Study, 2004
Do migraine headaches change at different times of the menstrual cycle?
For women whose migraines are linked to their cycle, migraine attacks during or near menstruation last longer and are harder to treat than migraines at other times.
What they did
A 2-month diary study of 64 women with migraine linked to their menstrual cycle. Women tracked when their migraines happened and compared migraines around menstruation to migraines at other times.
What they found
Migraines during or near menstruation lasted longer and caused greater work-related disability. Pain-free relief 2 hours after taking medicine happened in 13.5% of menstrual migraines versus 32.9% of migraines at other times.
What it means for you
Women with cycle-linked migraine should expect their period-related migraines to last longer and respond less well to medicine. The study only tracked what happened naturally, so it does not show how to prevent these migraines.
64
women tracked for 2 months
13.5%
period migraines pain-free after 2 hours
32.9%
other migraines pain-free after 2 hours
About the study
- Original title
- Characteristics of menstrual and nonmenstrual attacks in women with menstrually related migraine referred to headache centres
- Authors
- Granella F, Sances G, Allais G et al.
- Journal
- Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache
- Year
- 2004
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- None
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2982.2004.00741.x
Original abstract
Aim of this study was to determine whether menstrual attacks differ from nonmenstrual attacks (NMA) as regards clinical features or response to abortive treatment in women affected by menstrually related migraine (MRM) referred to tertiary care centres. Sixty-four women with MRM were enrolled in a 2-month diary study. Perimenstrual attacks were split into three groups--premenstrual (PMA), menstrual (MA) and late menstrual (LMA)--and compared to nonmenstrual ones. Perimenstrual attacks were significantly longer than NMA. No other migraine attack features were found to differ between the various phases of the cycle. Migraine work-related disability was significantly greater in PMA and MA than in NMA. Acute attack treatment was less effective in perimenstrual attacks. Pain-free at 2 h after dosage was achieved in 13.5% of MA (OR 0.41; 95% CI 0.22, 0.76) vs. 32.9% of NMA. We concluded that, in MRM, perimenstrual attacks are longer and less responsive to acute attack treatment than NMA.
Reproduced under CC-BY.
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