Although orgasm is usually a pleasurable and positive activity for most people, it can be painful for others 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 various 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 caused by injury. 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 severe type of headache that begins in the base 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 some cases have been known to continue for days in the worst examples.
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.
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 differing 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 cure. He could suggest a complete abstention from any kind of sexual practice for a period ranging from days to weeks or he may suggest trying taking medication some time before sexual foreplay commences.
A few of the headache medicines that can be used are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches persist, your doctor may recommend some other preventive medicines to be used on a daily basis. Sufferers of frequent coital headaches may also experience a positive response to migraine preventive medicines, such as beta blockers or verapamil. Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as ibuprofen may similarly be beneficial. Coital headaches and migraines are also more likely to occur if the person is in poor physical health.
Nevertheless, the treatment for coital headaches for many people can be as ‘easy’ 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 trigger exertion headaches in some cases.
The good news is though that most headaches related to sex are not serious in nature. In deed, various studies actually suggest that orgasm can relieve headaches and migraine in some cases. This means that for some adults, refusing sex may actually be the reason that delays headache treatment.
If you suffer from migraine or headaches, you should definitely go to our website on Stopping Headaches.