Have you ever experienced a migraine? If so, you might recognize this description:
“It feels as if there is hammering and pounding in the head. Sound or talking is unbearable, as is light or glare.
The pain arises from hot, choleric fumes, together with windiness. And so one feels piercing, burning, and ringing.”
This might sound like a modern migraine sufferer describing their symptoms, but in reality, these words were written over 700 years ago.
They come from a 13th-century encyclopedia compiled by Franciscan monk Bartholomaeus Anglicus (Bartholomew the Englishman).
Migraines are one of the few medical conditions that have remained remarkably consistent throughout history.
The symptoms, triggers, and even the personal suffering attached to them are nearly identical to what we experience today.
But what’s changed is how seriously we take them. In many ways, past societies were more sympathetic and proactive in addressing migraines than we are now.
From Ancient Science to the Medieval Cure Cabinet
The first detailed medical classification of migraines can be traced back to Galen, the famed Roman physician (c. 129 to c. 216 CE).
He was the first to separate migraines—then called hemicrania—from other headaches, defining them as intense pain on one side of the head.
According to Galen, migraines were caused by vapors rising from the stomach, either too hot, too cold, or excessive in volume.
By the Middle Ages, medical scholars, such as the famous German abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), were elaborating on Galen’s theories.
Hildegard speculated that migraines struck only half of the head because, if the pain affected both hemispheres, it would be unbearable.
Even today, neurologists don’t have a definitive answer for why migraines often affect only one side of the brain.
During this era, migraines were seen as serious ailments.
Treatments were sophisticated for the time, and medieval and early modern recipe books contained detailed instructions for remedies. J
ane Jackson’s 1642 recipe book, for example, includes six separate treatments for migraines, ranging from simple herbal poultices to elaborate medicinal brews requiring months of preparation.
Some of these treatments were likely placebos, but others involved ingredients—such as feverfew and willow bark—that modern medicine has recognized as having analgesic properties.
The Moment Migraine Lost Its Legitimacy
If migraines were taken so seriously in the past, why do so many sufferers today struggle for recognition and treatment?
When did we stop viewing migraines as a debilitating medical condition and start treating them as an exaggerated complaint?
The turning point seems to have occurred in the 18th century.
Migraines became associated with upper-class women, leading to the stereotype of the delicate, swooning lady with a sick headache.
This shift is evident in satirical references, such as an 1782 masquerade character named Le Sieur Francois de Migraine, Docteur en Medicine and an 1787 news article that mocked fashionable Parisian women for claiming to have migraines to avoid social engagements.
By the 19th century, medical texts reinforced this trivialization.
Migraines were described as a condition affecting fragile, overly sensitive individuals—particularly women.
Doctors referred to female migraine sufferers as “martyrs,” suggesting that they brought their suffering upon themselves through weak constitutions and nervous dispositions.
This dismissive attitude continues to affect how migraines are perceived today.
More Than Just a Headache
Today, science confirms that migraines are not imaginary, nor are they just bad headaches.
They are complex neurological disorders involving sensory overload, nervous system dysfunction, and vascular changes in the brain.
Despite this, funding for migraine research remains disproportionately low.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), migraines are the sixth leading cause of disability worldwide.
Yet, headache disorders receive significantly less research funding than conditions with comparable impacts, such as epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease.
This underfunding and dismissal of migraines as a women’s ailment or a minor inconvenience is what sociologist Joanna Kempner refers to as migraine’s legitimacy deficit.
How Sufferers Speak Through Images
In the 1980s, thousands of migraine sufferers participated in four international art competitions designed to visually depict their pain.
The resulting collection of over 500 pieces, now archived by the charity Migraine Action, reveals something remarkable: the same symbols—arrows, hammers, blinding light, intense pressure—appear repeatedly in the artwork, echoing descriptions from medieval physicians and poets.
For instance, 15th-century Scottish poet William Dunbar wrote about his migraines using imagery that still resonates today:
“My brow is pierced by an arrow. My head is dulled in dullness, my body unrefreshed, my spirit asleep.”
Centuries later, modern migraine sufferers still describe their pain using almost identical words.
The consistency in migraine descriptions across history underscores a troubling fact: while our understanding of the condition has improved, societal attitudes toward sufferers have regressed.
What Needs to Change?
The history of migraines offers a crucial lesson: this condition was once recognized as serious and debilitating, and it should be again.
Migraines affect nearly 1 in 7 people, and two-thirds of those affected are women.
Despite this, many sufferers are dismissed by doctors, employers, and even friends and family.
Treatment is often inadequate, with many patients going undiagnosed for years.
There is hope. Awareness is growing, and new treatments—such as CGRP inhibitors—are proving more effective than previous medications.
However, for real progress, migraines must be treated as a legitimate, disabling neurological disorder, not a mere inconvenience.
It’s time to undo centuries of dismissal and take migraines as seriously as Galen did nearly 2,000 years ago.
