Migraine & menstruation

A recent study has confirmed an association between menstruation and migraines in women.

A recent study has confirmed an association between menstruation and migraines in women.

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Menstrual migraine is defined as headache that occurs regularly in close relationship to the onset of menstruation usually between two days prior to and during the first three days of bleeding.

Researchers from the City of London Migraine Clinic analyzed diary data from 155 women patients and found that almost half of all women who seek clinical treatment for migraines have reported an association between migraine and menstruation.

Diary card analysis showed that in the five days preceding menstruation, women were 25 percent more likely to have migraine and migraine was 71 percent more likely to occur during the two days before menstruation. The chance of migraine was more than twofold on the first day of menstruation and within five days afterward.

"Our study supports new International Headache Society diagnostic criteria regarding pure menstrual migraine and menstrually related migraine," the study's author Anne MacGregor of the City of London Migraine Clinic and St. Bartholomew's Hospital, said.

Another research led by Stephen D. Silberstein of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, studied the use of frovatriptan as it has a long therapeutic life and is generally well tolerated, making it a natural agent to study as a preventive therapy for prevention of menstrually associated migraines.

Researchers found that frovatriptan reduced the occurrence of migraine, its severity, duration and the use of additional migraine medication.