What Are Coital Headaches?

Although orgasm is usually an enjoyable and positive experience for most people, it can be painful for those who find that it triggers coital headaches. For these people, sexual activity can actually cause these coital headache attacks.

Technically, a headache, or cephalalgia, is a symptom of various conditions of the head and sometimes the neck too. They can be classified into two main categories: 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 caused by 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 be 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.

It is surprising to many to discover that men are three times more likely to experience coital headaches than women and the people most at risk are those between 20 and 25 and 30 and 44. Doctors do not really knows why this should be. Coital headaches affect about one percent of the population, although this figure could be a lot higher because of people being embarrassed to discuss it.

Coital headaches are benign, meaning that they cause no long-term ill effects, as far as we know. It seems that people taking sexual stimulants, like Viagara, are about 10% more at risk to a bout of coital headache. In fact, besides the obvious, temporary pain, the worst effects of coital headaches are varying levels of dizziness, confusion and stiffness of neck.

However, it is still worth visiting a doctor though, especially in the beginning, just to exclude the more severe causes of headaches, such as brain tumours and blood clots. However, the doctor can do rather little to help by way of therapy. He may suggest a complete abstention from any kind of sexual activity for a period ranging from days to weeks or he may suggest trying taking medication some time before sexual foreplay begins.

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

Nevertheless, the cure for coital headaches for a lot of people can be as simple as bringing your weight up or down to the norm for your size. Coital headaches can also be cured in some sufferers by an increased level of exercise, although this may bring on exertion headaches in some people.

The good news is though that most headaches related to sex are not serious in nature. In deed, different 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.