Abstract

The usual woman life cycle is associated with carefully orchestrated hormonal milestones: Menarche, pregnancy, oral contraceptive use, menopause, and the use of replacement sex hormone. All these events alter the sex hormones and may cause a change in the migraine. There is a variety of evidence on the relationship between migraine and sex hormones. Before menarche, there seems to be no differences in the prevalence of migraine between girls and boys. But after puberty, women with migraine begin to outnumber men by at least 3～5 times and definite changes of patterns of attacks are noted at menstrual period, related pregnancy, at menopause. The hormone treatment can change the migraine attack. This paper also suggests the approaches to the management of hormone related migraine associated with oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. Korean Journal of Headache 5(1):65-74, 2004