Over 27 million women in the United States are affected by migraine. Women are three times more likely to have migraines than men, says Dr. Merle Diamond, managing director of The Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago.
One determining factor might be estrogen. “It’s the drop in estrogen level that occurs just before, or at the time, of menstrual flow that sets off the migraine in predisposed women,” reports Dr. Ronald M. Andiman, director of The Headache Clinic at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.