Menstrual migraine in university students
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https://doi.org/10.48208/HeadacheMed.2025.8Keywords:
Migraine, Menstrual migraine, Migraine disorder, Hormonal headache, Menstrual cycleAbstract
Introduction
Migraine is a chronic neurological disease that mostly affects women, mainly due to hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle. It is estimated that menstrual migraine (MM) affects around 6% of women in reproductive age and, despite this, remains underdiagnosed, mostly due to lack of epidemiological data.
Objective
This study aims to analyze the prevalence and impacts of menstrual migraine in students at a university in the south of Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Methods
We developed a cross-sectional analytical observational study carried out with 613 female students from a university in the south of Santa Catarina. A self-administered online questionnaire was created based on the ICHD-3 migraine diagnostic criteria and the HIT-6 questionnaire, internationally validated for measuring the impacts of headaches. Furthermore, personal and sociodemographic data were collected.
Results
A prevalence of approximately 12% (n=71) of female students who met the criteria for MM was found among the 613 participants, with a mean age of 24.87 ± 6.96 years. Of these, 50.7% were using hormonal contraceptive methods, mostly combined oral contraceptives with hormone-free interval. Regarding the impacts generated by MM, 69% of the participants had a severe impact on functionality, according to the HIT-6 questionnaire, and 43.6% reported abstaining from their leisure activities approximately 1 to 4 times in the last year due to MM.
Conclusion
The results suggest that the prevalence of MM is important among the studied population and contributes to severe impacts on daily activities.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Isabela Montegutti Coan, Maria Luiza Del Prato Hoffmann, Tatiana Pizzolotto Bruch (Author)
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