In this article we will tell you why you shouldn’t tolerate a headache and whether you need to see a doctor.
Headache can be one of the symptoms of various diseases. Even moderate, it can impair performance and worsen quality of life. It is not recommended to endure pain - it’s quite possible that next time it will be more noticeable.
Some of the most common causes of headaches are migraines and tension headaches. Migraines occur five times more often in women than in men. Mostly it’s women of active and working age – 18-55 years that get affected by migraine.
Should you tolerate a headache? A personal experience
Like all ordinary people, I often suffer from headaches. Usually due to overwork, lack of sleep, etc. During pregnancy, headache attacks occurred less frequently, but after childbirth they became more frequent and more intense, darkening the joy of motherhood. Feelings of loneliness and sadness joined the pain.
Considering the fact that I was breastfeeding, I stubbornly endured the pain - I was afraid of harming the baby, so I didn’t even ask my doctor this question. For some reason I was afraid that she would scold me: pills during breastfeeding? That’s out of the question! When I finally admitted having headaches, the doctor was surprised at my “patience”: pain, as it turned out, triggers many pathological processes in the body and can become chronic. Therefore, it is better to immediately consult a doctor, find out the reasons, get recommendations and, if necessary, overcome the pain with the help of medications rather than endure it.
Though I used to think that it was possible to endure pain after physical or emotional stress, and that it would definitely disappear after sleep and rest, now I try to follow the doctor’s recommendations and, if necessary, take painkillers. The doctor even helps me find a medicine that is compatible with breastfeeding. But I do not refuse such pleasant methods of pain relief as massage and yoga.
The conclusion I made: pain is not the norm! Save yourself from it, drive it away, live without it!
Headache is often considered a “minor syndrome” but this is a big mistake. If it occurs more than once or twice a month, then this is a reason to consult a doctor. Women are more inclined to endure pain syndromes, and often even from doctors you can hear some rude phrases: “You have to endure. How else would you endure the process of giving birth?!” And remember the series of jokes based on the myth, as men say, that women invent headaches to avoid intimacy...
At the same time, there are such severe headaches, as in the case of migraine attacks, during which it is difficult even to move, let alone do routine housework.
Headaches should not be ignored because the frequency and intensity of attacks may increase, and any headache without medical attention tends to become chronic and more difficult to manage.
Also, you should definitely consult a doctor if the so-called “red flags” of pain appear:
– if the nature and intensity of the headache has changed;
– if the headache occurs against the backdrop of an increase in temperature;
– pain is accompanied by weakness, numbness in the limbs, facial asymmetry;
– headache accompanied by back pain;
– headache appeared some time after the injury.
Materials from the special project “The Woman’s Face of Pain” together with “Darnytsia”, Marie Claire magazine No. 136, spring 2022