For menopausal women, a history of migraine is associated with hypertension, according to a study published in Neurology. Researchers examined whether history of migraine is associated with hypertension in a longitudinal cohort study involving 56,202 menopausal women. Women were included who did not have hypertension or cardiovascular disease at the age of their menopause. The researchers identified 12,501 cases of incident hypertension, including 3,100 among women with migraine and 9,401 among women without migraine during 826,419 person-years. In menopausal women, migraine was associated with an increased risk for hypertension (hazard ratio [HR] for migraine, 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.24-1.35); the correlation persisted in post-hoc sensitivity analyses such as when controlling for common migraine medications. Similar correlations were seen between migraine and hypertension regardless of whether women reported aura (HR for migraine with aura, 1.54 [95% CI, 1.04- 2.30]; HR for migraine without aura, 1.32 [95% CI, 0.87-2.02]). Ever users of menopausal hormone therapy had slightly stronger associations than never users (HR for migraine, 1.34 [95% CI, 1.27-1.41] vs 1.19 [95% CI, 1.11-1.28]).
