Sexual Healing Edit
Can Sex Stop Headaches?

It’s not going to be so easy for wives to say, “Not tonight, I have a headache.” A new ABC news report reveals that having sex may cure some headaches, and it may also trigger others.

The discovery goes back to 1988, when a forthright woman in a headache treatment study inspired James Couch, a neurology professor at Oklahoma Health Sciences Center to question the sexual healing of migraines. The patient told Couch she had trouble curing her headaches since her husband had divorced her and she’d signed up for a pain treatment study.

Couch surveyed 84 other female migraine patients. Of the women who tried sex with a migraine, 61 percent reported some sort of relief. Not bad, compared to the latest migraine drugs which might soothe 60 percent to 80 percent of headaches.

The true revelation came with the reports that sex could sometimes stop a migraine dead in its tracks, instead of slowly dulling the pain. More than 20 percent of women reported that sex cured their migraines, while drugs might cure migraine in 30 percent of patients, says Couch.

“Four women said it literally stopped the headache, period,” said Couch. “No matter when the headache occurred, it stopped the headache cold.”

We may guess why sex can cure a migraine, maybe through endorphins and other pain-relieving hormones released during orgasm, or through the stimulation nerves that trigger pain relief in childbirth. But no one really knows why it works. “I haven’t really figured out how to follow up with that study,” said Couch with a laugh.

While sex might help some migraines, sex can be a trigger that causes headache in up to 10 percent of all people who suffer from migraines, says Randolph Evans, clinical professor of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine. And sex can trigger other kinds of headaches, especially in men. One type of headache starts as a dull ache in the head and neck. The pain may feel mild at the beginning of sexual activity, but gets worse the longer the couple continues, says Evans. Another type of headache — the orgasmic headache — is a sudden, severe “explosive” headache that builds just before or during orgasm. The intense pain may last for several hours afterward.

So where to go from here? Because sex can sometimes be a cure, and sometimes be a cause for a headache, it’s largely up to headache sufferers to find out and decide what works for them.