Symptoms of a Migraine

Signs and Symptoms of a Migraine

Migraines are a common condition that plague millions upon millions of people across the world for a variety of different reasons, but what are the symptoms of a migraine? On this page we provide you with a comprehensive guide to migraine symptoms to help you decipher whether or not you may be suffering from them. There are several symptoms of migraine other than the obvious common conception which is a severe head pain that exceeds that of a normal headache, the medical definition is a severe recurring vascular headache.

It can be very easy to misinterpret a migraine with a severe headache, if you suffer from headaches please visit our what causes headaches page.

The symptoms of a migraine are three times as common in females than in males, it is a common occurrence that pregnant women suffer from migraines as well as pregnancy headaches.

Before we go on to discuss migraine headache symptoms we will quickly explain what actually causes a migraine. The symptoms of a migraine are brought about by the dilation and constriction or simply stretching and widening of arteries in your brain. However, what actually causes this to happen is a mystery to medical professionals. There are certain stimuli that can act as migraine triggers in people such as hormone fluctuation or becoming exposed to any number of chemicals found in food or drugs for instance, as well as certain sights and sounds. Please see our migraine triggers page for more information.

Symptoms of migraine list

Check out our list of migraine symptoms and see if they apply to you:

Severe head pain

Naturally this is the main migraine symptom, the pain will usually affect one side of your head and feel like an intense pulsating pain which will generally last between 4 and 72 hours. It is usually the front of the head that is affected by the main symptoms of migraine. This pain can be triggered and worsened by any amount of movement or just general day to day activity. The pain will not necessarily occur in the same place every time a migraine comes on. This main migraine symptoms pain will often come on gradually, however it is possible for it to occur in a matter of minutes.

The migraine symptoms below are what will accompany the above key symptom.

• Sickness
• Nausea – A very common migraine symptom that occurs in around 90% of migraine cases.
• Aura before the head pain comes on - Some people may experience an aura before they feel the pain in their head. An aura can be flashing lights, distorted vision, lightheadedness, a kind of euphoric feeling. This is generally found in one in three migraine cases.
• Becoming sensitive to light and/or sound, conditions known also as photophobia and phonophobia
• Concentration lapses
• Pains above or behind the eyes
• Pins and needles in the limbs or face
• Difficulty talking
• Vertigo symptoms
• Neck stiffness and pain
• Double vision/temporary blindness
• Confusion
• Severe frontal headache
• Mood changes
• Sudden tiredness

Not all of these symptoms of a migraine will occur at the same time and it may only be that you will experience a singular migraine symptom, but do not discard this as it is vital to seek medical advice if this happens frequently to your or suddenly comes on out of nowhere. It is possible to experience a migraine once and then never again or not for a year or so, they can even plague you on a regular basis, in which case it is possible that there is an underlying cause of the migraine headache symptoms so you should have this looked into instead of just trying to treat the problem yourself. Migraine sufferers are prone to a variety of serious medical conditions such as strokes and heart attacks.

When people experience migraine symptoms it can be quite distressing and can become inhibiting or even interrupting in your every day quality of life.

So now that you are aware of what symptoms of migraine are it would be a great idea to try and find out what migraine triggers are so that you can get a good idea of what is bringing your migraines on. If you already know and want to know how to cure a migraine or some information on migraine relief then please visit our dedicated pages full of useful information.