I’m a medical student, hoping to become a GP, and my own experience of migraine has sparked a passion to improve healthcare experiences for other people like me.

“Frequent headaches were assumed to be stress related, but I didn’t feel I was truly being listened to”

In January 2021, during my first year of my medical degree, and in the midst of another Covid19 lockdown, I began to experience frequent headaches. As they increased to every other day, or at times daily, I arranged to speak to my GP. Initially, that doctor assumed it was stress, but I didn’t feel that I was truly being listened to. After keeping a headache diary, I started to recognise patterns, including that the headaches were on the right side of my head. It was then that I saw another GP, was diagnosed with migraine and began treatment.

For me, I often become aware that a migraine is starting with a feeling that the world around me is ‘lagging’, and sometimes I will notice a change in my perception of shapes and sizes, similar to Alice In Wonderland Syndrome.

Even before I started to experience migraine, my mental health was not great following moving away from home for the first time, during the pandemic when I couldn’t socialize or build a support network. With migraine added to the equation, I became really quite isolated. I was so tired all the time, and all my energy went into trying to keep up with my medical degree. I didn’t join any societies at university, I didn’t go out to parties, I missed so much. I had one friend that I lived with who truly was a lifeline in supporting me, without her I really would have felt alone.

As I moved into my second and third years of university, migraine impacted me a lot. It stopped me attending my lectures (or I would attend online remotely only to get straight back into bed after, just depleted). I would push myself to keep going to placement, which involved early starts, long days and commutes, and it took its toll.

I was prescribed different migraine treatments, including preventives but unfortunately one in particular had a really negative impact on my mental health, which was already poor at that point.

In January 2023 I attended neurology after an urgent referral and spoke about treatment options, including CGRPs. I was initially so disappointed when I received a letter saying I was not going to be prescribed CGRPs after all, with no clear explanation as to why. After a process of trial and error, I now have a treatment plan that works well for me and has made a big difference to the frequency of my migraine attacks.

I know the difference that good migraine care makes, and it’s why I am so passionate about raising awareness

Being in medical school, with the aim of becoming a GP myself, while having my own experience of migraine has really opened my eyes. It has made me aware of how migraine is taught – I had one lecture on headache, of which just two slides were about migraine!

It was actually a friend of mine who was taking a neurology module who first told me about supplements for migraine that are evidence-backed, otherwise I wouldn’t have known about them.

I remember one time, while on placement, I was struggling with a really bad migraine attack. I actually had to lie down and sleep, I was so ill. Initially I did worry that others wouldn’t understand but when I woke up, everyone rallied around, asking if I needed painkillers, water or anything to eat.

I know the difference that good migraine care makes, and it’s why I am so passionate about raising awareness. In third year when studying neurology in more depth, friends on the course would ask for my help when revising and I’ve even given my own patient history to try to help them. I’ve also done a lot of reading on migraine, even referring others to resources from The Migraine Trust and challenging any misconceptions of migraine that I hear in healthcare settings.

I’ve progressed in medical school to the point where I feel confident advocating for myself now. I have access to the British Medical Journal, and other key sources of information, and know how to navigate them. But I am aware that many don’t have that privilege, and the lack of information about migraine really contributes to inequity of migraine care. While the education about migraine needs to be improved, my peers who are studying medicine are very receptive to understanding more about migraine, and that makes me more hopeful about the future of the NHS.