Women with Endometriosis Are More Likely to Suffer from Migraines: A Population-Based Study

Abstract

Previous research suggests that a co-morbid relationship exists between migraine and endometriosis; however, results have been inconsistent. In addition, female hormones, which are important in the pathogenesis and management of endometriosis, have been reported to precipitate migraine attacks and may confound the results. The aim of this population-based cohort study was to explore the relationship between migraine and endometriosis in women of reproductive age (18–51 years). Data were derived from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, which contains outpatient and inpatient records from 2000 to 2007. Our study cohort included 20,220 endometriosis patients and 263,767 controls without endometriosis. We analyzed the prevalence of migraine in these women as recorded during the eight years of the database. Our results found that patients with endometriosis were more likely to suffer migraine headaches compared to controls (odds ratio [OR], 1.70; 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.59, 1.82]; p<0.001). In addition, the co-morbid association between migraine and endometriosis remained significant after the data were controlled for age and frequently utilized hormone therapies (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, [1.27, 1.47]; p<0.001). The results of this cohort study support the existence of a co-morbid relationship between migraine and endometriosis, even after adjusting for the possible effects of female hormone therapies on migraine attacks.

Endometriosis Might Be Inversely Associated with Developing Chronic Kidney Disease: A Population-Based Cohort Study in Taiwan

“…The research database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) program from 1996 to 2010 contains 1 million randomly sampled beneficiaries (The Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID 2000)). In the LHID 2000, the data of the sampled subjects are representative of all beneficiaries with regard to insurance cost, sex, and age, which have been previously described [ 41 , 42 ]. In Taiwan, the National Health Research Institute (NHRI) allowed access to the data in the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD).…”

Case–control study to develop and validate a questionnaire for the secondary prevention of endometriosis

“…Remote medical history. The remote medical history investigates, as reported in the literature, the relation between endometriosis and the following pathologies: allergies and asthma [17][18][19][20], systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome, multiple sclerosis, coeliac disease, autoimmune thyroiditis [21][22][23][24][25], acne [26][27][28] and migraine [29,30].…”

Anxiety, coping skills and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in patients with endometriosis

“…It is well established that inflammatory processes play an important role in the development and pathology of endometriosis [ 1 - 3 ]. Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the reproductive system that affects 10% of women during their reproductive years, representing an estimated 176 million patients throughout the world [ 4 - 7 ]. Hypocortisolism has been reported in many chronic disorders including asthma, allergies, major depression, and a variety of chronic pain conditions [ 8 , 9 ].…”