Although orgasm is usually a pleasurable and happy 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 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 grouping them as well; for instance by severity or by area.

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 severe 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.

Men are three times more at risk 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, so far as we know. It seems that people taking sexual stimulants, like Cialis, are about 10% more prone to a coital headache. In deed, 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 seeing 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 cure. He may 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.

Some of the headache medications that may be taken are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches continue, your doctor could recommend 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 many sufferers can be as ‘easy’ as adjusting your weight up or down to the norm for your size. Coital headaches can also be treated in some sufferers by an increased level of exercise, although this may bring on exertion headaches in some cases.

Now the good news is that most headaches related to sexual activities are not at all serious in nature. In fact, research actually states that orgasm can prevent headaches and even migraine in some cases. This implies 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 should definitely go to our website on Stopping Headaches.

categories: headaches,migraines,frustration,moods,medicine,health,emotions,sex,mental health,depression,anxiety,self help,advice,other