Jennifer Hranilovich, MD

Headache is a complex disorder and every patient develops headache by a different pathway, featuring their own unique genes, social factors, hormones, and environment. To ensure the best treatment of my patients, I strive to identify these factors and in combination with current scientific evidence on headache treatment, develop the best plan for the child and family to reduce the burden of headache.

Specialties

Child Neurology

Conditions & Treatments

Brain and Nervous System
Migraine

Education & Training

Medical Schools

MD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine (2013)

Undergraduate Schools

BS, University of California–Los Angeles (CA) (2009)

Residency Program

University of Utah Medical Center Program (2018)

Fellowships

Brigham and Women's Hospital/Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School Program (2019)

Research & Grants

Research Interests for Patients

My research interests are primarily focused on the way in which hormones such as estrogen and testosterone influence the development of headache in puberty as well as the changes in brain structure and function that show us how this development happens. A particular group of patients in which I study this is transgender youth, with my primary research technique involving imaging of the brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

information for referring providers

Referral Contact Phone

720-777-1234

Clinical Interests for Referring Providers

My primary clinical interest is in my subspecialty of headache, but I also treat other neurologic conditions such as developmental delay, epilepsy, neurofibromatosis, stroke, and tuberous sclerosis.

Research Interest for Referring Providers

My primary clinical interest is in the neuroimaging of sex differences in brain development. The nexus with headache comes with the fact that the overall prevalence of headache in women is about twice that in men. This difference in prevalence starts in adolescence when estrogen rises significantly in girls, and many think that estrogen plays a role in this sex difference in headache, particularly migraine. Evidence from prior studies suggests that the rise in average estrogen levels at puberty guides the development of brain structure and function, including areas key to headache. Challenges in studying this clinically are that estrogen is one of several hormones that change at puberty and that estrogen is released cyclically. Clinical studies have shown that in adult women the monthly drop in estrogen level often triggers migraine. Thus, separating the overall effect of estrogen on brain development and headache from the effect of cycling estrogen is difficult. A unique and increasing population in which change in estrogen at puberty is isolated from other hormones and in which estrogen is given in a steady state rather than cycling is the transfemale patient population. Treatment for transfemale adolescent girls includes suppression of testosterone at puberty and initiation of estrogen. My research seeks to support the hypothesis that exposure to estrogen at puberty increases the risk for incidence of headache. Thus transfemale male-to-female youth who receive estrogen will have a higher incidence of headache than cis-gender boys who do not receive estrogen. I am engaged in study of this hypothesis by evaluating headache incidence and brain structure and function in male-to-female transfemale youth and by comparing this to matched cis-gender boys who do not receive estrogen. My goal is to increase our understanding of how and when estrogen changes risk of developing headache in puberty.

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Practice Locations

Children's Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Aurora