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Yes, Women Really Do Have More Headaches

Posted on: Thursday, 16 February 2006, 21:00 CST

By EMILY COOK

HUSBANDS who thought the familiar complaint about throbbing temples was simply a bedtime excuse need to think again.

Women really are more prone to headaches, a study has found.

They are three times more likely to see their GP about migraine and headache symptoms than men.

And although women aged 45 to 54 are more likely to receive treatment than men of the same age, the rate of GP consultations

is highest in women aged 15 to 24.

Migraines and headache rank among the top ten reasons for people consulting a GP and are the most common neurological symptoms seen by family doctors and neurologists.

Around 90,000 Britons miss school or work every day as a result of the problem, which accounts for about 20 per cent of sick leave from work.

Various factors contribute to the condition. But common causes include stress, certain foods such as chocolate, cheese or red wine, and hormonal changes, for example during the menopause.

For their study, researchers from King's College London, looked at a nine-year period of consultations and referrals to specialists up to the year 2000 at 253 general practices in the UK.

During this time, there were 570,795 consultations for headache involving 413,221 patients.

Overall, women were three times more likely to see their GP about headache symptoms than men. Researchers found that there were 6.4 headache consultations per 100 registered women patients each year compared with 2.5 per 100 men.

In both men and women, consultations peaked in those aged 15 to 24.

But once again women were about three times more likely to see their GP about headaches than men.

Drugs for migraine headaches were prescribed to about one in three women and to one in four men overall.

But middle-aged women were significantly more likely to be given headache medicine than any other female age group or middle-aged men.

In men, the prescribing pattern varied little with age.

Dr Martin Gulliford, from the Division of Health and Social Care at King's College, said: 'Our results show that headache symptoms are extremely common, especially in younger adults.

'Although middle-aged people are less likely than young people to consult their GP with headache, they are more likely to receive specific treatment or investigation.

'Patterns of treatment clearly differ between men and women. Prescribing rates for headache are relatively high for women of middle age.

'While women are more likely to be prescribed medication to prevent future attacks of headache, men are more likely to be referred to a specialist for investigation.' The study, published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, concluded that more research was needed into better ways to deliver headache services to patients.

Dr Gulliford added: 'These varying patterns of medical treatment at different ages and between men and women, suggest that there is uncertainty concerning the best way of managing troublesome headache symptoms. More effective treatments and better management strategies are needed.'

Researchers said that, given the frequency of headaches in the population, consultation rates in the UK were modest.

They said: 'If treatments can reduce morbidity, and 20 per cent of sickness absence is caused by headache, services may be underused.

Prescribing rates for headache are relatively high for women of middle age.

'This only partially represents medicine-taking because patients buy over-the-counter medications and do not necessarily take medicines as prescribed.'

Source: Daily Mail; London (UK)

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