What kind of headaches am I having? Should I be worried?

I have been getting headaches for as long as I can remember, and for as long I can remember they have always been on the left side of my face above my eyebrow. They are most often debilitating... I'd miss school; now they cause me to miss work. I thought that they were migraines simply because the pain was more severe and localized  than how others describe their tension headaches. At one point I had an RX for Imitrex, but found they did not help my headaches. Other pills haven't helped either. The only thing that provides some comfort is to apply a lot of pressure right ont he spot where there is pain.

The pain as I said before is on the left side of my face above my eyebrow. It is a constant, throbbing pain. I can remember 2 instances in which these headaches caused nausea and vomiting, spaced over 10 years apart; but I typically do not get nauseated by these headaches.

For the past year or so, I had been virtually headache free, which I attribute to several accupuncture sessions. But recently they have returned.

My main concern is that recently with these headaches my left eye waters and my left nostril gets stuffy. I did some googling and the results were overwhelmingly related to cluster headaches. However, upon reading the other symptoms, cluster headaches did not seem to fit me. The pain of my headaches, while I would classify it as severe, is not unbearable to the point that I don't know what to do.

I typically get these headaches once a month, but that's not exclusive. It doesn't seem to be always at the time of my menstruation, but occasionally it will be.

Could this be a sinus thing? A different kind of cluster?

These things are also going on around my head, so I will mention them: I have had alopecia areata for about 2 years now, about 6 months ago I developed a small bump in the crease behind my ear lobe that seems to fluctuate in size, I suffer from TMJ disorder though recently (with aforementioned accupuncture) the pain has resided

Any speculation welcome...

Thanks

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi!
The area you describe can be called the temple area. Headaches and pain in temple area can be due migraine. Tension headaches due to stress too affect the temple area.
Temporal arteritis, internal ear infection, TMJ and tooth decay can all cause a temple pain.
Infection in the eye, glaucoma, near and far sightedness and sinusitis are the other causes.
Do discuss this with your doctor and get yourself examined. Take care!

[bccled]

I too have had similar headaches minus the watery eye & stuffiness. My husband had those exact symptoms and was dx'ed with cluster headaches. Mine cause the brow area to swell, you might try pinching and rolling the skin at the temple end of your brow and see if it hurts when you are experiencing one of your headaches.  When I do this it is super painful, from my research that could indicate the headache is of cervicogenic origin, I've yet to discover the remedy but ruling out a cause may be helpful to you. :-)