A new study of genetic and environmental information from the world’s largest database of twins has revealed that hormone levels in the womb before birth may be linked to the risk of migraine later in adulthood.
The study suggests that genetic factors related to migraine risk may differ between men and women.
According to findings by a research team at the University of California-San Diego, published on Thursday, in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, the risk of developing migraines in later life is not entirely explained by genetics.
The results showed that women had a higher incidence of migraine headaches than men (17.6% vs. 5.5%, respectively). While genes have not been explored in detail, using the relationship of twins as a yardstick, the researchers found that migraines can be equally inherited in women and men.
The team also recorded sex-dependent genetic differences in migraine risk, with evidence of different genes affecting risk in women and men.
Migraine is a common neurological condition that affects more than 12% of the world’s population and causes severe pain. These sufferers suffer from severe headaches, often on a regular basis, and women are approximately seven times more likely to have this condition than men.
“We are the first to present evidence that genetic factors related to migraine risk may differ between men and women. We are also the first to demonstrate that the prenatal hormone environment may contribute to migraine risk,” says Morgan C. Fitzgerald, lead author of the study, from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Regarding the methodology of the paper, Fitzgerald told Daily News Egypt :”We used data from the Swedish Twin Registry (STR), one of the largest population-based twin registries in the world. Our sample included 51,872 twins. We established migraine status based on criteria set by the International Headache Society classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3). We then utilized the assigned migraine status within our analytic framework.”
Moreover, Matthew Panizzon, principal investigator of the study explained that the motivation for this study was to identify the factors that contribute to the development of migraine with the goal of contributing to the advancement of the understanding of the disease.
