Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) A new EU-wide campaign has been launched to highlight the impact migraine has on the well-being of EU citizens, especially women.
Migraine is said to be the leading reason for lost days of work in the world among people under 50. As women are three times more likely than men to suffer from migraine they bear the greatest impact.
The ‘Not All In Her Head’ campaign raises awareness of the devastating impact migraine can have on women’s lives and careers
The awareness campaign about the disproportionate impact migraine has on women has now launched, marking European Week for Safety and Health at Work (24-28 October).
The Women’s Brain Project with the partial support of a global women’s healthcare company launched the campaign to address widespread misunderstanding surrounding migraine. In a global migraine survey, in which 75% of the participants were women, 70% reported the negative impact on their working lives.
Women are hit hardest, given that migraine affects three times more women than men.
More than half (52%) of people living with migraine struggle to concentrate at work and one-third must take sick leave as a result of the condition.3 With women making up nearly 40% of the global workforce the impact on productivity at work is overshadowed only by the vast numbers suffering in silence. Nearly one-third (27%) of people living with migraine reported that their colleagues do not understand the impact of migraine.
‘Not All In Her Head’ educates on the challenges in diagnosis, access to suitable care, and impact on daily and professional lives. The online campaign calls for a multistakeholder approach to help improve the management of migraine, ultimately improving quality of life, functioning, and reducing the economic and societal burden.
The launch of ‘Not All In Her Head’ marks an important step in the fight for greater awareness of the devastating impact of migraine.
Migraine is a crippling neurological condition that comes with a barrage of debilitating symptoms such as pain, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and sensory disturbances. Furthermore, women suffer longer attack duration than men and a higher recurrence rate, too often it is dismissed as ‘just a bad headache. 60% of people with headache disorders are not properly diagnosed. Doctors and society often associate migraine with ‘feminine’ characteristics like neuroticism and hysteria, which leads to migraines often being trivialized.
One sufferer said, “After suffering from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), I experienced terrible migraines for years. My migraines were very hormonal and so debilitating. Yet, I was just kind of written off most of the time and I feel like that’s the case for many other women. It wreaks havoc on your daily life.”
That’s why the Women’s Brain Project is so invaluable because there really needs to be more gender and precision research,” said Chéri Ballinger, US Ambassador at WBP, former actor, and now film producer and entrepreneur. She added that “Migraine is just so misunderstood and it’s not taken as seriously as it should and this has led to so much misdiagnosis in proper care and treatment and also a terrible stigmatization of people suffering from this debilitating condition.”
The physiological burden of migraine is challenging enough without the stigma and barriers faced in the workplace.6 “The fact that so many women are affected by migraine, and how it interferes with careers, needs to be more widely recognized. Migraine hits mostly women in their prime working years, addressing it is actually a must if we want to make sure that women can have a career and contribute to society,” said Dr. Maria Teresa Ferretti, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of WBP, neuroscientist, and neuroimmunologist.
“Not All In Her Head’ seeks a shift in the way migraine is handled in women’s personal and professional lives through improved awareness.”
“At Organon, we’re committed to helping women and girls achieve their full potential through better health,” said Susanne Fiedler, Chief Commercial Officer, Organon. “By demonstrating that migraine is both a gender equity and economic issue, we hope to break the silence and improve migraine education, care, and treatment, so more women can reach their full potential – including in the workplace.”
