Migraine is a significant health issue that disproportionately affects women. Around 10 million people in the UK live with migraine and women are two to three times more likely to experience migraine than men. 

Migraine in women often worsens around menstruation, and has strong links to contraceptive choices, pregnancy, post-partum, and menopause. It is therefore no surprise that the lifetime prevalence of migraine is reported as 33% in women and 13% in men – before puberty, migraine frequency is the same in both sexes. 

Despite its prevalence and debilitating impact, it was absent from the renewed Women’s Health Strategy published earlier this week. While we welcome the government’s revival of a dedicated plan to tackle gender inequity in the health system, this is a significant missed opportunity.  

It is especially disappointing given that migraine sits squarely within the strategy’s four priorities.  

First, migraine is a condition that affects women disproportionately and often differently across the female life course. Second, it is a clear example of women’s pain being minimised or dismissed, with many women reporting that their migraine is not taken seriously, dismissed as “just hormones” or “everyday stress.”  

Third, it is highly suited to the strategy’s proposed shift toward earlier intervention and stronger community-based pathways – better diagnosis and treatment in primary care would prevent the condition worsening and the need for repeated appointments within secondary care.  

Finally, migraine has a substantial impact on work, caring responsibilities, and quality of life, making it highly relevant to the strategy’s wider goals on participation, productivity and reducing the toll of long-term conditions. 

Treating migraine as a priority implementation case would be a practical and credible way for government and the NHS to show that the strategy will deliver for women with common, painful, disabling but often overlooked conditions. 

The Migraine Trust therefore urges the government to act now to improve the migraine experience for millions of women by applying the strategy’s existing commitments to migraine care. The government can do this through:

1. Formal recognition

Government and NHS England should explicitly recognise migraine as a condition that falls within the strategy’s commitment to improve care for conditions that affect women disproportionately or differently.

2. Better community pathways

Integrated Care Boards should be tasked to improve migraine pathways in primary and community care, with particular attention to menstrual migraine, medication overuse, prevention, and links to reproductive health. 

3. Taking women’s migraine pain seriously 

Implementation of the strategy’s commitments on listening to women and acting on repeated presentation should include migraine, so that women do not have to fight for a proper diagnosis or an effective care plan or review.

4. Stronger data and accountability

Migraine should be included in relevant women’s health improvement metrics, including patient experience, access to appropriate treatment, and avoidable urgent or emergency care use.

5. Research across the female life course

Research and innovation priorities should reflect the role of sex differences and hormones in migraine, including menstruation, pregnancy, post-partum change, and menopause. 

The Women’s Health Strategy was designed to improve the lives of women with common, disabling conditions that have too often been neglected. To succeed in this aim, migraine must be included in the strategy’s implementation phase.