It has been possible to verify, through a study, that women who experience migraines during menstruation have higher levels of CGRP, a neurotransmitter that is known to play an important role in the triggering of said disorder.
Many women suffer from migraines, triple the rate of men. On many occasions, the attacks tend to occur around the days of menstruation, when they are also more severe. In many cases, symptoms improve during pregnancy just as the frequency of migraines also decreases after menopause.
There is scientific evidence of a connection between hormonal fluctuations and migraines, but it is not yet clear how these changes trigger migraines. In this field, a team of researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany) has identified a possible explanation in this regard. According to their study, published in the journal ‘Neurology’, women who experience migraines during menstruation have higher levels of CGRP, a neurotransmitter known to play an important role in triggering this type of disorder.
“CGRP or Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide is a naturally occurring substance in the body, and when a person has a migraine attack, increasing levels are released, significantly dilating or widening the blood vessels in the brain. This causes an inflammatory response that could be one of the reasons behind the severe headaches experienced by migraine sufferers.” explains Dra. Bianca Raphael, coordinator of the study, from the Headache Center of the Department of Neurology with Experimental Neurology of the Campus de Charité in Mitte.
Link Between Hormones and Neurotransmitter
The Charité research group studied a total of 180 women to determine whether the link between female hormones and CGRP release also exists in humans. The researchers checked CGRP levels in migraineurs twice during their cycle, with one measurement taken during menstruation and the other during ovulation. When the data were compared with those of women who did not suffer from migraines, it became clear that migraineurs have significantly higher concentrations of CGRP during menstruation than healthy individuals. “This means that when estrogen levels drop just before the start of a menstrual period, migraineurs release more CGRP.“, according to Raffaelli, also a member of the Clinical Scientist Program run jointly by Charité and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH). at Charite.
In women taking oral contraceptives, by contrast, there are hardly any fluctuations in estrogen levels. As the researchers demonstrated in this study, CGRP concentrations are also consistent over the course of the “artificial cycle” caused by oral contraception, with comparable levels seen in both migraineurs and healthy women. The researchers made a similar observation in postmenopausal women.
“The data still needs to be confirmed by larger studies, but our findings suggest that CGRP release is dependent on hormonal status in humans, just as it is in the animal model,” Raffaelli noted. Therefore, in his opinion, “taking birth control pills can provide relief for some migraine patients.”, he added.
However, as the study shows, there are women who suffer from migraine even without hormonal fluctuations. since, as they indicate, “CGRP is not the only inflammatory peptide that can trigger a migraine attack“. The team now plans to study what other physical processes are influenced by the menstrual cycle and also take a closer look at CGRP levels in men of different age groups. M.T. T. (SyM)