Why on one side of the head?

Does anyone know why most (but not all) migraines tend to be on one side of the head? Mine have historically been bilateral, but today I am fighting one off that is just behind my left eyeball. And the headache is only on the left side which is not usual for me. I have never heard why this is.

Dunno ... 95% of mine are on one side also whatever the type I'm getting is. Lately tends to be on the right with occasional stray lefties...

Mine start in back, and often in eyes. Settle in one side or other usually within an hour or so.
Used to be mainly right side, but lately it is left.
Triptan, if it is on left, moves it to right.
It will never go away from left, has to move to right first....
How weird is that?

P

98% of all my migraines are always on the right side. I find it strange but then what about this makes sense?!

My usual ones are on the left. When they move to the right, watch out. When they go all over the head, usually a trip to the ER. Such a strange disease.
Cindy

One sided headache has always been the hallmark for migraine dx. But docs are realizing it isn't true for everyone. Used to be the doc would ask where your head hurts and if it wasn't on one side you were having a stress headache.

If I have a severe enough one it will hurt more on one side but also migrate around. But you can't say that in the ER. That is curious why it is usually on one side. Mine are 90% on the right side and if I get one on the left it is harder to treat and has , for lack of a better word an ackward feeling. I don't know why. I'm right handed and it is like trying to write with my left hand kind of feeling. I don't know if this makes any sense to anyone.
kathy

I think the good doc here needs to explain this to us. I don't remmember this being talked about before.

Ironrobb are you there?
kathy

We did a survey on this topic on the old Ronda's. I will see if I can find it in the archives. Well, unfortunately the search engine on the old forum only goes back 1 year. I'm sure the survey was before that. It is possible to search through all of the archived messages. But without a search function, it would mean slogging through all of the messages. That would be very time consuming and I just can't do it right now. Too, bad. I think you would find it interesting.

I suppose we could do a new survey, if anyone is interested enough.


Chris

This is a very strange thing about migraines. I just can't think what the physiological cause of it would be. If it was in the same place for everyone, that might indicate a specific region of the brain was involved. But that it's different sides for different people, or even for the same person at different times is really odd when you think about it. I also have the pain 'move around' over the course if a day. Maybe there's a gremlin moving about in my head. Makes as much sense as anything else.

that is one of the definitions of migraine a one sided sick headache. it does affect one side at a time and can move from one to the other affecting the stomach so the pt feels sick as the stomach doesnt empty when youre having a migraine.

Mine one sided, usually on right side. During one that I am unable to abort can expand to my whole head.