Migraine Matters: Women Navigating Wellness Across the Lifespan

SWHR hosted a webinar on August 4, 2021 featuring a panel of women who spoke to diverse patient experiences with migraine across the lifespan, from young adult and student life through midlife and post-reproductive years. During the webinar, panelists shared insights from their personal journeys and reviewed strategies across key areas of physical, emotional, environmental, and social wellness. 

Migraine is a chronic disease in which a person has attacks of moderate to severe head pain and symptoms, which can include nausea and extreme sensitivity to light, sounds and smells. Migraines can last 4 to 72 hours if untreated.  

Three out of four people living with migraine are women, and women are more likely to experience longer and more intense migraine attacks, as well as higher levels of disability. 

About 17% of women experience episodic migraine and 1.3% of women have chronic migraine, in which they experience 15 or more headache days per month for at least 3 months in a row. One in 13 women have menstrually-related migraine attacks. While symptoms are generally the same, the main distinction between migraine types is the frequency, timing, and duration of attacks, and an individual’s type of migraine may change over their lifetime. 

Managing migraine disease often requires a personalized approach that combines medical treatments and wellness strategies to help each individual achieve a full and functional life. The Society for Women’s Health Research has created patient toolkits and fact sheets to increase migraine awareness and assist individuals living with migraine toward better health and support.