Although orgasm is usually an enjoyable and positive experience for most people, it can be painful for others who find that it triggers coital headaches. For these people, sexual activity can actually cause these coital headache attacks.
Medically speaking, 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 categories: primary or idiopathic, and symptomatic, although there are other ways of classifying them as well; for instance by severity or by area.
Basically, primary headaches have a known or unknown reason, whereas symptomatic headaches are usually the result of trauma. Primary headaches include amongst others: migraine, tension headaches, cluster headaches and coital headaches.
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 worse. Typically the pain will last from a few minutes to an hour or so, but it has been known to last for days in extreme 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 knows why this should be. Coital headaches afflict about one percent of the population, although this number could be a lot higher due to people being embarrassed to talk about it.
Coital headaches are benign, meaning that they have 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 going to a doctor though, especially in the beginning, just to rule out 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 could suggest a complete abstention from any form of sexual practice for a period ranging from days to weeks or he may recommend trying taking medication some time before sexual foreplay begins.
Some of the headache medications that may be taken are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches continue, your doctor could 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 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 sufferers 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 stimulate exertion headaches in some people.
Now the good news is that most headaches related to sexual activities are not at all serious in nature. In deed, research actually states that orgasm can stop headaches and even migraine in some cases. This means that for some adults, refusing sex may actually be the cause of their headache in the first place.
If you suffer from migraine or headaches, you ought to definitely go to our website at Stopping Headaches. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.
