How do I export my migraine history as a PDF?

In Dim, open your history and tap export — the app compiles your full diary into a doctor-ready PDF you can print, AirDrop, or send to a patient portal. A CSV export is also available if you or your clinician prefer working in a spreadsheet.

Why do doctors prefer a PDF summary over looking at the app?

A consultation is short, and scrolling someone else's phone is slow, awkward, and impossible to file. A one- or two-page summary can be scanned in under a minute, annotated, and attached to your medical record — the app screen can't.

What should a migraine history export include?

At minimum: headache days per month, attack count, typical duration and severity, medication days, and accompanying symptoms. A good export adds context patterns — sleep, weather, pressure — and a per-attack log for anyone who wants the detail.

Answers

How to export your migraine history as a PDF

If you track with Dim, it takes one tap: the app compiles your entire diary into a doctor-ready PDF you can print, AirDrop, or upload to a patient portal. Whatever tool you use, the goal is the same — months of entries condensed into a page or two a clinician can absorb in under a minute.

Updated August 2026 · 5 min read

Why doctors want a summary, not your phone

It's tempting to just hand your phone across the desk. In practice this fails for reasons that have nothing to do with your data's quality:

Time. A consultation gives the clinician a few minutes for history. Scrolling an unfamiliar app, entry by entry, consumes them; scanning a summary page takes thirty seconds.
Filing. Medical records are built from documents. A PDF can be attached to your chart and referred to at the next visit; a memory of your screen cannot.
Comparability. Treatment evaluation means comparing periods — this quarter versus last. That requires fixed documents from each visit, not a live app whose view changes.
Aggregates over anecdotes. The clinically decisive numbers — headache days per month, medication days per month — exist only when someone does the counting. A good export does that arithmetic; raw entries don't. Guidance such as the Mayo Clinic's overview of migraine diagnosis underlines how much of the process rests on this kind of history.

What a good export contains

A useful migraine report has two layers. The first page is the summary — the part most appointments never get past:

Headache days and attack count per month, over the period covered
Typical duration and severity, and how they're trending
Medication days per month — the number that flags medication-overuse risk
Most frequent accompanying symptoms (nausea, aura, light sensitivity)
Observed patterns: cycle-linked timing, sleep disruption before attacks, weather and pressure correlation

Behind it, a chronological per-attack log with timestamps and context for the clinician who wants to verify a detail or dig into a stretch of bad weeks. Dim's PDF follows this shape, and because the app records weather, barometric pressure, and sleep automatically with each entry, the context columns are filled in even for attacks you logged in three taps at 3 a.m.

Before the appointment

Export the night before, not in the waiting room. Print a copy if you can — paper still moves fastest across a desk — or send the PDF ahead through the clinic's portal so it's in your chart before you sit down.

When CSV beats PDF

PDF is for humans; CSV is for further analysis. Dim exports both, and the CSV is worth knowing about if you like spreadsheets: every attack becomes a row with its timestamp, duration, severity, symptoms, and the auto-captured context. From there you can pivot attacks by weekday, chart them against pressure drops, or hand the raw data to a researcher or a data-minded clinician. Some headache specialists genuinely appreciate it — but always bring the PDF too; the spreadsheet is the appendix, not the report.

A CSV export has a second, quieter role: it's your insurance. Your diary is yours, and a complete machine-readable copy means your history is never locked inside any app — including this one.

Exporting from Dim, step by step

Open Dim and go to your history.
Tap export and choose PDF for the doctor report or CSV for the raw table. The report is part of Dim Pro, which starts with a 7-day trial.
Share it wherever you need — print, AirDrop, email to yourself, or upload to a patient portal. The file is generated on your device; nothing is sent to any server in the process.

That last point is worth dwelling on: exporting is the only moment your health data leaves the app, and it happens exclusively on your initiative, to a destination you choose. Dim has no account and keeps your diary on-device and in your private iCloud, so "sharing with your doctor" never quietly means "sharing with a company." If you're preparing for a specific visit, our guide on preparing for a neurologist appointment covers what to bring alongside the report.

Quick answers

Can I export only a specific date range?

Bring the period your clinician cares about — typically the last three months. A report covering your full history also works; the summary page keeps it readable regardless of length.

Is the export free?

The doctor-ready PDF report is part of Dim Pro, which starts with a 7-day free trial — so you can produce a report for an upcoming appointment before paying anything.

Does exporting send my data anywhere?

No. The file is generated on your iPhone and goes only where you send it. Dim has no servers of its own and no account — your diary stays on-device and in your private iCloud.

Your history, ready to hand over

Dim turns months of three-tap logs into a doctor-ready PDF or a raw CSV — generated on your device, shared only by you.

No account · No ads · Nothing sold

Dim is a diary, not a medical device. This article is general information, not medical advice — it does not diagnose, treat, or prevent any condition. Always consult a qualified clinician about your health.