cuts things in half so I can't see properly. I then get little bright triangles in my eye so at those first signs II take Migraleve and go to bed and sleep it off. If I'm quick I can usually ward off the really bad headache, however I do get an ear worm of some random song playing over and over in my head!!
I once tried to 'fight' it and oh my goodness I've never been so ill...vomitting, numb hands, talking rubbish and the most violent headache ever. So now at the first sign I do everything mentioned earlier and after around 8 -10 hours sleep I'm ok, just a bit woozy.
Mine were triggered by the contraceptive pill donkeys years ago. & I've suffered ever since, but thankfully not that regularly.

I used to get them BADLY as a teen so I'm guessing all the puberty hormones caused them. Now I get them a couple of times a year. Definitely tiredness, stress, and dehydration are triggers. Also too much time in the sun. The ones I get now I feel nauseous and headachey with a mild aura beforehand, usually a few hours in bed with my eyes closed and painkillers sorts that out.

The ones I got as a teen were awful. Very intense auras, I remember the first time it happened I was trying to read a book in a lesson at school and suddenly couldn't, I thought I was going blind. Then the other symptoms came on after.

One weird symptom I used to get a lot as a teen was really intense waves of either nostalgia or deja vu, or sort of a combo of both. Those waves would cause me to throw up and the headache to intensify. Really really strange.

How strange, I get the ear worm thing too.

Had them for years, used to suffer quite regularly but as I've got older stress is the trigger.

I get the same auras - visual disturbances that look like things are "missing" in my field of vision, an area is blank. A few mins later I'll get what looks like a jagged bolt of lightening and bright dots. Then a little while after that the headache arrives and then the nausea.

The last migraine I had I made peace with the bathroom being my new home, I was vomiting for about 4 hours.

Tried naratriptan recently and ten minutes later I was fine. Magic stuff. I tried sumatriptan a while back and it did nothing so I assumed there was no point trying any others. However I started to get a migraine at work and a colleague gave me one of her pills - I know you shouldn't share prescription drugs but it worked & I have since been to GP and got my own.

I get these too, OP. I’ve had them for over 30 years and even though I know what they are and what to expect, each attack freaks me out. I’ve never managed to work out the triggers. They happen so randomly and I dread them even though I don’t suffer a bad headache. At the first sign of the aura coming on, I take a naramig tablet. The aura lasts half an hour or so of zig zagging coloured lines, loss of peripheral vision, sometimes a weird colourful whirring shape and occasionally I can’t form words properly. It feels like an assault and I feel so tired and drained for hours afterwards. I’ve been thinking recently about retraining as a celebrant. I’ve actually been thinking about it for years but I’ve never had the courage to go for it because of the random nature of my migraines. It’d be awful conducting a funeral or wedding and having a migraine aura attack. I couldn’t carry on. I hate that these migraines stop me from doing what I want to do.