What type of migraine do i have

Now this one might you do a double-take. Interestingly, the American Migraine Foundation notes that migraines without headaches become more likely as you get older. Main symptom: stomach pain instead of a headache.

Yep, you read that right—abdominal. Sometimes, instead of a headache, a migraine can cause extreme pain in your abdomen. The ICHD-3 lists it as a condition that might be associated with migraines.

According to the American Migraine Foundation , abdominal migraines cause pain near the belly button, and can also make you feel nauseous, give you no appetite, cause vomiting, and make you look pale. Yale Medicine notes that, just like common migraines, abdominal migraines can be triggered by things like stress , bright lights, and food additives like monosodium glutamate MSG.

Main symptoms: a migraine that that lasts more than 72 hours. Status migrainosus is basically a migraine with or without aura that lasts longer than the standard max of 72 hours. The ICHD-3 recognizes status migrainosus, and points out that overusing migraine medications could be a likely cause.

The National Headache Foundation points out other triggers can bring them on too, however, like:. Status migrainosus can be extremely frustrating, to put it mildly. Other common types of headaches are:. Tension headaches are the most common headaches for adults. Cluster headaches cause extreme head pain, but, unlike migraines, they appear up to eight times per day in bursts or clusters of weeks or months and feel more like stabbing pain , than throbbing.

Sinus headaches are caused by a sinus infection and are rare. The National Headache Foundation notes that people often think they have sinus headaches when they actually have migraines.

According to the American Migraine Foundation , post-traumatic headaches happen after a traumatic injury, and can cause symptoms that mimic migraines, like severe throbbing pain that gets worse if you move around, nausea and vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound. As the American Migraine Foundation reports, new daily persistent headaches are what they sound like—headaches that suddenly begin to pop up every day, keeping you in pain for over three months, reports.

If you have painful, recurring headaches, you know one thing: You want them to go away. The information provided in this article is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

You should not rely upon the content provided in this article for specific medical advice. If you have any questions or concerns, please talk to your doctor. Photo by Hamish Duncan on Unsplash. Sara Crystal, MD. Neurologist, Cove Medical Director. Our offering. Cove Employer Program. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. A migraine is not just a really bad headache, as some people believe. Instead, it is an illness with a constellation of neurological symptoms that may include really bad headaches.

There are several types of migraines, and many share some of the same symptoms , which typically include nausea , vomiting, dizziness, sensitivity to touch, smells, and light, and—in a few people—numbness and difficulties with speech.

Migraine without aura is often called "common migraine" or "episodic migraine. Typical symptoms are a pulsating headache of moderate-to-severe intensity on one side of the head, aggravation by routine physical activity, nausea, and sensitivity to light photophobia and sound phonophobia. According to the International Classification of Headache Disorders , an individual must have at least five attacks per year to be diagnosed with migraine without aura.

Migraine impacts more than 37 million men, women, and children in the United States. The World Health Organization considers migraine one of the 10 most disabling illnesses. The term aura refers to various symptoms that start approximately 30 minutes or so before the headache begins.

Aura can sometimes include loss of the ability to speak, sensory disturbances e. Migraine with aura is less common than migraine without. When migraines occur 15 or more days per month over a period of three months or more, the condition is called chronic, or transformed, migraine.

Over time people with episodic migraine may develop more and more headaches for various reasons, including changes in hormones, increased stress, illness, or an increase in the use of pain medications. Having more headaches decreases the threshold for new headaches, and the condition can become chronic and less responsive to medication.

An abdominal migraine is a form of migraine seen mainly in children most commonly those ages 5 to 9 , but it can occur in adults as well. Symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. This is one type of migraine that usually doesn't involve a headache, although children who have abdominal migraines often have migraines involving head pain when they're older. Simply put, an acephalgic or "silent" migraine is a migraine with many classic migraine symptoms, minus the characteristic headache.

It's possible for some or all of your migraine attacks to manifest this way. The most common symptoms of silent migraines are vision problems and alterations in color perception.

Silent migraines are more common in people over 50 and are sometimes misdiagnosed as a stroke. Formerly called basilar-type migraine, migraine with brainstem aura has symptoms that can be confused with those of a stroke, such as slurred speech, vertigo, unsteadiness, and numbness. As with migraine with aura, these symptoms come on gradually before the head pain of a migraine. This type of migraine isn't common and seems to occur most frequently in adolescent girls.

Hemiplegic migraine is a rare form of a migraine that causes weakness on one side of the body, possibly accompanied by confusion or speech slurring. One subtype of a hemiplegic migraine runs in families, but you can have the condition without a family history. This is a rare form of migraine aura that causes distortions in perception. Someone with this condition might feel as if her body is getting smaller, then larger, or might find that time seems to speed up or slow down.

Children experience this syndrome more than adults, but it can occur in people of any age. A retinal migraine causes flashes or sparkles of light, possibly combined with partial or total temporary blindness, but only in one eye.

The head pain generally commences within an hour of these visual symptoms and can last up to three days. To diagnose a retinal migraine, your physician must rule out other possible blindness causes. Status migrainosus is a painful, debilitating migraine attack lasting for more than 72 hours.

If moderate to severe migraine pain lasts longer than this with less than a solid four-hour pain-free period while awake, it should be considered an emergency and warrants a trip to the emergency room. Other symptoms include tingling or a "pins-and-needles" feeling. Other types of migraine headache include: Menstrual migraine. Many women have migraines around their menstrual cycle. These occur a few days before, during, or right after their period.

The symptoms are the same as those of common or classic migraines. Migraine equivalent. Migraine equivalent is a migraine aura that is not followed by a headache. This form of migraine often happens after age 50 if you had migraines with aura when you were younger. The symptoms may include streaks or points of light moving across your field of vision. Complicated migraine.

These are migraines that cause symptoms such as numbness and tingling, trouble speaking or understanding speech, or not being able to move an arm or leg. These symptoms go on after the headache goes away. Abdominal migraine.