- A new study has found that migraine attacks experienced by cisgender women during menstruation may be the result of an increase in the peptide CGRP, which has been linked to migraines.
- This increase corresponded in the study to a reduction in estrogen that occurs during menstruation.
- The study did not find an increase in CGRP in people taking contraceptives or who had gone through menopause, although they may still experience migraine episodes.
Experts have known for decades that a drop in the hormone estrogen is associated with the onset of menstruation-related
A new study has found that, as hormonal levels fluctuate throughout the menstrual cycle, levels of a peptide associated with migraine also rise and fall.
During the drop in estrogen that occurs at the onset of menstruation, there is an increase in levels of
While the reason a reduction in estrogen might trigger a release of CGRP remains unknown, the pilot study may offer an important clue regarding the cause of menstrual migraine.
It may also explain why menstrual migraine attacks occur during menstruation, and why they decline in frequency after menopause.
The study appears in Neurology.
The study was a cross-sectional, matched-cohort study conducted at the Headache Center, Department of Neurology, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany.
The study cohort consisted of 180 cisgender women who had had at least three
The researchers divided the participants evenly divided into three groups:
- women with regular menstrual cycles
- women taking contraceptives
- women who had gone through their menopausal stage.
Age-matched women who did not get migraines served as a control group.
To assess levels of CGRP, the researchers analyzed blood and tear samples taken from study participants. They took samples from participants with regular…
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