(Image source from: Migraine hurting women than ever})

Be it a working women or a housewife, today more and more Indian women are falling prey to bad headaches, more so gnawing migraines. Wonder why?

Given the mounting pressure of work at office and home, its hardly of any surprise that migraine cases have shot up among women.

Health experts solely blame lifestyle changes and stress for this.

Explaining the difference between a headache and a migraine, P.N. Renjen, senior consultant, neurology, at the Apollo Hospital, said, "Headache is a pain in the head region, while migraine is a type of headache. Migraine is not a disease but a syndrome. One should know that not every headache is a migraine, but a migraine can be termed as a headache. Migraine is usually accompanied by a throbbing headache, photophobia and vomiting.”

"Women are more prone to headache and migraine because of hormonal changes in their body and the stress and strain of daily life," he further added, thanks to their erratic meal timings and a bad sleep cycle.

"Around 75 per cent of migraine sufferers are women," Manoj Khannal, consultant, neurology, at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, said.

"Although the incidence of migraine is similar in boys and girls during childhood, it increases in girls after puberty. Migraine most commonly affects women in the age group of 20-45 years," he added.

"Fluctuation of female hormones like estrogen and progesterone appear to increase the risk of migraine and its severity in some women. About half the women with migraine report headaches associated with their menstrual cycle. For some women, migraines also tend to be worse during the first trimester of their pregnancy, but improve during the last trimester," he added.

AW: Suchorita Dutta