Ask anyone who suffers from migraines, and they’ll be the first to tell you it’s much more than “just a headache.”
A migraine can mean losing an entire day – or several – to pain, nausea, sensitivity to light, and an inability to function normally. For women, however, this experience is even more common.
Women are three times more likely than men to experience migraines, often managing symptoms during some of the busiest and most demanding years of their lives. And yet, despite how common and debilitating the condition can be, migraines have long been overlooked in medical research.
Measuring the migraine impact
Migraines are far from rare. An estimated 12 to 14 per cent of people around the world suffer from them.
In Canada, about 2.7 million people are living with migraines, though that number is widely believed to be higher. Many cases go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, particularly among women, whose symptoms are often overlooked.
While this can have a measurably negative effect on a person’s well-being, statistics show the impact reaches well beyond health alone.
Migraines are estimated to cost the Canadian economy $14.6 billion each year through missed work, reduced productivity, and earlier workforce exits. But despite how widespread and disruptive the condition is, migraines remain underfunded.
That gap is exactly what a new research program is hoping to address.
Brain Canada and the Women’s Brain Health Initiative (WBHI), with support from the Government of Canada, are launching the Accelerator Grants: Migraine Research program to support studies that can improve the diagnosis and treatment of migraines.
There are still major gaps in understanding what causes migraines, how to identify reliable biomarkers, and how to develop treatments tailored to individuals.
The goal of the program, says Lynn Posluns, President and Founder of WBHI, is to close those gaps in care, treatment, and understanding, especially for women.
“Migraine is one of the most common and disabling brain conditions affecting women, yet it has historically received far less research attention than conditions that primarily affect men,” says Posluns. “By investing in research that reflects women’s lived experiences, we can move toward better prevention, more precise treatments, and lasting improvements in women’s brain health.”
The bigger brain picture
For Posluns, migraines sit inside a much bigger health gap she’s been trying to close for years.
When she started the WBHI – now a charitable foundation that operates in both Canada and the United States – in 2012, it came from noticing a pattern she couldn’t ignore.
“I discovered that women were more susceptible to certain brain aging disorders like Alzheimer’s, stress, anxiety, and depression, but the research still focused on men,” she said.
That imbalance struck a nerve, and she set out to fund research that better reflected women’s experiences.
Over time, the WBHI has grown into a broader effort focused on prevention, education, and closing gender gaps in how brain conditions are understood and treated.
Migraines, she added, are just one example of the gap that still exists.
“That’s why this is so exciting,” she said. “It’s sort of uncharted territory.”
And, as Posluns adds, that uncharted territory is just the tip of the brain health iceberg.
“A lot of women suffer in silence. Migraines impact productivity, they pull themselves out of the workforce because they cannot function properly, it harms them in terms of relationships and dealing with their kids and their parents and everything else,” she added. “Well, it’s about time we find out why.”
