In 1986, a writer named Pamela Margoshes begged for people to stop stereotyping people with migraine as weak, complaining, overly sensitive people: “Because the old myths are simply not true,” she wrote. “Migraine is not a personality disorder. It’s a neurological tornado, a force of nature.”
Today, it’s widely known that migraine is a complex neurological disorder affecting 1 billion people worldwide. It’s three times more common in women than in men — and as a result, women with migraine have often been stigmatized.
“Whenever a woman is having three attacks of migraine a week, it means that she is either psychopathic or else she is overworking or worrying or fretting, or otherwise using her brain wrongly,” one 20th-century doctor said. There was no point in a doctor performing tests on a female migraine patient, he said. Instead, the doctor should talk to her about her life problems and show her “how to live more calmly and happily.” The secret: Just stop thinking about things that stress you out!
Feel your blood pressure rising? Oh, there’s more. Read on for five widespread medical myths about women with migraine. (And thanks to Katherine Foxhall who describes many of these in her book Migraine: A History.)
Myth: Breast-feeding causes migraine.
In the 1700s, doctors identified wet nurses (women who nursed the babies of other women) as being especially prone to migraine. This idea that migraine was connected to breast-feeding persisted for a century, with one doctor identifying migraine sufferers as “poor women exhausted from over-suckling.”
Today, we know that breastfeeding can actually be beneficial in many women with migraine. Breastfeeding stabilizes estrogen levels, preventing the steep decreases that can trigger attacks. Of course, the stress and sleep disruptions of parenting a newborn can also be triggers.
Myth: Menstruation has nothing to do with migraine.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was a remarkable woman: the first Englishwoman to become a physician and a surgeon. She even founded a hospital just for women and children in London in 1872. Anderson noticed that her female patients’ migraine attacks often occurred during menstrual periods, a fact which she documented in her thesis.
Did male doctors listen? Of course not! One doctor of her era wrote that “he is not aware that menstruation affects it in the slightest.” Many years later, researchers would discover that changing hormone levels do, in fact, trigger migraine attacks in many women.
Myth: Emotions cause migraine in women.
Doctors believed the causes of migraine varied by class and gender. In working-class men, migraine attacks were caused by working long hours and living in cramped, poorly ventilated houses, one 19th-century doctor said. Upper-class men got migraine attacks by using their brain too much. Studying, writing, and professional stress all could be triggers. In women, he believed, emotions caused migraine: “the anxious forecasting and much serving, which slowly undermine the nervous energies of many wives and mothers.”
Myth: Women with migraine all share a similar personality.
The idea of a “migraine personality” has persisted for a long time, especially when applied to women. It became even more popular in the 20th century, when well-known male doctors shared their assessment of what the migraine personality looks like.
You see a major double standard in the way male migraine patients and female migraine patients were described. In men with migraine, ambition and perfectionism were seen as virtues. They were intelligent, driven, and hardworking, according to renowned headache researcher Harold G. Wolff. (He lived with migraine himself, so maybe that’s why he thought men with migraine were exemplary.)
Doctors believed women with migraine, on the other hand, were:
- Cold, aloof, and detached
- Frail and sickly
- Ambitious perfectionists who tried too hard
- Frigid and usually didn’t enjoy sex
- Too sensitive
Myth: Women get migraine because they handle stress poorly.
Today, we know that stress, including the “let-down” period after a stressful experience, is the most commonly reported migraine trigger. Doctors have known for a long time that stress can spark migraine attacks. However, they often blamed women for creating their own stress and failing to manage it.
Migraine attacks occurred in driven women when they pushed themselves too hard, one doctor said in the 1940s. Their rigid nature prevented them from relaxing, delegating tasks, or adapting to new situations.
Another doctor of the era, John Graham, agreed. Migraine treatment should include “teaching the patient new attitudes that make it unnecessary to create stresses and easier to withstand those that cannot be avoided,” he said. He gave the example of a 54-year-old woman with migraine who was a busy music teacher and church organist, often rushing around and skipping meals. Dr. Graham told her that she was “overly ambitious” and too much of a perfectionist.
These doctors were right about some things. Stress management is essential. Skipping meals, a poor diet, irregular sleep patterns, and overwork all can trigger migraine attacks. However, they assumed women were at fault for generating this stress. And they never asked themselves why migraine only occurs in certain people, when most women faced the same stresses and demands in their lives.
How women with migraine can advocate for themselves
The modern medical profession understands that migraine is a somatic disorder. That means it’s a physical condition, not a psychological one. Still, people with migraine — and especially women — still encounter prejudice and dismissive attitudes. What can you do if this happens to you? Step one: Switch doctors. A neurologist or headache specialist will take you seriously and work with you on an effective migraine treatment plan. Step two: Gather your own migraine data to help your doctor understand your unique symptoms. Did you know that the CeCe Migraine Management app can generate personalized PDF reports of your migraine patterns and trends? Log your triggers and symptoms. Pair CeCe with the CEFALY Connected to track and log your acute and preventative treatments. Once you understand your migraine, you’ll have more success in preventing and treating attacks. Then, you can get back to life.
