Anyone who has ever experienced migraine headaches knows how painful and tortuous life can be after a migraine begins. One never knows if the headache, once it begins, will turn into one of those migraine headaches that can leave someone incapacitated for hours or for days.

What makes decisions by people who suffer with migraine headaches particularly difficult is the fact that migraines can be confused with other headaches early on. And, people with migraine headaches are just as likely to develop other common types of headaches like sinus and tension headaches like everyone else.

To those who experience these debilitating migraine headaches, the decisions made in the first ten minutes - are the most critical.

When a migraine headache first appears, two emotional reactions occur: The first is, "Oh, God, not another migraine!", and the second is dreaded anticipation of many hours of misery, pain, lying down in a dark room, and forced seclusion from spouses, children, work and social activities.

To be proactive right from the onset however, a series of questions that must be asked:

? Is this a sinus, tension or migraine headache?

? Is there an "aura" for those who normally experience one, that would normally signal the onset of their migraine headaches?

? Is this migraine severe enough to justify taking action?

? Should I take any (triptan) medication or not?

The answers to these questions will subsequently determine the outcome of this migraine.

Under traditional medication management, the popular migraine medications today are called triptans. These triptan medications have brand names like Imitrex?, Amerge?, Maxalt?, Zomig?, Relpax?, Avert? and Frova?.

Triptan medications have the best possibility of stopping migraine headaches quickly if taken within the first 30 minutes, and especially, within the first 10 minutes. The sooner they are taken, the better the result to obtain migraine headache relief.

Unfortunately the decision to take these triptan medications is not as easy as one would think:

? Triptan medications have very significant and uncomfortable side effects.

? They are extremely expensive ? a single triptan pill can cost up to $70 or more.

? If taken too often, they lose their effectiveness.

Failure to take a triptan medication (that still works) in the critical first few minutes in what turns out to be a migraine headache virtually guarantees a significant, severe and long lasting headache.

In a valiant effort to achieve migraine pain relief people end up taking their triptan medications several hours after it starts. They mostly endure the side effects of the medications and have very little effect. Nevertheless, most will try to take a medication, even if it is too late.

There is another option ? a migraine cure. Cure the migraine and never worry about the critical ten minutes again.

Recent reports indicate that there is indeed a cure for migraine headaches. A number of elite medical clinics that cater to women have reported this. Under their treatment protocols, migraines go away completely in 80% of these women.

The successes are limited to women only. Addressing women's hormones is the basis of the migraine cure. Some clinics have published their treatment protocols and even made them available to the public.

The Women's Health Institute of Texas believes a migraine cure certainly eliminates the critical ten minutes altogether and triptans may be no longer be necessary ? at least in women.