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Why do women get headaches more often than men?
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Migraine is a neurological pathology that, according to statistics, affects up to 20% of women and 6% of men on the planet. Moreover, the same statistics claim that the female body reacts less to taking medications to relieve headache attacks. Having carefully analyzed the scientific literature on this issue, Spanish neurobiologists from the University of Miguel Hernandez (Elche) determined that such a discrepancy can be caused by the influence of sex hormones.
As was found in earlier studies, most women suffer from regular headaches before or during the first days of their monthly cycle. During this period, estrogen levels reach their lowest levels. This fact made scientists think that changes in estrogen levels have a direct impact on the development of migraines. However, until now, specialists have not been able to unravel the mechanisms of this process.
Now, however, researchers have studied this issue more thoroughly – the frequent occurrence of migraine attacks in women. All existing scientific projects over the past several decades were studied. As a result, specialists concluded that estrogens are capable of influencing the cellular structures located around the trigeminal nerve, as well as the circulatory system associated with them. In general, this process leads to an increase in their sensitivity to migraine triggers.
"Of course, it is a complex reaction. We believe that the modulation of the trigeminal vascular system by sex hormones is of great importance, and this importance has not been sufficiently studied until now," explains neurobiologist Dr. Antonio Ferrer-Montiel.
In addition, specialists have found that testosterone creates a certain degree of protection against headaches. At the same time, prolactin, the level of which is higher in the female body, can aggravate the course of migraines.
Sex hormones regulate the function of so-called transport proteins in nerve cells that are stimulated by painful irritants. As a result, the sensitivity of nociceptors to migraine triggers changes.
Scientific analysis of the facts has clearly demonstrated that regular changes in the level of sex hormones in the female body lead to an increase in the sensitivity of the cellular structures located in the vicinity of the trigeminal nerve. Such repeated stimuli make the female body more vulnerable to migraine attacks at a certain time of the monthly cycle.
Scientists note that the announced results of the study are only a preliminary version, which still needs to be confirmed experimentally. We cannot stop at this stage, because specialists still have to understand the hormonal mechanism of influence on the development of migraine at the molecular level. However, the steps taken are very important for science, because the main goal of the researchers is the desire to help women overcome and prevent the occurrence of debilitating attacks of headaches in the future, which, moreover, are difficult to treat.
Access to information about the study is open on the pages of Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2018.00073/full).