Headache During Physical Intimacy

Sex can give you a headache. It may sound strange, but it’s true. You may get pain during the pinnacle of physical closeness, especially during orgasm. Sex headaches happen due to sexual activity. You may get a dull pain in your head and neck that starts as sexual excitement increases. Or, you may get a sudden, severe headache just ahead of or at the time of orgasm.

Generally, you need not to worry about sex headaches. But sometimes, it can be a sign of something serious, like problems with the blood vessels that feed your brain.

Symptoms

• A dull pain in the head and neck that increases with the increase in sexual excitement.
• A rapid, severe headache just ahead of or during orgasm
• Sometimes, you experience both kinds of headaches combined.

Generally, sex headaches may occur for a few minutes to few hours or sometimes, even two to three days. People who experience sex headaches get them mostly in clusters over a few months, and then they may not have any sex headaches for a year or more. Some people with sex headaches get them over the course of about six months. Some people may only have one attack during their lives.

Reasons for sex headaches

Any sexual activity that leads to orgasm may cause sex headaches. Sudden onset and slow dull sex headaches can be primary headache problems not connected with any underlying condition. Sex headaches may be associated with:

• Intracranial aneurysm i.e. a widening in the wall of an artery inside your head
• Bleeding into the wall of an artery leading to the brain
• Stroke
• Coronary artery disease
• Some medications, like contraceptive pills
• Due to tenderness from certain infections
• Arteriovenous malformation that bleeds into the spinal fluid-filled area in and around the brain

Sex headaches linked with vomiting, loss of consciousness, stiff neck, and other neurological signs and severe pain that last more than 24 hours can be due to any underlying reason.