Women Living Together Have a Higher Frequency of Menstrual Migraine

Menstrual migraine is a highly prevalent disorder among adult women, resulting in disability and loss of quality of life. Some studies have reported menstrual cycle synchrony among women living together. No study has reported whether there may also be a higher prevalence of menstrual migraine among these women. Thus, they reported here the prevalence of menstrual migraine in a group of women living together compared with a control group of women living alone, and discussed the possible factors involved.

The study was conducted on female university students aged 18-30 years with a diagnosis of migraine according to the criteria of the International Classification of Headache Disorders III, beta appendix criteria. The subjects were divided into a group of women who lived together with two or more other students and a control group of age-matched students who lived alone, interviewed with a specific questionnaire and assessed for 3 months by means of a paper pain diary. The data evaluated included frequency of headache, presence of menstrual migraine, intensity of headache, medications used including contraceptives, and triggering factors such as diet, sleep deprivation, and stress. The menstrual data and data related to migraine were also investigated in the roommates.

A higher occurrence of menstrual migraine among women living together (9, 50%) compared with women living alone (3, 16.7%) (P = .03) was detected. After binary logistic regression analysis, this finding was not related to the main influencing factors detected, that is, use of a contraceptive, test stress, or sleep deprivation (P = .03, adjusted odds ratio: 7.87; 1.23-50.36). These women also showed menstrual cycle synchrony with their roommates (8, 44.4%) and the presence of headache crises during the menstruation of their colleagues (11, 61.1%).

The present study detected a higher occurrence of menstrual migraine among women who lived together. Since there was no previous description of this topic in the literature, it was believed that the present study could represent a step toward more elaborate investigations of this complex topic.