01 November 2006

Sexual headaches

My new favorite word of the day:
Coital Cephalalgia (headache during or after sex)

Of course, since sex has been shown to reduce regular headaches in normal people, pre-coital cephalalgia is not as serious a condition...

The cerebral hemodynamics of headache associated with sexual activity
Evers, et al.
Abstract
Headache associated with sexual activity is an idiopathic headache disorder and regarded to be a vascular headache but no pathophysiological
studies have been performed to date to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. We investigated 12 patients with the explosive type of
sexual headache according to the criteria of the International Headache Society during a headache-free state by means of acetazolamide test
and of stress Doppler sonography. Twelve age-matched migraine patients and 14 healthy subjects served as control groups. Changes of blood
pressure, cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV), and pulsatility index (PI) were evaluated. Patients with sexual headache showed a significantly
higher increase of blood pressure during standardized physical exercise as compared to healthy subjects and migraine patients.
Changes of CBFV by physical exercise were not different between the three examination groups. After 1 g acetazolamide, CBFV showed a
significantly higher increase in patients with sexual headache (plus 66% ^ 16%) than in healthy subjects (plus 46% ^ 18%), and PI showed a
significantly lower decrease as compared to healthy subjects and migraine patients. These data suggest that in patients with sexual headache
the metabolic rather than the myogenic component of the cerebral vasoneuronal coupling is impaired.
q 2002 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Pain 102 (2003) 73-78
DOI
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