Are there Sexual Headaches?
Orgasm is usually an enjoyable and happy experience for most people, however it can become painful for others who find that it starts coital headaches. For sufferers, sexual activity of any kind can cause 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.
Basically, primary headaches have a known or unknown cause, whereas symptomatic headaches are frequently caused by a previous 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 form 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 extreme cases.
It is surprising to many to discover that men are three times more likely to experience coital headaches than women and the age groups most at risk are those between 20 and 25 and 30 and 44. Doctors do not really knows why this should be. Coital headaches afflict about one percent of the population, although this number could be much 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 varying levels of dizziness, confusion and stiffness of neck.
However, it is still worth while seeing a doctor though, especially in the early cases, just to rule out the more serious causes of headaches, such as brain tumours and blood clots. However, the doctor can do very little to help by way of treatment. He could recommend a complete abstention from any kind of sexual activity for a period varying from days to weeks or he may suggest trying taking medication a short time before sexual foreplay begins.
A few of the headache medicines that may be taken are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches persist, your doctor could suggest some other preventive medicines to be taken on a daily basis. Sufferers of frequent coital headaches may also obtain a positive response to migraine preventive medicines, such as beta blockers or verapamil. Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as ibuprofen may also be beneficial. Coital headaches and migraines are also more likely to occur if a person is in poor physical health.
However, the treatment for coital headaches for a lot of sufferers can be as simple as bringing your weight up or down to the normal weight for your size. Coital headaches can also be cured in some sufferers by an increased level of exercise, although this could bring on exertion headaches in a few cases.
Now the good news is that most headaches related to sexual activities are not at all serious in nature. In fact, research actually suggests that orgasm can relieve headaches and even migraine in some instances. This implies that for some adults, refusing sex may actually be the cause of their headache in the first place.
If you have a problem with migraine or headaches, you should definitely visit our website on Stopping Headaches.
