The Many Faces of Migraines

We are well into Migraine Awareness Month 2022, and if you’ve already got involved in awareness and fundraising activities, you might have learned some new things about the condition already.

Did you know that migraine is a disability, for example? According to WHO, migraine is as debilitating as quadriplegia. It’s one of the most common disabilities in Australia, affecting almost 5 million people.

Did you also know that there are numerous different types of migraine? Many people don’t know that migraines affect everyone differently, which is what we are going to focus on this week.

Here are some different types of migraine:

Sensitivity to light and sound are symptoms that most migraine sufferers experience. Common migraines often come on suddenly, as there is no aura to warn of an attack. Head pain, nausea and dizziness are also features of the common migraine.

Some people that get migraines also experience changes to their vision, known as an aura. An aura might be blurred vision or dark shapes in the eyes. Auras typically come on before other symptoms, making them a good predictor of an imminent migraine attack.

Menstrual migraines tend to occur in the few days before your period, or during menstruation. You might find that the symptoms are worse for menstrual migraines than they are at other times of the month, and they might also be harder to treat.

This one sounds like a misnomer, but it is possible to get all the other symptoms of migraine without experiencing head pain. Stomach pains, nausea and dizziness occurring alone may not sound like a migraine, but it is a common cause of each.

Retinal migraines produce light-related symptoms, but they only affect one eye. These symptoms might be flashing lights, blurred vision or, in rare cases, temporary blindness in one eye. You will usually only have symptoms for an hour or so.

Intractable migraine (status migrainosus) is a very rare, extreme form of migraine. It is characterised by pain and vomiting so severe and prolonged that sufferers often need to be hospitalised to receive treatment for dehydration.

Hemiplegic migraines can be particularly worrying because they are often mistaken for a stroke. You might experience tingling, paralysis and numbness in one side of the body, as well as difficulty speaking and seeing properly. This can be genetic or not.

We mentioned stomach migraines last week, as they are an example of the varied ways that migraine can affect different people. Stomach (or abdominal) migraines are most common in children, and generally cause gastric symptoms like nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite.

Migraines on a spectrum

One of the reasons migraines are so hard to treat is the variety of ways they affect different people. As well as these (and many other) different types of migraine, people may experience the same type of migraine differently.

It is best to think of migraine as existing on a spectrum. Rather than a linear experience ranging from mild to severe, you might experience some symptoms only some of the time, or even never at all.

For help discovering which type of migraine affects you, speak to your doctor. They will talk through your symptoms and refer you for further tests if necessary. Next week, we will introduce some of the ways migraines can be treated and prevented.