Migraine Screening Recommended as Part of Routine Women’s Healthcare

A new position statement from American Headache Society published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, calls for routine migraine screening to become part of standard women’s healthcare. 

The statement, “Routine Migraine Screening as a Standard of Care for Women’s Health,” highlights gaps in migraine care for adolescent girls and women. Many people living with migraine do not receive a diagnosis or appropriate treatment, and this burden falls especially heavily on women, who experience migraine at significantly higher rates than men, particularly during reproductive years due to hormonal changes. Given these disparities, the authors argue that earlier recognition must become a routine part of care.

To address this gap, the position statement recommends that adolescent girls and women receive annual migraine screening during routine healthcare visits. According to the authors, screening can be completed using a brief questionnaire (such as ID Migraine) at the time of an appointment, helping clinicians identify patients who may need further evaluation and care.

Women’s health settings may be especially well-suited for this type of screening, as many patients already seek care in these settings for concerns related to menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, contraception, and other hormonal transitions that can affect migraine. These visits can create a natural opening for conversations about headache symptoms that might otherwise go unrecognized.

This opportunity for earlier recognition is particularly important because delayed diagnosis remains a major challenge in migraine care. Many patients experience symptoms for years before receiving appropriate recognition and treatment, which can contribute to worsening disability and reduced quality of life. Making migraine screening a part of routine care will help connect patients with evidence-based treatment and get the care they need.

These recommendations support a more proactive approach to women’s health by recognizing migraine as an important condition that deserves regular attention in clinical care. Rather than waiting for patients to raise concerns on their own, routine screening could help clinicians identify migraine more consistently and improve access to care for a population that is often underserved.

Plain Language Summary

Despite migraine being a very common and disabling disease, especially among girls and women, it is often not diagnosed and treated. To enhance care for those with migraine, adolescent girls and women should receive annual screening to determine if they have migraine. Screening can be done using a short questionnaire that the patient completes at the time of their appointment with a clinician.