Women Suffer Most Often from Debilitating Headaches

Monday, November 24, 2025
 

It’s not all in her head — mystifying and sometimes even debilitating, headache disorders are the second most common condition worldwide. Young and middle-aged women carry a disproportionate burden of headache disorders, according to a recent study in Cell Reports Medicine, which dives headfirst into the demographics of headache disorders.

Although previous studies have suggested that women experience headache disorders more often, the corresponding author, immunologist Professor Dong Keon Yon of Kyung Hee University, says, “We were still struck by just how consistent and substantial the disparity remained across regions and over three decades of data,”.

Women in countries with more access to healthcare were found to face the highest prevalence and disability rate. In regions with less accessible health care, headache disorders are underdiagnosed and, as a result, underreported. Yon says that the study’s forecast that the disability burden in young and middle-aged women with migraines will remain stable to 2050 highlights the importance of healthcare access and effective treatments.

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