OK. Lately I have been afflicted with long-lasting headaches that seem to be precipitated by pre-orgasm and orgasm. Googling “sex headaches” tells me that it isn’t an unknown issue.
It’s happened to me a couple times in the last few years, but generally the pounding headache (at the top of my head) only lasted a couple hours maybe.
Now they last into the next day, and are only ameliorated somewhat by Excedrin.
I am going to the doctor (for the first time in 16 years…I am 39) for a checkup on the 20th, and I am certainly bringing this up.
I have read internet cites regarding this condition, and it sounds like it’s “hey, no biggie” to “see a doctor right away”.
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this condition, or is a doctor and can comment in an unofficial capacity on this matter.
It has made me extremely leery of having sex with the wife or masturbating.
I had these for about a month a couple years ago. If it’s any comfort to you, my doctor told me at the time that it was highly unlikely that it was related to my brain tumor.
Multiple conditions or diseases occurring at the same time are “comorbid.” Some people use it to mean that one condition is somehow related to another, (like headaches and ejaculatory delay both occurring as a result of Zoloft), but the original meaning, and the more common usage, is two or more conditions occurring simultaneously in one patient that are not necessarily related.
OK. I don’t take Zoloft or any other anti-depressants. The only drug I take regularly is Omeprazole in it’s generic Kroger form for heartburn.
I’m worried about this guys. The headaches are bad, and are only the result of orgasm, or, sometimes, I stop because my head starts pounding before orgasm.
To further quantify, I smoke (ready to quit, part of the doc visit on the 20th is a physical in order to get Chantix) and I drink about 6-8 alcoholic drinks a day. I know it’s a lot, and may very well have anything and everything to do with the headaches I’m experiencing.
But only at/right before orgasm? Damn, it’s kinda rough.
I’m worried about stroking out or a possible aneurisym. (SP?)
That would be even more awkward! But no; ejaculatory delay is what your doctor calls it when it takes a lot longer than it should, and sometimes doesn’t happen at all. It’s fairly commonly associated with SSRIs, and differs from erectile dysfunction in that erection isn’t a problem, but, um, finishing is.
Do you find yourself having to “work harder” to finish? Not to get too graphic, but are you getting red in the face and so forth? I feel like mine were associated with (subjectively, at least) higher blood pressure in my head. It might be only associated with orgasm cause that’s the only time your heart rate gets high enough.
But honestly, I don’t know, and if you’re worried, you should see a doctor, if you’re in a position to do so. I never asked mine, because I’m a lot more shy in person than I’ve been here.
Sexual activity can be accompanied by an elevation in blood pressure.
Such an elevation can precipitate headaches in some patients, and headaches can be completely benign or reflect undiagnosed underlying pathology such as an intracerebral aneurysm.
One of the difficulties in medicine is that for any given symptom the differential diagnosis ranges from the trivial–a zit–to impending doom–early necrotizing fasciitis.
For this reason, no personal symptoms can be adequately addressed in this type of forum.
As a rule of thumb, new or expanding symptoms in patients who were previously asymptomatic get more intensive evaluations.
I’ve had something similar (identical?) happen occasionally in the past. I also get actual (diagnosed by a neurologist) migraines. And in my experience, the pain of each is very different. My migraines are a dull throbbing around an entire front quadrant, from temple to forehead. The orgasm pain, on the other hand, was a sharp, vise-like pain that seemed focused on the back of my head, and would resolve in minutes, instead of hours.
Worried that I might be inducing some sort of anyeurism, I asked my doctor about it. He said it was just as likely to be due to a muscle cramp around the top of my neck. After all, everything tenses up as you get close.
Of course your pain may be different than what I described, and may very well be vascular in origin. In my case, he couldn’t rule out a vascular cause, but nothing was unusual in a head MRI I had around that time. For what it’s worth, it hasn’t happened to me in a long time.
Link to the sex headaches topic at the Mayo Clinic’s website. My husband used to get them, his doctor didn’t see anything wrong with him otherwise, and they resolved on their own within a month or so. I’m glad to see you’re going to a doctor to get checked out, just in case.
I’ve had 'em too. Healthy otherwise and never diagnosed with any condition to date.
Um, they lasted about three weeks the first time (18 months or so ago) and about two weeks the latest round (9 months ago). Makes you not want to orgasm. Almost.
Went away on their own.
My friend, it’s more than a lot. You are an alcoholic. I don’t think a person can reserve the judgement and willpower it takes to quit smoking while they are intoxicated, even with the aid of something like Chantix. Please get the drinking under control, and then giving up the cigarettes will seem easy. I promise.
It’s been awhile since I’ve had my BP checked, but last I did (a few years ago, IIRC) it was at the prehypertension level. It was something like 165/90.
So color me worried. And Cisco, yeah, I know I’m an alcoholic. I need to address these problems now while I’m 39 and not wait until I am almost dead (which I could already be!). I’ve been drinking 6-8 (or more, but 6-8 is the average consumption) beers a night for, well, 20 years now.
My understanding is that the range for prehypertension ends at 139/89 or so. So your diastolic might be just barely in the hypertensive range but your systolic pressure is quite high by any standard I’ve ever heard of. I don’t have any medical training… but I’ve been taking BP medication since I was 19.
