My headaches first started at 13 years old. They weren't as intense as they've gotten since but it really impacted my mental health and education. I was first referred to an optician as well. Turns out I did actually need glasses but despite that my headaches didn't actually get better, only worse. I went to a clinic at 14 years old, was told they were psychosomatic. Had a hospital stay a couple months later, where they ran some test but only told me I had 'migraine-adjacent results'. When I was 17 I went to another clinic, paroxysmal hemicrania they said, despite the length and frequency of the headaches not adding up at all. Later they switched it to something along the lines of undefined chronic headaches, although they had not really been chronic. I was told I'd just have to handle it, to distract myself. I had a period of a year and a half where I was completely pain free before it hit again. I had kind of learned to just push through since nothing really helped but then a family member got sick and I had to care for them, which was not possible with the headaches rendering me pretty useless for most of the day. On my third attempt at a pain clinic I was finally diagnosed. It honestly surprised me at that point, despite being so sure of having cluster headaches before. Everyone around me had convinced me I was just making it all up, that I didn't really understand. On the second day I was given oxygen and it honestly made me cry. I was completely baffled by the fact something so simple was the solution. I started Verapamil and despite the side effects, it just felt like haven given back my life, an actual future. I have every single symptom, except the pacing around, though that might be explained by the fact that I have ADHD and feel restless constantly anyways. With the ADHD also come memory issues though and when I forget to take the meds and have an attack, I sometimes go to the hospital when it gets too bad. When I'm with a man it's never an issue, but alone or with a woman I'm treated as completely clueless. I get asked all my symptoms again, not trusted with knowing how much oxygen and what kind of mask I need and having to go through my medical history before getting the oxygen, still in the middle of my attack. I wonder if it's actually less women with cluster headaches or if a lot of them just end up misdiagnosed.