About Me
I have over 35 years clinical experience across headache and women’s health, which means I am well equipped to help women who experience migraine and suspect hormones are playing a part in that.
Following house jobs, I had what was meant to be a short ‘break’ in my training, taking up a research post at the City of London Migraine Clinic in central London. Like most healthcare professionals, I’d had very little training in headache as a medical student, and until I started working at the clinic I didn’t even know that the occasional headaches I experienced were in fact migraine.
I realised that this was an area of medicine that had a huge impact on people’s lives but was rarely taken seriously and very under researched.
Six months turned into a year and soon plans of following a standard training pathway disappeared. I became particularly interested in how women’s hormones affected headaches and took up additional posts in menopause and contraception to complement my work in headache.
Qualifications
- Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (MB BS) from the University of London (St Bartholomew’s Hospital)
- Doctorate in Medicine (MD) from the University of London
- Masters in Medical Education (MSc MedEd) from the Royal College of Physicians and University College London
- Diploma from the Institute of Psychosexual Medicine (DIPM)
Publications
- Published over 200 research papers and book chapters, five single author books, seven co-authored books and four co-edited books.
- Extensive experience of trials in drug treatments for migraine and cluster headache.
- Personal research interest in menstrual migraine.
- Doctoral thesis explored the role of oestrogen in migraine. The results of my research led to the development of research criteria for menstrual migraine, which was adopted by the International Headache Society in 2004.
Find out more about working with Professor Anne MacGregor
Professional Activities in Headache
I worked at the City of London Migraine Clinic from 1988, becoming Director of Clinical Research in 1999, until my resignation in 2011. During that time I was responsible for the full research portfolio at the City of London Migraine Clinic, writing protocols and running clinical trials of in-house research, securing research funding, ethical approval and running sponsored pharmaceutical research.
Additional experience includes:
- Member of the working group on migraine for the third edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-III)
- Involved with ‘Lifting the Burden’, which directs the Global Campaign against Headache in collaboration with the World Health Organization
- Former honorary General Secretary of the International Headache Society between 1999 and 2005 and Honorary Treasurer between 2005 and 2010.
- Former Trustee of the Migraine Trust
- Former member of the Medical Advisory Board of Migraine Action Association
- Served on the executive committee of the Anglo-Dutch Migraine Association
- Served on the executive committee of the British Association for the Study of Headache, co-authoring the first three editions of the BASH Headache Management Guidelines.
- I teach headache medicine to undergraduate Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry
- Co-convener of the Chronic Pain and Epilepsy module of an MSc in Neuroscience and Translational Medicine at Queen Mary, University of London
Professional Activities in Women’s Health
Additional current experience includes:
- British Menopause Society (BMS) Menopause Specialist
- BMS trainer for the Principles and Practice of Menopause Care
- Member of the BMS Curriculum Development
- Member of the BMS Medical Advisory Council
Past activities include:
- Convener of the MFSRH Critical Reading paper.
Former Faculty Instructing Doctor (LoC MEd) in all aspects of contraception and menopause, including provision of intrauterine (LoC IUT) and subdermal contraception (LoC SDI). - At Barts Health NHS Trust I worked to support the provision of level 1,2 and 3 contraception services and develop a popular training programme for DFSRH, LoC IUT, LoC SDI and past LoC MEd trainees.
- Former FSRH Regional Training Advisor for NE Thames
Former General Training Programme Director (GenTPD) for Barts Health NHS Trust. - Former chair of the General Training Committee
- Former Vice Chair of the MFSRH Examination
Awards
2002
Elizabeth Garret Anderson Award
Awarded by the World Headache Alliance to a woman whose work over time has made an extraordinary contribution to relieving those affected by the burden of headache
2011
Special Recognition Award and Honorary Life Membership
Awarded by the International Headache Society
2013
British Medical Association Book Awards: Highly Commended
Awarded for the book Contraception: Your Questions Answered co-authored, with Professor John Guillebaud
2022
Women’s Health Science Award
Awarded by the American Headache Society to an investigator whose body of work has made an outstanding contribution to the understanding of topics related to women’s health and headache medicine.
Professional Memberships:
- Registered with the General Medical Council (GMC)
Member of the Institute of Clinical Research (MICR)
Member of the Ethics Committee of the International Headache Society - Fellow of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- Society memberships include the British Association for the Study of Headache (BASH), British Menopause Society (BMS), European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health (ESC), Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), Institute of Clinical Research (ICR), Institute of Psychosexual Medicine (IPM), International Menopause Society (IMS) and the International Headache Society (IHS)
Current Employment:
- Honorary Professor, Centre for Neuroscience, Surgery and Trauma at the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry
- Menopause Specialist at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Media:
I speak on radio and television and have written several features for the lay and medical popular press.
If you have a media enquiry, please email me at anne@annemacgregor.com