ABSTRACT
The goddess Athena was born from the skull of Zeus, who was suffering from severe recurrent headaches. Greek legend clearly exemplifies the evidence that headache has been considered a ‘female disease’ since ancient times. Women consistently have a greater incidence of headache than men in the cases of both migraine and tension-type headaches, with a life-time prevalence of 91% and 69%, respectively. The medical literature has linked gender to migraine, not Only because of its predominance in women from puberty to menopause, but also because neuroendocrine events associated with reproductive stages and hormonal interventions, such as oral contraception and hormone replacement therapy, can cause a deep change in the clinical pattern of migraine itself. Studies of migraine prevalence have suggested that 17% of women are affected, compared with 6% of men, and a striking increase in migraine incidence in women occurs between ages 10 and 12 years, when hormonal events typical of female puberty take place1-3.
