Headaches Appear Years Before a Diagnosis of Endometriosis

Headaches appear years before a diagnosis of endometriosis and are associated with different forms of migraines in women with the disease.

Key Points

Highlights: 

• Women with endometriosis have headaches that appear years before they are diagnosed with the disease.
• Women with endometriosis and migraine more frequently have painful periods and urination.

Importance:

• The proportion of women with endometriosis who experience headaches actually have migraine, and whether the different forms of migraine may be associated with the different characteristics of endometriosis will be provided by this information.
• This knowledge can ensure that women with endometriosis receive the best care they need.

What’s done here:

• A team of researchers from Italy led by Dr. Felice Petraglia conducted a prospective nested case-control study in 131 women with endometriosis.

Key results:

• More than half of women with endometriosis had migraine.
• Different forms of migraine were present in women with endometriosis
• Women with endometriosis and migraines more commonly experienced dysmenorrhoea and dysuria.
• For most women with endometriosis and migraine, headaches started years before an endometriosis diagnosis.

Limitations:

• The sample size is small, and there may be recall bias.

Lay Summary

Headache is associated with different forms of migraine, is related to pain, and often appears before diagnosis in women with endometriosis, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online. This knowledge can help ensure women with the disease receive the best treatment that they need. 

In order to determine the proportion of women with endometriosis who experience headaches actually have migraine and whether the different forms of migraine may be associated with the different characteristics of endometriosis, a team of researchers from Italy led by Dr. Felice Petraglia from the Department of Experimental, Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Careggi University Hospital in Florence a prospective nested case-control study.

The team analyzed a total of 131 women with endometriosis. Of these, more than half (53.4%) were diagnosed with migraine by a specialist. In terms of migraine form, 18.6% of women had pure menstrual migraine, 45.7% had menstrually related migraine, and 35.7% had non-menstrual migraine.

Painful periods "dysmenorrhoea" and painful urination "dysuria" were significantly more common in women with endometriosis and migraine compared to those with endometriosis but no migraine. 

There were no differences between the 2 groups of women in terms of other variables such as age at diagnosis and duration of endometriosis, type of endometriosis, the presence of other autoimmune conditions, or heavy menstrual bleeding. 

The researchers also found that in the majority (85.7%) of patients with endometriosis and migraine, headaches had started years before the diagnosis of endometriosis.

This paper was published online in the April issue of the journal named Reproductive Biomedicine Online.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37202318/