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

Meng-Han Yang, Peng-Hui Wang, Peng‐Hui Wang, Shuu‐Jiun Wang, Shuu-Jiun Wang, Wei-Zen Sun, Wei‐Zen Sun, Yen-Jen Oyang, Jong‐Ling Fuh, Jong-Ling Fuh
PloS one · 2012 · vol. 7(3) , pp. e33941 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033941 · PMID:22442736 · PMC3307779 · W2065510446
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 47 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This population-based study of over 20,000 women found that endometriosis patients were significantly more likely to suffer from migraine headaches compared to controls, even after accounting for age and hormone therapies.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Yang and colleagues used Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (2000–2007) to examine the relationship between migraine and physician-diagnosed endometriosis in women aged 18–51, comparing 20,220 endometriosis patients with 263,767 controls without endometriosis. Migraine diagnoses (with or without aura, ICD-9 codes 346.0x/346.1x/346.9x) were identified from inpatient and outpatient records, and logistic regression was used to test whether endometriosis predicted migraine prevalence, including multivariable adjustment for age, infertility, pelvic pain, laparoscopic procedures, and frequently used hormone therapies. Endometriosis patients had higher odds of migraine than controls (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.59–1.82; p<0.001), and the association remained significant after adjusting for age and hormone therapy use (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.27–1.47; p<0.001). The study relies on diagnostic coding from claims data and reflects diagnoses recorded in clinical settings rather than standardized migraine assessment. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it quantifies population-based comorbidity between endometriosis and migraine and evaluates hormone-therapy confounding.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

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.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Migraine Disorders Migraine Disorders Adolescent Adult Cohort Studies Databases, Factual Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Hormone Replacement Therapy Hormone Replacement Therapy Humans Middle Aged Migraine Disorders Prevalence Taiwan Taiwan

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (44)

Cited by (47)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:19:48.454388+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:16:17.081435+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK