Migraines are two to three times more common in women than in men, and they’re estimated to impact around a quarter of women. But new research reveals that two-thirds of women who experience migraines have not had any treatment. In the Ipsos survey of 1,000 women commissioned by health firm Organon, a third of respondents also said they did not feel their migraines were taken seriously.
Here, Claudia Draper, 21, from Kings Lynn, shares how she struggled to get support from her employers while suffering severe migraines and was forced to go private after struggling to get a diagnosis on the NHS.
I was about 10 years old when I first started getting migraines. As well as having a pounding headache around my temples, I’d get a radiating pain at the back of my head. I’d feel really nauseous and sometimes I’d actually be sick. This happened about twice a month and would last for two or three days. I took over-the-counter painkillers and anti-inflammatories, tried hot and cold compresses, all sorts of different things, but they didn’t help.
When I was 15, I went through a very stressful stage of my life. In 2020, I lost my dad to heart disease and the pandemic lockdowns started, which really exacerbated my headaches because I didn’t have as much distraction in my life.
I left school at 16 and tried working in an ice cream parlour and a fast food restaurant, but the shift patterns triggered my migraines too much. My next job, as a lifeguard in a holiday centre spa, was even worse, because my commute was an hour-long drive – travel is a massive trigger for me – and in a spa you’ve got all the chemical smells, chlorine and heat. I kept calling in sick because I’d be driving to work, then I’d be sick over my steering wheel and have to turn around and go home, but I didn’t want to quit because I had bills to pay.
At that company, employees are allowed to call in sick three times, after which there has to be an investigation, and you’re at risk of losing your job if you can’t prove that you are genuinely ill. The second time this happened, after three years working there, the deputy spa manager called me into a meeting and asked if I had a letter from the doctor as proof of my migraines. I told her that I’d been on the waiting list to see a consultant, and had evidence of eight doctors’ appointments I’d had in the last few months. “How do we know these are for your headaches? How do we know you’re not just making this up?” she asked. She knew I’d been physically sick at work multiple times, and when I pointed this out, she said, “Are you going out drinking on the weekend?”
I was shocked that she would suggest I was hungover or lying when I’d regularly forced myself to go into work on day three of a migraine so bad I could hardly see. I felt my health problems were being completely dismissed. I was so overwhelmed that I went home and decided to hand in my notice. I was at breaking point, mentally and physically, and couldn’t cope anymore.
When I had initially gone to my GP a few years before, they thought my migraines were hormone-related, so I tried several different contraceptive pills and coils, but none of them helped. Next, I was prescribed a migraine medication called sumatriptan, but that didn’t lessen the pain either. I was very anxious at this point because I was having migraines almost every day. “Please listen to me,” I said to the GP, who agreed to refer me to a consultant for further investigation.
When I finally got to see the consultant after a year on the waiting list, she prescribed me sumatriptan again. “I’ve already tried this, and it doesn’t work,” I told her, but she didn’t listen and discharged me back to my GP anyway.
My mum was really angry, so she went back with me to the doctor and asked for me to be referred for an MRI in case my migraines were caused by something more serious (my younger sister had had a brain tumour when she was six years old, but thankfully made a full recovery). The MRI results came back with the all-clear, so the doctor said they’d refer me to the consultant again, but that it would be another year-long wait.
‘When I finally got to see the consultant after a year on the waiting list, she prescribed me sumatriptan again,’ says ClaudiaI couldn’t face the thought of 12 more months of daily migraines and taking so many painkillers (they were really taking a toll on my stomach by this point), so in January 2026 I decided to go private, paying £358 for an hour-long appointment with a consultant.
“You’ve got chronic migraines; there’s no other explanation,” he said. I was devastated because I thought that meant I would have them for the rest of my life, but then the consultant told me he would write to my GP with three medications I could try instead of sumatriptan, and if those didn’t work, he would refer me to a hospital for specialist treatment. Hearing that, I went from tears of sadness to relief.
I started with the beta-blocker propranolol, which I had to stop immediately because it messed with my heart rate, then tried candesartan, which was originally used as a blood pressure medication. Since then, my migraines have really improved. Before, I had a migraine for at least 27 days of each month, but now it’s probably only three or four, and they don’t last more than a day.
Getting the right medication has been life-changing. Figuring out my triggers – travel, heat and lack of sleep are the big three — has really helped too. After my dad died and my migraines became more frequent and severe, I lost all my motivation, and being in a toxic work environment where it felt like no one believed me made my headaches even worse, but now I feel positive about the future.
Two years ago I met my boyfriend, Lewis, who has been so supportive, and I’m now doing a history degree at Anglia Ruskin University, which I love. I’ve also got a part-time job at a coffee shop five minutes from my house, where my boss is fantastic and really understanding of my migraines.
To anyone else who’s struggling with migraines, remember that you’re not alone. You shouldn’t have to feel like you’re weak or complaining for no reason, especially at work. Don’t let what other people say determine how you act. That stopped me from speaking up for a long time, and my mental health suffered as a result. Don’t let your life get to that point – it’s not worth it.
The Migraine Trust provides support and information for people affected by migraine. Find out more at migrainetrust.org
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