WHO GETS MIGRAINES, AND HOW OFTEN?
Estimates vary as to the proportion of people who get migraines, but figures of between eight and twelve per cent are commonly quoted. There is no racial difference. Migraine affects women more than men.
The number of attacks varies in frequency from sufferer to sufferer, with some people having only one or two attacks a year: others less fortunate may have more than three a week.
It’s difficult to get an ‘average’ picture, because only those patients with symptoms bad enough to consult their doctor get counted! At one of the UK migraine clinics, nearly one in ten patients were having more than three attacks a week; a quarter were having more than one attack per week, and nearly half had more than one attack per month.
It is possible to have true migraines which start above the age of forty, but it’s unusual; above the age of fifty it may well be associated with some other more serious abnormalities such as a tumour. Migraines which start after the age of fifty need full investigation by your doctor.
Migraine is not necessarily for life – about half of sufferers no longer have attacks twenty years later, and migraine is relatively uncommon over the age of sixty-five. Reassuringly, when attacks continue, their intensity usually reduces. We used to think that attacks dropped off after the menopause in women, but we now know that some women improve at the menopause and some get worse; some even have their first attack at this time.
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