Wearable Biosensor Sweats Out Menstrual Migraines

Hormonal fluctuations are a common contributor to headaches and can be especially painful in the form of menstrual migraine.

Often more painful and longer lasting than regular migraines, menstrual migraines are also more difficult to ward off. First-line acute migraine medications like triptans tend not to work as well on hormone-induced headaches. Up to 10 percent of women suffer from migraines during their menstrual cycle, disrupting work productivity and decreasing quality of life.

This year, College of Medicine faculty hope to embark on a collaborative study with California Institute of Technology medical engineering professor Wei Gao, PhD, to improve the prevention and treatment of menstrual migraines—a key gap in women’s health. Funded by a federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPS-H) Sprint for Women’s Health grant, UIC’s Tory Eisenlohr-Moul, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and Pauline Maki, PhD, professor of psychiatry, psychology, and obstetrics-gynecology, will be testing an innovative wearable biosensor to measure ovarian steroids and pain-related biomarkers associated with menstrual migraine. Developed by Gao, the noninvasive device monitors hormones in real time through sweat-sensing technology.

“Current methods for accurately tracking hormones involve clinical blood draws or at-home urine or saliva testing kits. A more convenient, noninvasive approach could offer more timely monitoring, useful for more quickly managing and treating symptoms for women’s health conditions beyond menstrual migraine, such as menopausal hot flashes, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome,” says Eisenlohr-Moul, UIC site PI for the study. “It’s often difficult for people with menstrual migraines to take their medication at the right time to avoid worsening of symptoms.”

For the proof-of-concept study, the UIC investigators will be collecting clinical information and blood samples to help validate the innovative tool’s capabilities. Participants will don wearable ring sensors to monitor their hormonal fluctuations.

“The ARPA-H Sprint for Women’s Health supports research to accelerate advances in women’s health, and we are honored to be a grant recipient,” says study co-PI Maki. “This technology has the potential to transform health not only for women but for everyone.”