Orgasm is supposed to be a pleasurable and happy activity for most people, however it can become less enjoyable for others who find that it starts coital headaches. For these people, sexual activity of any type can cause coital headache attacks.
Technically, 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 too; for example by severity.
Put simply, primary headaches have a known or unknown cause, whereas symptomatic headaches are often the result of 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 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.
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 due to people being embarrassed to talk about it.
Moreover, coital headaches are benign, which means that they have no long-term ill effects, as far as doctors know. It appears that people taking sexual stimulants, like Viagara, are roughly 10% more prone to a coital headache. In deed, apart from the obvious, temporary pain, the worst effects of coital headaches are differing degrees of dizziness, confusion and stiffness of neck.
However, it is still worth visiting 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 could 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 commences.
A couple of the headache medicines that can be used are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches persist, your doctor could suggest some other preventive medications to be taken 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 helpful. Coital headaches and migraines are also more likely to occur if a person is in poor physical shape.
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.
The good news is though that most headaches related to sex are not serious in nature. In fact, 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.
If you suffer from migraine or headaches, you should definitely go to our website on Stopping Headaches. This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.