Orgasm is usually an enjoyable and happy experience for most people, but it can be painful for those who discover that it triggers coital headaches. For sufferers, sexual activity of any kind can result in 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.
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 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 the worst 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 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 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 exclude the more serious reasons for headaches, such as brain tumours and blood clots. However, the doctor can do rather little to help by way of therapy. He may recommend a complete abstention from any form of sexual activity for a period varying from days to weeks or he may suggest trying taking medication a short time before sexual activity commences.
A few of the headache medications that may be used are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches persist, your doctor could prescribe some other preventive medications to be taken on a daily basis. Sufferers of frequent coital headaches may also 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 beneficial. Coital headaches and migraines are also more likely to occur if a person is in poor physical shape.
Nevertheless, the cure for coital headaches for a lot of people can be as ‘easy’ 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 trigger exertion headaches in some people.
The good news is though that most headaches related to sex are not serious in nature. In fact, various 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 delays headache treatment.
If you suffer from migraine or headaches, you ought to definitely go to our website at Stopping Headaches. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.