This is why women are more likely to suffer from migraines than men

The excuse of ‘sorry honey, I have a headache’ applies more often to women than to men, as women are said to suffer from migraines more often than men.

Scientists now state that it occurs three times more often. So you are not exaggerating: it can really be the case that you suffer from it much more than your male partner. According to neurologist and migraine expert Gisele Terwindt from LUMC, the difference in migraine attacks between men and women is due to the female hormone estrogen. One in three women will experience a migraine attack at some point in her life, so you are certainly not alone.

Real difference
And there is little you can do about it. Those hormones stimulate nerves in your brain, and when estrogen stimulates so much, you get headaches from it. And yes, men do have estrogen in their bodies, but much less than women. It is also explainable that you may suffer from it more often during your menstruation or during menopause. ‘In recent years, male-female differences have received more attention, but before that it was a blind spot,’ says migraine researcher Antoinette Maassen van den Brink. ‘Remarkable, because it concerns real and measurable differences.’ Migraine can also increase the risk of an anxiety disorder or depression, because you may become more fearful in life if you often deal with this. It can also be partly hereditary. ‘In practice, we often see that if someone has migraines, the parents also have them and it occurs further in the family. The predisposition for migraines can therefore be inherited: you are born with it. Migraine accompanied by an aura, seeing flashes of light or black and colored spots is the most inherited. Yet there is more at play, such as physical and environmental factors. Migraine is not the same for anyone.’

Note: always take a migraine attack seriously, because it is not nothing and it is especially not just a nuisance. Migraine is an official brain disease where you experience pounding and throbbing headache attacks that can be accompanied by nausea, neurological symptoms, and sensitivity to light or sound. How do you know if you are suffering from this? If your headache becomes so unbearable that you can no longer see light and just want to lie down in a dark room, then you know. Even listening to a conversation or talking can be too much. You sometimes also see stars and flashes of light. That is not just a normal headache, but real migraine. Always visit your doctor if you are in doubt or want medication.

Source: NPO Knowledge