This is Tap's wife.
I have migraines that astonish even my doctors. It sounds as if your wife's migraines definitely have a hormonal component. Since they did not start until after the birth of your son (a huge hormonal storm), she has a really good chance they will go away in about ten years. I am referring to the menopause storm.
Until then, however, she has a ton more options than even ten years ago.
You did not mention how often your wife gets headaches, or if they seem related to her menstrual cycle, so I will speak in generalities here. If she wants more info, she could certainly post back, and maybe I could give her an idea or two that she hasn't heard yet.
Birth control pills may help the "period migraine". Recent literature supports the safety of only having one period every three months. You take the active pills for three straight months without taking the placebo at the bottom row. That eliminates 2 out of 3 period migraines, which should help a bit.
As for the rest of the month, she should know that whatever she takes, she should use each particular remedy only about twice a week. More frequent use will buy you a "rebound headache", which means that your medicine will start causing more headaches than you would get on your own.
Imitrex is a nice medicine. Available as a pill, injection, or nasal spray. There are many other meds in the same category (called sumatriptans). They generally all work about the same. I like Zomig ZMTs (melt on your tongue) if she gets nausea with her migraines. Right now I use Relpax, because the relief comes a tiny bit faster than with the other sumatriptans.
I also use injectable Toradol. It gives me opiate size relief without making me dumb or having an addictive/tolerance quality. Not to be used with Motrin, Advil, etc. Lasts about eight hours.
I have tried and failed acupuncture, massage, and traditional chiropractics. I did, however, get some relief from a chiropractor that specializes in upper cervical care. These folks focus on the first two vertebrae in the neck. If your wife gets a very sore neck, or if she can push on the base of her head with her fingers and produce a migraine, she might think about trying it out. Have a deadline in mind, though, when you start. I said to myself that I would give it three months to see if it worked, and I noticed a bit of relief. A good place to start would be with a NUCCA doc, which is their acronym for upper cervical specialists.
Try to avoid the narcotics as much as possible. It is a slippery slope. I do have Fiorinal for the killer-headache-from-hell days where I can take two and go to bed. It is sort of like a ramped-up Excedrine, with a little butalbital in it so you don't feel so anxious about the pain that you bang your head on the bathroom mirror.
Hope she finds some of this useful. I have a lifetime more info, but my husband just told me that muscleheads won't read this much.
Good luck.
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