THE MENSTRUAL-CYCLE AND MIGRAINE - A TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS OF 20 WOMENMIGRAINEURS

This study examined the prevalence of menstrually related headache and the relationship between the menstrual cycle and stress in a group of young women migraineurs sampled from a general population. Participan ts (N=20) meeting International Headache Society(1) criteria for migra ine with or migraine without aura and not meeting criteria for menstru al migraine, provided daily headache activity, perceived stress, cogni tive appraisal, and coping strategy data during two menstrual cycles. Multiple regression was used to analyze these data following a time-se ries approach in which the phases of the menstrual cycle were used as predictors of variation in each participant's headache, stress, apprai sal, and coping data. Analyses revealed that fewer participants than e xpected showed significant relationships between their menstrual cycle and their headache activity (20%). However, for these women the amoun t of variation explained by the menstrual cycle was substantial. We su ggest that, though some women's migraines vary with their menstrual cy cle, the number of women substantially affected may be much smaller th an has been estimated in the literature. Relation ships between the me nstrual cycle and the stress process were also found; however, inconsi stencies between this and a previous study in our laboratory(2) sugges t that the nature of this relationship may vary across women migraineu rs.