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Headache HubMigraine

Migraine: symptoms, criteria, and tracking

Migraine is the most common disabling primary headache disorder. This guide explains what it feels like, the ICHD-3 criteria specialists use, and how tracking your own pattern with Ember sharpens the conversation with your doctor.

  • ICHD-3 category 1
  • 14.4% global prevalence
  • Attacks last 4 to 72 hours
  • About three times more common in women
Start with EmberSee the ICHD-3 criteria

The basics

What is migraine?

Migraine is a primary headache disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of moderate to severe throbbing head pain, typically affecting one side of the head. Under the ICHD-3 criteria, attacks are accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or sensitivity to light and sound, and they significantly disrupt daily activities.

Key characteristics

  • Throbbing or pulsating pain quality
  • Unilateral location (one-sided pain)
  • Moderate to severe pain intensity
  • Aggravated by routine physical activity

Prevalence and demographics

Global prevalence
14.4% of people
Gender ratio
About 3:1 women to men
Typical onset
Adolescence to the 40s
Peak prevalence
35 to 39 years

Common triggers and risk factors

  • Family history
  • Hormonal changes
  • Stress
  • Sleep disturbances

Triggers differ from person to person. Tracking attacks alongside sleep, stress, and hormonal changes is how your own pattern emerges.

Prevalence figures reflect published epidemiological literature.

The clinical standard

ICHD-3 diagnostic criteria for migraine

The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition, defines migraine without aura (code 1.1) by four criteria. Specialists check each one against your history.

  1. Criterion A

    At least 5 attacks

    Fulfilling criteria B through D.

  2. Criterion B

    Duration of 4 to 72 hours

    When untreated or unsuccessfully treated.

  3. Criterion C

    At least two pain characteristics

    Unilateral location, pulsating quality, moderate to severe intensity, or aggravation by routine physical activity.

  4. Criterion D

    At least one associated symptom

    Nausea or vomiting, or both photophobia and phonophobia.

How Ember fits the criteria

Describe attacks in your own words

No forms or tap-to-log grids. Tell Ember what the attack felt like and it captures the details the ICHD-3 criteria care about.

See your pattern over time

Frequency, duration, triggers, and medication response, tracked as they happen instead of reconstructed from memory.

Bring a structured history to your doctor

Your diary becomes an ICHD-3 aware summary, so the visit starts at the decision instead of the data gathering.

Ember helps you track and organize your headache history. It does not diagnose, and it never replaces evaluation by a clinician.

A note on warning signs: a headache that reaches maximum intensity within a minute, a new headache with fever, weakness, confusion, or vision loss, or the worst headache of your life warrants immediate medical care, not an online guide.

Subtypes

Migraine subtypes and their guides

Migraine is a family of conditions. Two subtype guides are live today, and two more are being written.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Compare

Related headache disorders

Not sure migraine is the right fit? These conditions are the most common look-alikes.

Next step

Know your migraine pattern

Reading is a start. Tracking with Ember turns your attacks into a history you and your doctor can act on.

Start with Ember