Orgasm is supposed to be an enjoyable and positive experience for most people, however it can become painful for others who discover that it triggers 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 groups: 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 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 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 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 because of people being embarrassed to talk about it.

Coital headaches are benign, meaning that they have 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 going to a doctor though, especially in the beginning, just to exclude the more serious reasons for headaches, such as brain tumours and blood clots. However, the doctor can do very 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 recommend trying taking medication a short time before sexual foreplay commences.

Some of the headache medications that may be taken are indomethacin, imitrex, zomig and propranolol, although if the headaches persist, your doctor could recommend daily preventive medication. People suffering from frequent coital headaches may experience 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 helpful. Coital headaches and migraines are also more likely to occur if a person is in poor physical shape.

Nevertheless, the treatment for coital headaches for a lot of sufferers can be as ‘easy’ as bringing your weight up or down to the norm for your size. Coital headaches can also be cured in some sufferers by an increased level of exercise, although this may bring on exertion headaches in some people.

Now the good news is that most headaches related to sexual activities are not at all serious in nature. In deed, research actually states that orgasm can prevent headaches and even migraine in some cases. This means that for some adults, refusing sex may actually be the cause of their headache in the first place.