So it’s not bad enough that every single month we get an unfriendly visitor for a week, along with cramps, bloating and moodiness. Or that we are the ones that carry a hungry and growing little package for nine months, only to care for it for at least 18 years after it’s born. No, that stuff isn’t enough. We have to be more likely than men to get debilitating headaches as well.

Women are three times as likely as men to suffer from migraine headaches, and a new study suggests the reason may be that their brains are faster to activate the cascading waves of activity thought to cause migraine pain as well as other migraine symptoms.Researchers say migraines were once thought to be caused by constriction and dilation of blood vessels. But advances in brain imaging technology now suggest that migraines may start as a result of brain excitability.

I am one of those women. Every once in awhile I get a headache that is so excruciating that I can’t move. I can’t open my eyes or sleep or listen to any kind of noise. Basically no over-the-counter medicines relieve the pain. So I either have to O.D. on over-the-counter meds, get a prescription that may not in fact work or just bear down and endure the pain until it desists.

There are many causes of migraines in women. Diet, sleep patterns, genes and hormones, menstrual cycle or stress can all trigger these pesky headaches. If you suffer, as millions of us do, from migraines, try to keep track of the conditions under which you get them. Write down the weather condition, what you ate that day, your mood, if you’re on your period. Anything that can help identify triggers may help reduce your chances of getting migraines. After observing a few migraines, bring the findings to your doctor and hopefully he/she can shed some light on what it is causing the headaches. Once you have an idea of the cause, a remedy is a lot more likely to be found.