Although orgasm is usually an enjoyable and positive activity 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 classifying them as well; for instance by severity or by area.

Basically, primary headaches have a known or unknown cause, whereas symptomatic headaches are usually the result of 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 become 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.

It is surprising to many to discover that men are three times more likely to experience coital headaches than women and the people most at risk are those between 20 and 25 and 30 and 44. Doctors do not really understands why this should be. Coital headaches affect 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 doctors 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 differing levels of dizziness, confusion and stiffness of neck.

However, it is still worth while visiting a doctor though, especially in the early cases, 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 treatment. He may suggest a complete abstention from any kind of sexual activity for a period varying from days to weeks or he may suggest trying taking medication some time before sexual activity commences.

A couple of the headache medications that may be taken are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches persist, your doctor may suggest some other preventive medicines to be taken|used| 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 the person is in poor physical health.

Nevertheless, the cure for coital headaches for a lot of people can be as ‘easy’ as adjusting 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 some 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.