Abstract
Whether or not you put any stock in the biblical account of Eve’s punishment in the Garden of Eden, it’s hard not to notice that migraine is primarily an affliction of women. Experts estimate that about three out of four migraine sufferers are female. Because this feminine domination of the disorder emerges only after puberty, and the occurrence of migraines waxes and wanes dramatically along with changes in the female reproductive cycle, it seems obvious that a powerful interaction is taking place between the migraine process and fluctuating female hormones. Experts recognize that sex hormones directly affect the central nervous system, the site where migraine seems to have its roots. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the single most important migraine influence in women is hormonal. For the individual female sufferer, this means that the first place to start looking for an explanation of worsening symptoms is in a changing hormone balance. And more often than not, it is we migraineurs, rather than our doctors, who must be the vigilant ones in such situations.
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Burks, S.L. (1994). The Risk of Femininity. In: Managing Your Migraine. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0305-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0305-6_7
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
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