Menstrual-Cycle and Menstruation Disorders in Episodic vs Chronic Migraine: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Objective: Migraine is a chronic condition of recurring moderate-to-severe headaches that affects an estimated 6% of men and 18% of women. The highest prevalence is in those 18-49 years of age, generally when women menstruate. It is divided into episodic and chronic migraine depending on the total number of headache days per month being 14 or less or 15 or more, respectively. Migraine has been associated with menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, and endometriosis, the latter particularly in chronic migraine.

Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey of 96 women with migraine, 18-45 years old, to determine the occurrence of the menstrual-cycle disorders, oligomenorrhea, polymenorrhea, and irregular cycle, and the menstruation disorders, dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia, in episodic vs chronic migraine.

Results: The prevalence of menstrual-cycle disorders in general (41.2 vs 22.2%) and dysmenorrhea (51.0 vs 28.9%) was statistically significantly higher in the women with chronic migraine than in those with episodic migraine (P ≤ 0.05) (not corrected for multiple comparisons). Whether the migraine was menstruation sensitive, that is, the headaches consistently occurred or worsened with menstruation, did not impact the prevalence of menstrual disorders.

Conclusion: We conclude that chronic migraine is possibly more often than episodic migraine associated with menstrual-cycle disorders in general and dysmenorrhea, without impact on menstruation sensitivity of the headaches.

Keywords: Chronic Migraine; Dysmenorrhea; Episodic Migraine; Hypothyroidism; Irregular Cycle; Menorrhagia; Menstrual Disorders; Menstruation; Menstruation-Sensitive Migraine; Migraine; Oligomenorrhea; Polymenorrhea.