Your Brain, Your Headache, and Who Gets Left Behind

Key Takeaways

• ✦A July 2026 study (Lim et al.) found that physical activity's protective effect against dementia varies by menopausal status — suggesting timing relative to menopause may matter, not just the activity itself.
• ✦Women with criminal legal system involvement commonly experience menopausal symptoms, some of them severe, while facing institutional barriers that make accessing care significantly harder than the general population.
• ✦New analysis of WHI hormone therapy trial data found associations between menopausal hormone therapy, migraine history, and headache severity — relevant for the large overlap between migraine sufferers and perimenopausal women.
• ✦The menopause research landscape still skews heavily toward women with stable housing, healthcare access, and no legal-system involvement — a blind spot with real clinical consequences.
• ✦On HRT and migraines: if you have a migraine history and are considering or currently using hormone therapy, this is a conversation to have with your doctor — not a reason to panic, but a data point that matters.