Are there Sexual Headaches?

Although orgasm is usually a pleasurable and positive activity for most people, it can become painful for those who find that it starts coital headaches. For these people, sexual activity can actually cause these coital headache attacks.

Technically, a headache, or cephalalgia, is a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and sometimes the neck too. They can be classified into two main groups: primary or idiopathic, and symptomatic, although there are other ways of classifying them too; for example by severity.

Put simply, primary headaches have a known or unknown cause, whereas symptomatic headaches are often the result of trauma. Primary headaches include: migraine, tension headaches, cluster headaches and coital headaches, amongst others.

Coital headaches, also called coital cephalalgia or sexual headaches, is a rare, but painful type of headache that starts in the nape of the neck during sexual intercourse, but before climax. It can occur in all conditions where climax is the expected result. The pain can move to behind the eyes and can then become even more severe. Typically the pain will last from a few minutes to an hour or so, but it has been known to last for days in the worst cases.

Men are three times more prone to coital headaches than women and the age groups most at risk are those between 20 and 25 and 30 and 44. Nobody really understands why this should be. Coital headaches afflict about one percent of the population, although this number could be a lot higher because of people being embarrassed to talk about it.

Moreover, coital headaches are benign, which means that they have no long-term adverse consequences, as far as doctors know. It appears that people taking sexual stimulants, like Cialis, are roughly 10% more at risk to a coital headache. In deed, apart from the obvious, temporary pain, the worst effects of coital headaches are varying degrees of dizziness, confusion and stiffness of neck.

However, it is still worth while visiting a doctor though, especially in the beginning, just to exclude the more serious reasons for headaches, such as brain tumours and blood clots. However, the doctor can do very little to help by way of cure. He may recommend a complete abstention from any form of sexual practice for a period varying from days to weeks or he may recommend trying taking medication some time before sexual foreplay commences.

Some of the headache medications that can be taken are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches persist, your doctor may recommend daily preventive medication. People suffering from frequent coital headaches may experience a positive response to migraine preventive medications, such as beta blockers or verapamil. Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as ibuprofen may similarly be helpful. Coital headaches and migraines are also more likely to occur if a person is in poor physical health.

Nevertheless, the treatment for coital headaches for a lot of people can be as ‘easy’ as bringing your weight up or down to the normal weight for your size. Coital headaches can also be treated in some sufferers by an increased level of exercise, although this could trigger exertion headaches in some people.

The good news is though that most headaches related to sex are not serious in nature. In fact, various studies actually suggest that orgasm can relieve headaches and migraine in some cases. This implies that for some adults, refusing sex may actually be the reason that prevents headache treatment.