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What Causes Throbbing Headache After Having Sex?
Question: Hi last night during sex with my husband I had sudden throbbing headache come over the back of my head. It was very very painful, however was gone again within 15 minutes. I then went to bed and slept as normal. Although on waking this morning I still have a mild headache at the back of my head. Probably just bad enough to take pain medication. I do suffer from anxiety and of course have jumped to the worse possible situation of having a aneurysm. I am 40 over weight and take blood pressure tablets and its controlled. Other than that I am relatively healthy. Should I worry that I have burst an aneurysm? Woul the pain go away in 15 minutes if it was?. Thanks for helping with my fears
Brief Answer:
Highly unlikely you suffered an aneurysmal burst
Detailed Answer:
Very sorry to hear that you suffered such a painful and inconvenient headache event last night. I am a neurologist and headache specialist and can tell you that aneurysmal bursts would be expected to cause much more severe and cataclysmic types of symptoms such as excruciating and sudden pain of a type you've likely NEVER FELT before followed by immediate and severe vomiting and then, very probably either severe change in mental status or sudden paralysis of movement on one side of your body.
What you experienced is referred to as a form of Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalgia, specifically- coital headaches. These are usually more common in men than in women but they occur in both sexes. These are unusual but surprising and debilitating headaches when they occur because they ONLY OCCUR during sexual activity. Onset is sudden and usually explosive just before or at climax while its resolution is a bit slower but usually no more than 15-30 minutes. They occur sporadically and if this is a first episode will probably not need to be treated at this time but you may wish to start paying attention to if you do experience more episodes or if you feel pains or sharp stabbing sensations in your right neck become more prominent during sexual activities then, it would be a good idea to see your doctor for more of a workup and then, specific intervention which usually involves dosing of indomethacin.
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This query required 15 minutes of physician directed efforts,
Highly unlikely you suffered an aneurysmal burst
Detailed Answer:
Very sorry to hear that you suffered such a painful and inconvenient headache event last night. I am a neurologist and headache specialist and can tell you that aneurysmal bursts would be expected to cause much more severe and cataclysmic types of symptoms such as excruciating and sudden pain of a type you've likely NEVER FELT before followed by immediate and severe vomiting and then, very probably either severe change in mental status or sudden paralysis of movement on one side of your body.
What you experienced is referred to as a form of Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalgia, specifically- coital headaches. These are usually more common in men than in women but they occur in both sexes. These are unusual but surprising and debilitating headaches when they occur because they ONLY OCCUR during sexual activity. Onset is sudden and usually explosive just before or at climax while its resolution is a bit slower but usually no more than 15-30 minutes. They occur sporadically and if this is a first episode will probably not need to be treated at this time but you may wish to start paying attention to if you do experience more episodes or if you feel pains or sharp stabbing sensations in your right neck become more prominent during sexual activities then, it would be a good idea to see your doctor for more of a workup and then, specific intervention which usually involves dosing of indomethacin.
If you are satisfied with the explanation I have given would you please consider giving some brief feedback for me and CLOSING THE QUERY so that this transaction can be processed in a timely manner.
If you need me to answer more questions in the future then, please consider writing to me at: bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi
This query required 15 minutes of physician directed efforts,
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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