'It's One of the Worst Things'

Newsweek, May, 2005 by Jennifer Barrett

Serena Williams was 18 when she was stricken with the first of several excruciating headaches. But she didn't learn that she was suffering from menstrual migraines until five years later, when a sudden and severe headache cost the tennis star a match and prompted an early elimination from a tournament for the first time in her professional career. According to the National Headache Foundation, an estimated 13 million American women are affected by this type of migraine, but most of them don't realize it.

Williams, now 23, says she thought the timing of the headaches was coincidental. But menstrual-related migraines, which affect approximately 60 percent of female migraine sufferers, are specifically triggered by the drop in estrogen levels just before or during the period of bleeding. "Basically, it's an estrogen-withdrawal headache," says neurologist Dr. Joel Saper, founder of the Michigan Head Pain & Neurological Institute.

While ...