ANA: Endometriosis Linked to Doubled Risk for Comorbid Migraine

MONDAY, Oct. 26, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Women with endometriosis have more than a doubled risk for also having migraine, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association, held from Oct. 17 to 20 in San Diego.Yohannes Woubishet Woldeamanuel, M.D., from the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Phoenix, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to quantify the global odds of endometriosis and migraine comorbidity.Based on 35 global cohorts (207,675 endometriosis cases and more than 12.9 million nonendometriosis controls), the researchers found robust, significantly elevated overall odds of migraine in the endometriosis population (odds ratio, 2.30). Associations showed a trimodal distribution based on data-capture methods. Using restrictive, one-year ICD billing coding showed the lowest prevalence (4.5 to 4.7 percent). Using longitudinal, lifetime look-back windows in claims data showed intermediate tracking (17.8 to 42.8 percent). Specialized, clinic-based cohorts using direct patient interviews showed a massive biological signal ceiling, with migraine prevalence reaching 54 to 78 percent. A sensitivity analysis confirmed that widespread combined oral contraceptive use acts as a powerful confounding filter due to screening-by-contraindication bias. Cohorts with high hormonal usage showed depressed, nonsignificant odds ratios approaching 1.0, but dropping these heavily medicated samples revealed a truer biological signal, yielding highly significant increased odds of migraine in women with endometriosis (odds ratio, 2.41)."There's a visibility gap because migraine and endometriosis are treated by different specialists and recorded separately, making the overlap easy to miss," Woldeamanuel said in a statement. "As a result, women's headaches and pelvic pain may be viewed as unrelated, even when they may be part of a broader pain pattern."More Information.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

ANA: Endometriosis Linked to Doubled Risk for Comorbid Migraine

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