Tension headaches in particular affect women more frequently - they suffer from them around 70 percent more often than men. This is according to the London-based Health and Safety Executive. The reason: the female brain reacts up to three times more sensitively to stress and changes than the male brain.

And if we women take on too much, the stress messengers tense up the neck muscles and block the blood supply to the brain. The result: a nagging headache. The latest theory from US pain researchers has found another reason why headaches affect women more often. According to this theory, women have finer and more sensitive nerve cords in the neck region than men, which is why they suffer from tension headaches more often. Another piece of bad news: women are also more frequently affected by migraines: 24 percent suffer from them, but only twelve percent of men.

Headaches: oestrogen fluctuations go to women's heads

Fluctuating hormone levels in the female cycle are also a cause of pain. Before menstruation, oestrogen levels fall, while prostaglandins, which trigger menstrual pain, rise. Both hormones together also reduce the release of the happiness hormone serotonin - and this falling level makes headaches seem even more painful to us women.

The menopause also has an effect

Falling oestrogen levels during the menopause can significantly increase sensitivity to pain. The hormonal fluctuations can also upset the balance in the brain and thus lead to headaches and migraines, among other things. Headaches experienced by women during the menopause mainly occur in the immediate period before the menopause, so the symptoms should disappear after a while. What triggers the phenomenon has not yet been conclusively clarified. However, hot flushes can also cause a buzzing head, and stress is also known to often manifest itself in the form of headaches, among other things.