NCT06785129

Endometriosis and Migraine

Mechanisms Underlying Endometriosis and Migraine Comorbidity

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 120 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Washington University School of Medicine · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 12 Years – 45 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study aims to determine differences in experimental pain and sex hormone levels between patients with migraine, patients with endometriosis, patients with migraine and endometriosis, and healthy controls. Participants will complete surveys, experimental pain paradigms and collection of samples for hormone analyses.

Detailed description

Participants will be recruited via the pain, headache and Ob/Gyn clinics, via Volunteers for Health, via other studies in the lab, study staff, and via EPIC. When potential participants are inquiring about studies with the Pain the Lifespan Lab, the study team will describe this study among the options. Potential participants might be identified via EPIC records using age, sex, diagnoses, notes, problem list, medications, and phone number. A research staff member will contact a potential participant and provide a description of the project. Potentially eligible participants will be invited to participate in the study, which will be conducted at Washington University School of Medicine. Participants will also be provided with a written summary of or the consent form for the study. The consent will be signed electronically using Docusign e-consent process either remotely during a phone call or a video call (WUSTL Zoom) with a study staff or in person. After confirming the inclusion criteria and signing the consent form, participants will complete a 2.5-3 hour study visit of psychophysical assessments of thermal and pressure stimuli. Participants will also complete various questionnaires including demographic, social, health, behavioral, and psychological questionnaires. For adolescents, a parent/legal guardian will be asked to assist in completing some of the health-related surveys (i.e., physical developmental survey, health survey, migraine history survey). Obstetric, gynecologic, fertility, surgical history, medications, and pain will be abstracted from the medical record and/or via health history interview. Blood, urine, and/or saliva samples will be collected for hormonal, immune, and/or genetic testing. Additional samples will be stored in a biobank for future hormonal, immune and/or genetic analyses. Participants will then complete follow-up surveys once monthly for up to 1 year after the study visit which will assess changes to their pain symptoms and treatments. All study procedures are optional, and participants can stop or not complete tests if they want.

Conditions

• Migraine
• Endometriosis

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Thermal stimuli	The Thermal Sensory Analyzer (TSA-II or PATHWAY platform - Medoc, Ramat Yishai, Israel) will be used to safely deliver heat and cold stimuli. These devices can deliver relatively complex stimuli via computer control. All targeted stimulus temperatures will be less than 50°C, and participants will be free to remove their arm or leg at any time from the thermode. Noxious cold stimuli will also be delivered with a plastic water container or a water bath (FISHER, USA). Participants will be free to pull out of the water bath at any time
DEVICE	Pressure stimuli	Pressure stimuli will be applied by using a handheld algometer (Wagner Instruments) or the Pressure Algometer (Medoc, Ramat Yishai, Israel). These devices have a round probe that allows quantifying the amount of pressure that is being applied. The Pressure Algometer allows a real-time visual feedback to control and monitor applied pressure rates. Pressure will be applied to the lower leg, volar forearm, or trapezius.
BEHAVIORAL	Pain ratings	Pain intensity and pain unpleasantness ratings will be assessed.
BEHAVIORAL	Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) response	The CPM paradigm assesses endogenous inhibitory pain modulation efficiency. CPM testing includes the application of a "test" stimulus without conditioning (control run, pressure pain thresholds) and a subsequent application of the same test stimulus together with a conditioning stimulus (conditioning run, a 60 second of foot immersion in cold water). The CPM response is the difference in the pressure pain thresholds between the control and the conditioning runs.
BIOLOGICAL	Hormonal assessment	Blood samples (approximately 2 tablespoons) and/or saliva and/or urine will be collected for analyses of sex hormone levels (e.g., prolactin, testosterone, estradiol).

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-02-12
• Primary completion: 2028-01-01
• Completion: 2030-01-01
• First posted: 2025-01-21
• Last updated: 2025-08-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States