Researchers from the University of Munster in Germany have found that sexual activity was successful in treating migraines in 60 percent sufferers and in one-third of patients with cluster headaches. Migraines are a kind of throbbing headache that may cause nausea, vomiting or sensitivity to light. Some people get a warning symptom like vision disturbances called an aura before the headache hits.
Migraines occur more often in women than men and may run in families. Some women say they have less migraines when they are pregnant.
Cluster headaches differ from migraines, and are characterized by chronic, one-sided headaches that can include eye tearing, steady burning and sharp sensations, and stuffy noses. They can occur regularly during one week to one year, and may be spaced out by attack-free periods. A cluster headache can begin as a severe, sudden headache often around the same time of the day you had the last one.
They happen more often in men than women and may run in families. The researchers looked at patients with migraines and patients with cluster headaches. Patients were asked to complete a questionnaire about their sexual activity during their headache episodes and write how sex affected the pain. About one-third of the patients said they had sex during a migraine or a cluster headache. Sixty percent of migraine sufferers who had sex said they had some sort of pain relief, with most of them reporting moderate or complete alleviation of their symptoms.
Some participants -- mostly men -- admitted to using sex as a way to treat the migraines. For one-third of the migraine patients who had sex, the pain got worse. Thirty-seven percent of cluster headache patients said sex helped lessen the pain, with 90 percent of those patients who had sex saying they experienced moderate to complete relief of headaches. However, 50 percent of them said sex only made headaches worse. Study researcher Stefan Evers, a neurologist and headache specialist at the University of Munster in Germany, told LiveScience that sex releases endorphins, which are natural painkillers.
