Estrogen has been shown in scientific studies to play an important role in the development of migraine headaches, which, between puberty and menopause, are much more common in women than in men.
“For more than half of women with migraine, the onset and timing of migraine is connected with the hormonal flux of their menstrual cycle,” Pavlovic says.
Many women, for instance, experience migraine headaches before and during menstruation, just after their estrogen levels drop. Pavlovic’s research has found that women who get migraine headaches tend to experience steeper estrogen drops than women who don’t.