Menstrual migraine

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Menstrual migraine (also called catamenial migraine) is the term used to describe both true menstrual migraines and menstrually related migraines. About 7%–14% of women have migraines only at the time of menstruation. These are called true menstrual migraines. Most female migraineurs experience migraine attacks throughout the menstruation cycle with an increased number perimenstrually, these are referred to as menstrually related or menstrually triggered migraine.^[1][2]

It used to be believed that treatments for migraine would work in menstrual migraine, but that has not proven to be the case. Menstrual migraines are harder to treat. Because of this, menstrual migraines are now considered a separate medical disorder from migraine.^[3] In 2008, menstrual migraines were given ICD-9 codes (346.4-346.43) of their own which separate menstrual migraine from other types of migraine.

About 40% of women and 20% of men will get a migraine at some time in their life. Most of them will get their first migraine before they are 35 years old. Menstrual-related migraines happen in more than 50 percent of women who have migraine headaches.^[4] Menstrual migraine attacks usually last longer than other migraine attacks,^[5] and short-term treatments do not work as well with menstrual migraine as they do with other kinds of migraine. They are usually migraines without aura, but in 2012 a case of menstrual migraine with aura was reported, so it is possible.^[6] Auras are a kind of condition which affects certain parts of the brain, usually the parts that control vision but they can also affect the parts of the brain which control other senses like touch, motor control (moving parts of the body) and the parts of the brain that control speech.^{[citation needed]}