
According to recent research published in the journal Neurology, women appear to endure painful cluster headaches more frequently than males.
Despite the fact that males experience them more frequently, experts believe that the brief but acute pain episodes that people generally experience on one side of the brain are worse in women. Each one lasts between 15 minutes and three hours and can reoccur for days, weeks, or even months at a time.
Women, according to Swedish researchers, are more likely to be diagnosed with persistent cluster headaches, which can endure for more than a year with no relief. Furthermore, they observed that 18% of women are diagnosed with persistent cluster headaches, compared to only 9% of males.
Women were targeted more frequently than males were. For instance, 8% of women said that their headache bouts lasted between four and seven months, compared to 5% of males. In contrast, 26% of female patients said that the pain decreased after a month, compared to 30% of male patients.
Women reported attacks at various times of the day at considerably higher rates than males did. 74% of female patients said that they experienced cluster headaches at various periods, as opposed to 63% of male patients.
Only 7% of men had a family history of cluster headaches, compared to 15% of women. 874 individuals with the illness participated in the study and completed questionnaires regarding their symptoms, medicines, headache triggers, and dietary patterns.
In the sample, males made up two-thirds (66%) and women just 34%.
According to research author Andrea Belin, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute, “cluster headache is still frequently misdiagnosed in women, maybe because some elements might be comparable to migraine.” For the fastest possible delivery of the most effective medication, doctors must be aware of how the condition presents differently in men and women.
Cluster headache is still mostly thought to be an illness of men, making it more challenging for women with milder symptoms to be identified than men, even though the ratio of men to women with cluster headaches has been moving over the years.