{"id":2152,"date":"2019-04-24T09:19:43","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T09:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2020-02-18T16:27:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T16:27:49","slug":"migraine-isnt-a-womens-only-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/managing-pain\/migraine-isnt-a-womens-only-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Migraine isn\u2019t a women\u2019s only illness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"287\" height=\"287\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-2366\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211428\/Mel-Headshot-Patient-story.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211428\/Mel-Headshot-Patient-story.jpg 287w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211428\/Mel-Headshot-Patient-story-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Mel Farrell<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">32 years old. Lecturer and researcher, County Longford<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/managing-pain\/chronic-pain-can-affect-everyone-it-doesnt-discriminate\/\">&#8220;I\u2019ve found that many people see migraine as a \u2018female condition\u2019<\/a>. While it is more prevalent in women (8:1 ratio), men do suffer migraine and it has an equally debilitating effect on our lives. Some individuals have even said quite disapproving things to me about it, basically questioning my manliness.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There are friends in my life who simply do not understand. By a comment or look you sort of know that is one barrier that won\u2019t ever come down.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The migraine aura makes me feel nauseous just to think of<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In my younger days, the migraine aura looked like a colourful version of \u2018TV static\u2019 \u2013 flickering, colourful snowy blotches that I would see in my peripheral vision. In adulthood, it more accurately resembles zigzag, pulsating lines, expanding from the centre of my vision outwards. Just thinking about it here is making my stomach feel sick. It\u2019s absolutely horrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Once a migraine has set in, the pain is so bad, I can only text, \u2018Migraine\u2019 if people try to get in touch. Then it\u2019s several hours of nausea and vomiting.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Teenage hormones can increase the intensity and frequency of migraines<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color\">&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/migraine.ie\/migraine-in-children-and-teenagers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"The years between ages 7-15  (opens in a new tab)\">The years between ages 7-15 <\/a>were the worst of my life in terms of migraine attacks. Very few people understood what I was going through, which caused a lot of additional stress. In hindsight, I realise, I was depressed.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Even onions can trigger a migraine!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Triggers for me include extreme changes of weather or barometric pressure, humidity, lack of routine, long gaps between meals, dehydration and, bizarrely, the smell of onions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Thankfully, I\u2019ve had fewer severe migraines since 2017.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I\u2019ve found that many people see migraine as a \u2018female condition\u2019. While it is more prevalent in women (8:1 ratio), men do suffer migraine and it has an equally debilitating effect on our lives. Some individuals have even said quite disapproving things to me about it, basically questioning my manliness.&#8221; &#8220;There are friends in my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/managing-pain\/migraine-isnt-a-womens-only-illness\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2663],"tags":[2662,2682],"class_list":["post-2152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-pain","tag-managing-pain-2019","tag-migraine-patient-stories"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211443\/GettyImages-879217820-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211443\/GettyImages-879217820-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Your Future Career","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/harveyodonnell\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2152"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4133,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions\/4133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}