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Review
. 2010 Oct;14(5):376-84.
doi: 10.1007/s11916-010-0138-2.

Management of menstrual migraine: a review of current abortive and prophylactic therapies

Elizabeth Sullivan  1 , Cheryl Bushnell
Affiliations
Review

Management of menstrual migraine: a review of current abortive and prophylactic therapies

Elizabeth Sullivan et al. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

After menarche, women have an increased prevalence of migraine compared to men. There is significant variability in the frequency and severity of migraine throughout the menstrual cycle. Women report migraines occur more frequently during menses, and that those are more severe than other migraines. This creates a unique challenge of effectively treating menstrually related and pure menstrual migraines. As with treatment of other migraines, both abortive and prophylactic treatment regimens are used. Triptans demonstrate efficacy in the abortive management of menstrually related and pure menstrual migraines. For migraines that occur primarily during menses or that are particularly resistant to other therapies, intermittent prophylactic therapies can be used. Naproxen and estrogens have been studied for this use. More recently, triptans have been examined and have shown efficacy for intermittent prophylaxis of menstrual migraine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Incidence of headache by type of headache and the menstrual cycle. (Adapted from Stewart et al. [4])
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