Coital Cephalalgia: Have Sex and Feel Like You're Getting Kicked in the Head

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted September 3, 2009.

In all likelihood, my life has sucked significantly more than yours has over the past two weeks.

I say that because during that period, each time I've approached sexual climax, a burly man has kicked me in the head as hard as possible with a steel-toed boot -- repeatedly.

That's the sensation, anyway -- an intense, crushing pain shooting through the top of my head as I approach the Moment of Truth.

It is almost certainly a case of coital cephalalgia, a benign form of migraine headache that hits in the moments before orgasm and can linger for hours, or even days, afterward. Any form of stimulation can bring it on, including ... ahem, solo pursuits.

According to Dr. John Pillinger:

The act of ejaculation is a complex series of events. Headache during coitus may be classified as one of three types, depending on onset:

* Early coital cephalgia, which is usually moderate and of short duration.

* Orgasmic coital cephalgia, which is abrupt, severe and lasts 15 to 20 minutes.

* Late coital cephalgia, which is of long duration (hours to days), and which occurs after orgasmic coital cephalgia.

I suppose I'm experiencing the joys of orgasmic coital cephalalgia ("cephalgia" is an iteration of the Latin word for headache).

It is, thankfully, temporary in most cases, although about half of those suffering from it will have a relapse at some point within five years of its first uninvited appearance.

Dr. Ninan Mathew, a headache expert, told Esquire magazine: "It could occur a few times and may not happen at all after that. It may happen recurrently for a while, and then it goes away."

According to a backgrounder at the Mayo Clinic's website, a cluster of headaches over a period of a month or two is quite common. (Murphy being an optimist, I just started seeing someone. So while the transient nature of the condition is keeping me from thoughts of doing something drastic, the timing just really couldn't be any worse.)

"Sex headaches" can pop up at any time, and studies suggest they do at some point in the lives of about 1 percent of the population. But some experts believe that embarrassment may prevent people from reporting the condition to their doctors and argue that as many as 1 in 10 may get the problem at some point.

The condition can strike either sex, but men are three times more likely to get it than women. According to Dr. Randolph Evans at the University of Texas, people with a history of migraines are more likely to get "sex headaches."

The middle-aged (I'm pushing 40, but haven't yet hit it), obese (nope) or people who suffer high blood pressure (also not!) are also at a higher risk for coital cephalalgia.

See more stories tagged with: headache, sex headache, coital cephalalgia, coital cephalgia

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.

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