This learning module has been designed to help you identify and overcome the personal challenges you face as a woman with migraine. You’ll find a lot of helpful facts and tips as well as many useful suggestions and coping strategies for your particular situation.
By reviewing the module carefully and answering the questions in each section, you’ll gain important knowledge about migraine – and what to do about yours.
Although a great deal is known about migraine headaches, the mechanism that causes them is not fully understood. Researchers have ascertained that migraine is a biologic disorder that may be associated, in part, with increased sensitivity of the body’s nervous system and activation of certain brain chemistries.1 The presence of external stimuli (triggers) and internal conditions, such as the heightened sensitivity of the nervous system, set off nerve signals causing release of chemicals in the brain. These chemicals cause inflammation around the blood vessels and the blood vessels swell. The nerves from these blood vessels send pain signals to the brain that result in migraine headache and associated symptoms.2
Hormonal fluctuation is often a trigger factor in women with migraines.1 For instance, as many as 70% of women experience a migraine right before their period, during the time when their estrogen levels are dropping.1,3 That may explain why, after puberty, many more women than men experience migraines.
Migraine affects women differently and approximately three times more often than men.1,4 The multi-tasking at work and in the home that characterizes so many women’s lives means that the impact of migraine headaches on women goes beyond the statistics, and detracts particularly from women’s quality of life.
Percentage of women with migraine compared to men5
When women suffer migraines, they can’t fulfill their roles at home or on the job, and they worry about how their illness affects their families and co-workers. More than one-third of women with migraines have said that the workplace is less supportive for them than for male sufferers. The concern that suffering with migraines will hinder a woman’s progress at work is very real and widely felt. Women with migraines often feel isolated from family, friends and the activities they enjoy.
Our understanding of migraines and their impact is greater now than ever before, and a woman with migraines has many options to minimize the impact of migraine in her life. If you suffer from migraine headaches, it’s time to take charge of your headaches. If you know someone who suffers, you can help.
References: 1. Silberstein SD. Evidence-based guidelines for migraine headache. 42nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society. Accessed at www.medscape.com. October, 2005. 2. Saper JR, Silberstein S, Gordon DA et al. Handbook of Headache Management: a practical guide to diagnosis and treatment of head, neck and facial pain. 2nd edition, 1999. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. 3. Diamond S, Diamond ML, Contemporary diagnosis of headache and migraine. 2000. Handbooks in Health Care Co, a division of AMM Co., Inc. 4. Lipton. Burden of Migraine 5. Silberstein SD et al. Headache in Clinical Practice. Oxford: Isis Medical Media Ltd. 1998
