If you live with migraine, you already know it is not "just a headache". It is hours or days lost, light and noise that feel like an assault, and a diary quietly rearranged around attacks you cannot predict. When painkillers stop working and tablets taken every day still leave you losing half the month, the next question most people ask is about migraine injections — and whether they genuinely help or are simply the latest expensive idea.
Here is a clear, honest explanation from our medical team in Birmingham: what these injections are, who they are actually for, what a session involves, and what results are realistic.
What Are Migraine Injections?
"Migraine injections" is a broad term, and it helps to separate two very different things.
Preventive injections
These are given on a schedule to reduce how often migraines happen — not to stop an attack that has already started. The best established of these is botulinum toxin (Botox®), which is approved by NICE for chronic migraine. It is injected into a set pattern of small sites across the forehead, temples, back of the head, neck and shoulders, and is repeated roughly every 12 weeks.
Acute (rescue) treatments
These are taken or injected to treat an attack in progress — triptans, anti-sickness medication and similar. They serve a completely different purpose. Preventive injections are for people whose problem is the sheer frequency of attacks, not just their severity.
In short: preventive migraine injections are a frequency treatment. Success looks like fewer headache days each month and less reliance on painkillers — not the complete disappearance of migraine.
How Does Botox Work for Migraine?
It is worth saying plainly: this is not a cosmetic treatment used off-label for a bit of a lift. The migraine protocol uses different sites, a different pattern and a different purpose from anti-wrinkle work.
Botulinum toxin blocks the release of chemical messengers at nerve endings. In migraine, the working theory is that it dampens the pain signalling of the trigeminal nerve pathways involved in migraine, making the nervous system less quick to fire off an attack. Effectively, it raises the threshold — so triggers that would previously have started an attack sometimes no longer do.
Because it works on prevention rather than pain relief, it takes time. It does nothing for a migraine you already have today.
Who Actually Qualifies?
This treatment is not for everyone with headaches, and any clinic that says otherwise is not being straight with you. The recognised criteria for chronic migraine are:
- 15 or more headache days per month, with at least 8 of those being migraine days
- Symptoms present for three months or more
- You have already tried two or more preventive medications without adequate relief
We also see people who are stuck in a medication-overuse cycle — where frequent painkiller use is itself driving rebound headaches — and people who simply cannot get timely access to NHS neurology. If your migraines are frequent but you have not yet tried oral preventives, our doctor will usually recommend starting there first. It is the sensible order, and it is cheaper for you.
What Happens at an Appointment?
1. Consultation
Your doctor takes a detailed history, reviews your headache diary and any previous treatments, and confirms the diagnosis before recommending anything. Bring dates, frequency and what medication you have taken — a rough diary is far more useful than a perfect memory.
2. Treatment planning
You agree a personalised plan together: number of injection sites, dosage and schedule, tailored to your migraine pattern.
3. The injection session
The injections themselves take around 20 minutes. A very fine needle is used across multiple sites in the head and neck. Most people describe it as a brief sting rather than pain, and there is no anaesthetic or downtime — you can drive home and return to work the same day.
4. Review and repeat
You are reviewed at 10 to 12 weeks to assess how you responded, and treatment repeats on that cycle. Most people need two to three cycles before they see the full benefit, which is why judging the treatment on one session is a mistake.
What Results Are Realistic?
Many patients who respond well see a 50% or greater reduction in migraine days. For someone losing 18 days a month, that is a genuinely different life — but notice what it is not. It is not a cure, and it is not zero migraines.
Some people respond strongly, some partially, and some not at all. That is a normal distribution for any preventive treatment, and an honest clinician will tell you before you start rather than after. If two to three cycles produce nothing, the right answer is to stop and look at other options, not to keep going.
Side effects to know about
- Mild soreness, redness or small bruises at the injection sites
- Temporary neck stiffness or a mild headache in the first day or two
- Rarely, temporary eyelid or brow droop, which resolves as the effect wears off
Your doctor will go through your full medical history, medications and any contraindications at consultation — including pregnancy, breastfeeding and certain neuromuscular conditions.
Our Clinical Verdict
Preventive migraine injections are a well-evidenced, NICE-approved option for chronic migraine — and for the right patient they can transform the month. They are not a cure, they will not help an attack already underway, and they need two to three cycles before you judge them fairly. If you are having 15 or more headache days a month and oral preventives have not worked, they are absolutely worth a consultation. If you are having occasional migraines, start elsewhere.
What Does It Cost in Birmingham?
At The Yardley Clinic our pricing is straightforward:
- Migraine injection treatment: from £250 per session (pricing depends on the number of injection sites)
- Initial consultation: £99 — deducted from your first treatment
- Treatment is delivered by a GMC-registered specialist doctor, not a general practitioner
Because treatment runs on a roughly 12-week cycle, it helps to plan for the year rather than the single appointment. Full details are on our migraine injections page, and wider options for headache and nerve pain are covered under pain management.
Book a Consultation
If migraines are dictating your calendar, the useful first step is a proper assessment — a doctor reviewing your history, your headache diary and your previous treatments, and telling you honestly whether injections are the right route for you or whether something else should come first. There is no referral needed and no waiting list, and because we are open seven days a week, 9am until 11pm, appointments fit around work rather than replacing a day of it.
Call us on 0121 752 3300, message us on WhatsApp, or book online below.
This article is general information, not medical advice. Suitability for any treatment is determined at a clinical consultation with a GMC-registered doctor.