Although orgasm is usually an enjoyable and positive activity for most people, it can be painful for those who find that it starts coital headaches. For these people, sexual activity can actually cause these 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 the result of 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 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 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 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 figure could be a lot higher because of people being embarrassed to talk about it.

Moreover, coital headaches are benign, which means that they cause no long-term adverse consequences, so far as doctors know. It seems that people taking sexual stimulants, like Cialis, are about 10% more prone to a 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 visiting 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 rather little to help by way of treatment. He could suggest a complete abstention from any form of sexual activity for a period ranging from days to weeks or he may recommend trying taking medication some 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 continue, your doctor may prescribe some other preventive medications to be used 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 the person is in poor physical health.

However, the cure 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 means that for some adults, refusing sex may actually be the reason that delays headache treatment.

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