Migraine attacks are These are no ordinary headaches. They can cause intense pain and nausea that last for hours or even days and make it impossible to do anything but rest in a dark, quiet room. And for millions of women, these debilitating attacks are not just an occasional experience, but a recurring one.
Women suffer from migraines three times more often than menwith longer and more intense episodes. “It’s much more common than most people think,” says Anne MacGregor, a specialist in headache and women’s health. Despite various treatment options, migraines remain the most common leading cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a measure of disease burden that takes into account time lost due to poor health, for women aged 15 to 49. While there is still some mystery surrounding how migraines work, one reason for this sex difference is hormones.
During early childhood, children are A little more prone to migraines Girls are more likely to experience migraines than boys, but puberty tips the scales dramatically. At this time, sex hormones begin to fluctuate and trigger physical changes, including the onset of menstruation. This is often the time when girls experience their first migraine. Beginning at puberty, girls experience migraines at a higher rate than boys, and this disparity becomes more pronounced as people reach their mid-thirties and early twenties. persisting into old age“It’s chaotic at both ends of a woman’s reproductive years,” MacGregor says.
In adulthood, many women who suffer from migraines report experiencing attacks associated with their menstrual cycle. A sudden drop in estradiol, a potent form of estrogen, is thought to play a key role. A few days before menstruation, known as the late luteal phase, estradiol levels plummet. Women who are prone to migraines tend to experience a sudden drop in estradiol levels. Experience a faster rate of estradiol decline. around the time of your period compared to women who don’t have one. While estrogen also declines around ovulation, the decline is Not so fastwhich could explain why migraines are not as common at the moment. The role of estrogen has also been observed in transgender women on hormone therapy, who show a similar migraine frequency To cisgender women.
Periods of fluctuating estrogen are also linked to migraines in women. When women hit perimenopause, the transitional period leading up to menopause, hormones become especially erratic. “Those women who didn’t have menstrual migraines before are more likely to get them during perimenopause,” MacGregor says. After menopause, some experience relief. “But it’s important to say that the patterns are variable — not everyone gets better,” says Richard Lipton, a neurologist and epidemiologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
The link between estrogen and migraine is well documented, but researchers still don’t fully understand how it contributes to the onset and progression of migraine. Lipton explains that migraine is a disorder characterized by a sensitive brain. “When I say sensitive, I mean vulnerable to exogenous factors that increase the likelihood of getting a migraine,” she says. Something like a change in hormones can trigger a reaction.
But estrogen doesn’t act alone. Changes in estrogen levels also influence other hormones such as serotonin, which normally protects against migraine by reducing pain sensitivity. When estrogen levels drop, So do serotonin levels.which increases the likelihood of migraine. Triggers also work together. When enough factors combine (such as low estrogen combined with lack of sleep, irregular meals, dehydration or stress), an attack can occur.
