Important medical disclaimer
Educational tools only — not medical care
Migraine Trail is not a healthcare provider, medical service, or medical device. These tools use information you enter and simplified educational rules. They may be incomplete or wrong and cannot examine you.
- Results do not diagnose, rule out, confirm, or predict any disease, headache type, trigger, emergency, or personal medical risk.
- Do not start, stop, combine, delay, or change a medicine or treatment—and do not delay professional care—because of a result.
- Labels such as “pattern,” “alignment,” “score,” “threshold,” “risk,” or “urgency” are educational summaries, not clinical findings or probabilities.
Discuss symptoms and decisions with a licensed healthcare professional who knows your history. For a child, involve a parent or guardian and an appropriate pediatric clinician.
If symptoms may be an emergency, stop using this site. Call your local emergency number or seek emergency care now. Never wait for or rely on a tool result.
Headache & Migraine Red-Flag Urgency Checker
Review warning signs that may call for emergency care or prompt same-day assessment. This cannot diagnose a headache or rule out serious causes.
If symptoms feel like an emergency, stop here.
Call your local emergency number now for a sudden worst-ever headache, new weakness or speech difficulty, seizure, fainting, severe confusion, or rapidly worsening illness. Do not delay care to complete this checklist.
Make the usual pattern easier to recognize
Migraine Trail records timing, symptoms, treatments, and recovery so a new or distinctly different attack is easier to describe to a clinician.
Why a familiar migraine history does not cancel red flags
People with migraine can still develop unrelated urgent conditions. The important comparison is whether the onset, neurological symptoms, systemic illness, injury context, eye findings, pregnancy context, or overall pattern is new or meaningfully different.
Onset
A severe headache that peaks within a minute or a few minutes needs emergency evaluation when first or unfamiliar.
New neurological change
New weakness, speech difficulty, vision change, confusion, or balance trouble should not be assumed to be migraine.
Context
Fever, injury, pregnancy/postpartum status, immune compromise, cancer history, and a painful red eye change the urgency.
Urgency references
Frequently asked questions
What is a thunderclap headache?
It is a severe headache that reaches maximum intensity very quickly—often within one minute. A first or unfamiliar thunderclap headache needs emergency evaluation.
What if neurological symptoms usually happen with my aura?
Follow the emergency plan previously agreed with your clinician for a confirmed usual aura pattern. Go to emergency care when symptoms are first-time, sudden, distinctly different, much longer than usual, or include new weakness, speech, vision, consciousness, or walking changes.
Why is a headache beyond 72 hours in the same-day group?
A prolonged migraine needs prompt medical advice. Emergency care takes priority when it is debilitating, fluids cannot be kept down, consciousness or neurological symptoms change, or another emergency warning sign is present.
Does selecting nothing mean I can stay home?
No. This tool cannot examine you, measure vital signs, or include every cause. Trust concern about a new, severe, worsening, or unusual headache and contact a medical professional.
Attack Duration Calculator
Measure the headache phase and 72-hour boundary.
Aura Pattern Checker
Compare aura timing after urgent causes are addressed.
Status Migrainosus Guide
Learn about migraine continuing beyond 72 hours.
Private by design: selections stay in this browser and are not sent to us. Privacy does not replace medical care when warning signs are present.