Abstract

Background
& Objectives: It is known that migraines in women are associated with menstruation. We analyzed the data of Hallym university migraine in nurses study to identify the prevalence and clinical features of menstruation related migraine in Korean nurses. Method: All 1501 nurses working at Hallym Medical Center were asked 72-item questionnaire on mig- raine including general information, occupational environments and characteristics, characteristics of headache, triggering factors, management of headache and migraine related disabilities. We categorized participants as having menstrually associated migrtaine(MAM) who answered that migraine attacks were associated to menstruation. Results: 89.2% of participants completed the questionnaire. All were female with mean age of 27.5±5.7, 276(17.5%) were classified as having migraine. 59(25.0%) of migraineurs had MAM. 36(61.0%) had migraine attacks in premenstrual period, 13(22.0%) in menstruation period, 1(1.7%) in postmenstrual period. 9(15.3%) of migraineurs reported varying relationship between migraine attacks and menstruation. Headache aggravation by routine physical activity was more common in MAM than non-MAM. There were no signi- ficant difference in attack frequency, headache severity and MIDAS scores between MAM and non-MAM. Conclusion: 25.0% of nurses with migraine had MAM. Migraine attacks occurring in premenstrual period was the most common form of MAM. MAM showed some different clinical features from those of non-MAM. Korean Journal of Headache 6(1):74-81, 2005