Migraines worsen in perimenopause
by
Anna Mooney.
Ouch – more pain for perimenopausers! It has been confirmed that headaches heat up as women move into perimenopause,
More unwelcome news for perimenopausal women - expect headaches and migraines to get worse - according to a new study from researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC), Montefiore Headache Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Vedanta Research. However there is a possibility that overmedicating other aches and pains could be part of the problem.
"Women have been telling doctors that their migraine headaches worsen around menopause and now we have proof they were right," says Vincent Martin, MD, Co-director of the Headache and Facial Pain Program at the UC Neuroscience Institute.
The risk for high frequency headache, or more than 10 days with headache per month, increased by 60 percent in middle-aged women with migraine during the perimenopause--the transitional period into menopause marked by irregular menstrual cycles.
The menopausal years include both the perimenopause and menopause. Menopause begins when women have not had a menstrual period for one year. Symptoms such as hot flashes, irritability, depression and insomnia are common during both.
"Changes in female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone that occur during the perimenopause might trigger increased headaches during this time," says Richard Lipton, one of the reports’s authors.
The risk of headache was most apparent during the later stage of the perimenopause, which is a time during which women first begin skipping menstrual periods and experience low levels of estrogen, adds Lipton, also lead investigator of the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention (AMPP) Study.
High frequency headaches and medication overuse
Martin says women who participated in the study also reported that high frequency headache increased by 76 percent during menopause. However, researchers think that it may not necessarily be the direct result of hormonal changes, but rather due to medication overuse that occurs commonly during this time.
"Women as they get older develop lots of aches and pains, joints and back pain and it is possible their overuse of pain medications for headache and other conditions might actually drive an increase in headaches for the menopause group," says Martin.
About 12 percent of the U.S. population experiences migraine, with women suffering from them three times more frequently than men. For women approaching menopause and suffering from migraine there is help, explains Jelena Pavlovic, MD, PhD, co-author of the study. "Physicians can prescribe hormonal therapies that level out these changes that occur during the perimenopause and menopause time periods," says Pavlovic. "If the patient is in early perimenopause, you can give birth control pills that level things out. If they are in the late perimenopause and they start skipping periods, they can be put on estrogen patches."
Source: EurekAlert Press Release.
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