Can Sex or Masturbation Help With Headaches?
Table of contents
Can sex help with headaches?
Many scientists have researched the association between sexual intercourse and headaches. These studies found that diverse sexual practices can help with multiple kinds of pain, including headaches. A survey was conducted on a group of people who suffer from chronic headaches in this regard. Naturally, a headache episode and its concomitant symptoms that vary from one disease to another (i.e., nausea, vomiting…) may prevent patients from engaging in sexual activity. However, a large number of these persons claimed that sexual activity in the presence of a headache is not uncommon as it was observed that around one-third of them engaged in sexual intercourse during their headache attacks. This act was demonstrated to ease or perhaps halt an attack in some of them, explaining their attitude. Such people consider sex to be an alternative method of dealing with their headaches.
Can masturbation help with headaches?
Similarly to sexual intercourse, masturbation’s influence on headaches was also studied. According to the findings, masturbating helped relieve headaches in several situations. Several individuals suffering from chronic painful medical issues reported that they tend to indulge in masturbation in order to get a break from their pain. This might be due to the sexual arousal and orgasm that occurs after masturbation. These two have been shown to aid improve the threshold of various types and sites of pain in women, in addition to their ability to relieve pain in general.
Is there a difference between masturbation and sex when it comes to their influence on headaches?
According to individuals who experienced headache alleviation after masturbation or intercourse, the type of sexual activity had no effect on the outcome. These people reported the same results in both cases. Although, these individuals claimed that the time of sexual activity during the headache episodes did influence the outcome.
What kind of headaches are mostly relieved by sex or masturbation?
Experts conducted studies on the effect of sexual activity on different types of headaches. The most common ones they investigated were primary headaches, such as:
Migraine
It is a common chronic disease that results in frequent incapacitating headache attacks. Non-pharmacological preventative measures and prescription drugs are both used in the management of this condition. Normally, migraine attacks get worse by physical activities such as walking or going up the stairs, and patients often avoid any activity during the attacks; yet, some of the patients studied in the studies mentioned above reported resorting to different sexual activities as non-drug alternatives to relieve headache attacks, such as clitoral and/or vaginal masturbation and orgasm. Experts supported this behavior when they reported that migraine headaches are relieved within minutes after orgasm in some cases. In fact, the majority of migraine sufferers who engaged in sexual activity while experiencing a headache found an improvement in their pain, whether it was a total, moderate, or slight alleviation.
Cluster headaches
This health issue is characterized by intense, one-sided pain episodes that last between 15 minutes and 2 hours and are frequently accompanied by other irritating signs. Sexual stimulation may not be strong enough to influence the pain in the majority of people with this type of headache because the pain is much worse than that observed in migraine attacks. Approximately one third of these people reported total or partial relief following sex or masturbation.
Can sex or masturbation cause headaches?
In contrast to the above-mentioned findings, some studies have discovered that orgasm can induce headache episodes in some individuals, particularly in those suffering from migraine and cluster headaches. According to surveys, more than half of patients with cluster headaches that engaged in sexual activity in order to alleviate the pain claimed that it became worse.
Experts described a condition called Primary headache associated with sexual activity (PHASA). It is a rare and benign condition that occurs in young people prior to or during orgasm. The duration of the headache varies from just a few minutes to hours and may be seen in both men and women. It usually has a minor self-limiting course.
How does sex and masturbation help with headaches?
The orgasm that follows sex or masturbation might affect the reduction of headaches by activating the neurological system through a variety of components, such as:
- Endorphins: These hormones are produced during both pain and orgasm and work as natural painkillers.
- Distraction from the pain: The feelings of relaxation and ecstasy that occur during orgasm can serve as a temporary distraction from pain.
- Stimulation of the vagina: Sexual activity that involves the stimulation of the posterior vagina in females, which is a physiologic reaction related to labor and delivery, lowers pain in general.
- Inhibition of the pain pathway: The “gate control theory of pain” states that engaging in sexual activity activates circuits that block pain. This phenomenon, which may possibly be the cause of the placebo effect, happens in many situations where it is advantageous to resist pain in order to survive.
- Increasing the nervous activity: It has been established that some primary headaches are reliant on low sympathetic tone, and that the episode may be reversed by the increase in sympathetic activity that results from sexual activity, and more especially from orgasm.
Can this method of relieving headaches cause other problems?
Although it has been demonstrated that sexual activity assists in alleviating headaches, it has also been shown that this kind of alternative treatment can cause negative effects in certain people, such as:
- Sexual aversion or the avoidance/unwillingness of engaging in sexual activities
- Exhaustion
- Embarrassment/shame
- Guilt
- Depression or feelings of sadness
Overall
There are several ways in which sexual activity can interact with headaches. It has the potential to cause a headache, alter the symptoms of an existing headache, and to reduce or even stop it.
The established link between the reduction or the remission of headache disorders and sexual activity in some patients is not sufficiently evident to recommend the advice of sexual intercourse as a treatment option for everyone. Each individual who is suffering from a primary headache problem and is looking for alternative remedies, such as sexual activities, must determine for themselves whether this approach is effective during a particular headache episode. Such people should be informed on request about this association by their consulting doctor.
References:
- Gotkine, M., Steiner, I., & Biran, I. (2006). Now dear, I have a headache! Immediate improvement of cluster headaches after sexual activity. Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 77(11), 1296. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2006.092643
- Uca, Ali & Kozak, Hasan. (2015). Masturbation and orgasm as migraine headache treatment: Report of a case. Neurology Asia. 20. 185-186.
- Appiah, E.K., Boachie, A., Gasior, S.A., & Aslett, K. (2018). The use of masturbation as a method of relieving migraine headaches in an adolescent with an eating disorder.
- Hambach, A., Evers, S., Summ, O., Husstedt, I. W., & Frese, A. (2013). The impact of sexual activity on idiopathic headaches: an observational study. Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache, 33(6), 384–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/0333102413476374
- May, A., Schwedt, T. J., Magis, D., Pozo-Rosich, P., Evers, S., & Wang, S. J. (2018). Cluster headache. Nature reviews. Disease primers, 4, 18006. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrdp.2018.6
- Özcan, T., Yancar Demir, E., & İşcanlı, M. D. (2017). Primary headache associated with sexual activity: A case report. Agri : Agri (Algoloji) Dernegi’nin Yayin organidir = The journal of the Turkish Society of Algology, 29(2), 79–81. https://doi.org/10.5505/agri.2015.24654
