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nicholasdaly 08-04-2005 04:01 PM

aneurysm? weird headaches - please help

Background on me: I am 24, I am a healthy weight (6'1, 165lbs.), I have never smoked, I have drank maybe five times in my entire life, I have never used any other drug. I exercise semi-regularly. I have never had any health problems or injuries. So here's my problem:

I recently started getting strange headaches...they only occur during sex. They start as I near orgasm and they peak when I climax. They then last about fifteen to thirty minutes before dying off...Sometimes they linger for a few hours afterwards, but not very severe. They occur on the right front of my forehead. They are not severe enough to impair me in any way or make me lay in a dark room, sensitive to light, etc. but they do hurt. These headaches are new to me. Migraines run in my family (mother, brother) but I have never had a migraine...My headache of choice is a tension headache, which I get once a week on average...And they are never that severe, just enough usually to be noticable. I got so scared after the fifth night of this headache that I went to the ER. They did an EKG which was good, and a CT scan. The CT scan came back normal. They diagnosed me with a form of migraine and made a follow-up appointment with me for a neurologist in one month. With correspondance with another specialist doctor, he told me I have post-coital headache (orgasmic cephalgia). Has anyone else heard of or experienced this?
I have worked myself into a panic thinking that I have an aneurysm. The doctor at the ER told me that the CT scan would have picked up any bleeding and an aneurysm that was large enough to cause problems. Is this true? Would a CT scan have picked this up?
I should add that I go jogging just about every night, and I swim two days a week...and I do not get this headache. So it does not seem to be related to exertion or heart rate, as my heart rate during jogging is obviously much higher than during sex. Should I be worried about this being an aneurysm? Should I demand more serious tests of some sort? If anyone can help me with this, please let me know, I would greatly appreciate it. I am pretty terrified. I have abstained from sex for a week now and am continuing to do so...
Thanks so much in advance.


bikejo24 08-18-2005 07:32 PM

Re: aneurysm? weird headaches - please help
Yes, a Ct and Mri both show Aneurysms. I had Major Brain Surgery 10 years ago for a AVM. Plain speaking a malformed vessel in my brain about to blow.
It seems to happen around age 35, I was also that. They will definitely let you know if they can see anything! I knew I was in trouble when the NeuroSurgeon was in The CT Room with me all of a sudden. This is a very life threatning sp? thing and the Medical field takes it very seriously if they find it early enough. Only 10 percent or less are found in time, and you live. I am very lucky but have some problems from the Surgery. So count yourself lucky and if the headaches centralize and become very persistant and painful and then worry.

mayansun 08-19-2005 08:42 AM

Re: aneurysm? weird headaches - please help
I concur with the other poster, MRI or CT will reveal an aneurysm that is large enough. Aneurysms that are unruptured (have not burst and bled into the brain) do not typically cause symptoms unless due to their location they are impacting a nerve, vision etc. That said, many of the others I have encountered (I had an unruptured aneurysm clipped last year) also have headaches.

Turns out I have migraines which thankfully lead to the finding of the aneurysm but is apparently not caused by or related to it.

An aneurysm that ruptures and bleeds into the brain (subarrachnoid hemmorage) typically causes the "worst headache of your life" which is sudden and can come with nauseau, vomiting, visual disturbances etc. If you are worried a trip to the ER or doctor makes sense but I've also seen (try the headaches board) others who get the headaches you describe.
