One Sided Migraine Pain and Symptoms

Although migraines may cause pain all over the head, often the pain starts or is concentrated on one side of your head causing a one sided migraine. Doctors refer to pain on one side of the head as unilateral pain, and when the pain is on both sides it is called bilateral pain. Interestingly enough the word ‘migraine‘, make sure to brush up on your Latin terms for head – which is cranium.  The Latin word for migraine is ‘hemicrania‘, which means pain on one side of the head.

For a very long time (all the way back to when the Latin language was the primary mode of communication), migraine sufferers have described one sided migraine pain – attacks that occur only on one side, and it is frequently a headache on the left side of the head.

Left or Right Sided Migraine Sufferers

From a medical study perspective, the majority of patients (more than 58% of 4,000 studied migriane patients) report that migraines begin on one side, a smaller portion of patients feel pain and migraine symptoms on both sides of their head, and the fewest number of patients have migraine symptoms that cover their entire head.

Studies have gone on to test these different forms of migraines, and have seen that when a migraine is unilateral (one sided migraine pain), the pain will not cross the midline/center line of your head. Your pain may also be localized in a small or even large area of one side of the head. There are a wide variety of migraine pain theories addressing one sided migraine pain – but the research in this area is not very complete.

For now, assuming the one sided migraine pain is affecting your day-to-day tasks, realize you’re not alone.  Since the majority of migraine sufferers have this one-sided migraine, you’re in good hands as this is the most common migraine symptoms that doctors and neurologists see in their practices.

If you are suffering from one sided migraine pain and other symptoms, make sure to read up on our migraine basics, as well as the migraine treatments to help relieve you of your pain.