Oversharing

[ralphmelton]

So here's a note on a detail of my sex life that might be Too Much Information, but I'm kind of interested in information about it from people who might have a clue:


So last night, I had an orgasm. (Sorry, I'm still feeling too inhibited to provide more details there.) But just as I was about to orgasm, I got this splitting headache that really interfered with my enjoyment. Any info about what causes this?

I'm personally suspecting that it's somehow tied to caffeine. I usually consume very little caffeine, but yesterday I had had an iced tea and a Dr Pepper because I was feeling sleep-deprived and out of sorts.

And I remember a time as a teenager: for a Boy Scout event where we would need to stay up late, I had gotten a two-liter bottle of Dr Pepper. (I rarely consumed caffeine as a kid, too.) I'd also bought my first porn magazine at that Boy Scout event. So in the week or two following that, I was drinking caffeine more than usual, and masturbating more than usual--and I remember that masturbating would give me excruciating headaches, much like the one I had last night.

Ah well. I will eschew caffeine, and hopefully this will not persist.

(BTW, for those like me who were curious, the "link to body of post" was done with an <lj-cut> tag.)

Comments

Sounds like caffeine.

[seanmcguire.livejournal.com]

If you really are curious, consume caffeine on some randomly chosen day each of the next few weeks, and make sure you get off that day. And make sure you get off other days without caffeine. I can show you how to set up the statistical tests and determine how many samples of each you need. You want something called a chi-square.

It's not unheard of to just get an occasional splitting headache, or other discomfort, for no reason during sex, or for no discernable reason - you are certainly sending lots of interesting chemicals coursing through your body, and doing weird things with your muscles.

Overall, I wouldn't worry about it. And if you do decide to do the chi-square thing, I will concede that you are more of an empiricist geek than I am.

[rubylou.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you are experiencing a benign coital headache. This kind of headache is exertional, and tends to occur before or during orgasm. Pain may persist for a period of minutes, or hang on for hours after sex. These headaches occur in both men and women (I have them), although men are more likely to experience them (4:1 ratio). Although benign coital headaches are very painful, and obviously limit sexual enjoyment, they present no other acute threat . They are thought to result from muscle contraction, and/or blood vessel dilation, in the head and neck during sex. Deep breathing and relaxation can bring relief, as can taking ibuprofen or another nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug prior to sexual activity.

If the headaches persist, or increase in frequency, I suggest that you see a physician, of course. In very RARE cases, this type of headache can be a symptom of brain bleed.

[rubylou.livejournal.com]

A question: were you holding your breath?

caffinated orgasms

[beegle.livejournal.com]

It's my understanding that caffine dilates the blood vessels in the brain, increasing blood flow. This is one of the reasons that it makes us feel more alert. Caffeine withdrawal, in turn, causes headaches that are at least partially due to the blood "back-up" caused by the blood vessels constricting back to normal size.

Orgasm causes elevated blood pressure and pulse, so quite a bit of blood rushes to the brain. If this happens a few hours after consuming the caffine, it seems reasonable to me that you'd get a horrendous caffine-withdrawal-style headache by forcing more blood in as the caffeine is wearing off.

You could test this by consuming caffeine about 30 minutes before orgasm so that the your blood vessels are at maximum dilation. This seems unwise, though.