How to Get Your GP to Look Beyond "It's Just a Headache"

Last reviewed: September 27, 2026 · Next review: September 27, 2027

Reviewed for accuracy and sourcing by Lex Darrow, Lead Editor. This is an editorial review, not a medical review — see our Editorial Policy for details.

For most people, the first conversation about migraine doesn't happen with a neurologist — it happens with a general practitioner, often during a routine visit, describing something that sounds, on the surface, like an ordinary headache. GPs see headache complaints constantly, and most of the time, they genuinely are what they sound like: tension, dehydration, eye strain, a rough week. The problem is that migraine can quietly get filed into that same category unless it's described in a way that signals something different is actually going on.

This isn't about GPs missing something obvious, or patients failing to explain themselves. It's a structural gap — a short appointment window, a symptom that's extremely common as a complaint, and a patient who's often underselling just how disruptive their attacks really are, because by the time they're sitting in the exam room, the worst of it has usually passed.

What Actually Separates Migraine From "Just a Headache"

A tension headache typically produces mild-to-moderate pressure on both sides of the head, and it doesn't usually stop someone in their tracks. Migraine tends to look different: pain that's often one-sided, throbbing or pulsating rather than pressing, that gets worse with routine movement, and that frequently comes with nausea, sensitivity to light or sound, or — for some people — visual disturbances before the pain even starts.

None of this is a formal diagnosis, and it isn't meant to replace one. But naming these specific features out loud, clearly, is often what shifts a conversation from "I get headaches sometimes" to "this might actually be migraine" — and that shift matters, because it's usually what prompts a GP to look closer or consider a referral.

Before Your Appointment — Questions to Ask Yourself

These are meant as a starting point, not a complete list — the goal is to get you thinking specifically about your own pattern, not to answer every question here word-for-word. Everyone's migraine looks a little different, so the most useful questions are often the ones you come up with yourself once you start paying attention.

A few to get started:

• How many days a month does this happen?
• Does it ever come with visual changes — flashing lights, blind spots, zigzag lines?
• Is it usually one side of your head, or does it move?
• Do you have to stop what you're doing, or can you push through it?
• Does anything reliably set it off — certain foods, poor sleep, hormonal timing, stress?
• Has anyone in your family dealt with something similar?

As you think through your own answers, other questions specific to your situation will probably come up too — write those down as well. The more specific you can be about your own experience, the more useful the conversation with your GP becomes.

Questions to Ask Your GP Directly

Once you've thought through your own pattern, it's worth asking your GP a few direct questions — not to challenge them, but to make sure the possibility of migraine is genuinely on the table:

• "Does this sound like it could be migraine, rather than a tension headache?"
• "Would it make sense to see a neurologist or headache specialist about this?"
• "Is there a reason not to try a migraine-specific treatment before referring me?"
• "What would make this urgent enough to refer now, rather than wait and see?"

These questions aren't meant to be interrogating — they're meant to make sure the conversation doesn't quietly end at "try some ibuprofen and see how it goes" when something more specific might actually help.

Why This Conversation Sometimes Doesn't Go Anywhere

It's worth understanding why migraine can slip through the cracks at a primary care visit, and it's rarely about a GP not caring. Headache is one of the most common complaints in primary care, appointment windows are short, and migraine's most disabling features — the nausea, the light sensitivity, the hours spent unable to function — often aren't visible in the fifteen minutes a patient spends describing it after the fact. Without a specific pattern described clearly, "headaches" can look routine even when it isn't.

Bringing Data Changes the Conversation

A GP working from "I get headaches sometimes" has very little to act on. A GP working from "twelve attacks this month, each lasting six or more hours, always one-sided, always with light sensitivity" is looking at something concrete — a pattern that's much harder to file away as routine.

This is exactly the kind of detail a consistent tracking habit captures automatically. Free accounts can export a complete history — dates, severity, symptoms, and more — as a PDF or CSV straight from Settings, filtered to whatever date range you need. That alone is often enough to bring real data to even a first GP visit, no upgrade required.

Migraine affects veterans and civilians alike — it doesn't discriminate by background, and getting it properly recognized matters the same way for everyone living with it.