Are headaches ruining your sex life?

Masterfile

Headache is one of the most common health complaints reported by both sexes (though women appear to suffer from the nagging pain slightly more than men). A headache can come in a variety of forms. There are seasonal-allergy-related throb-fests, anxiety-related gongers that pulse behind your eyeballs and there’s the ‘period headache,’ that blasting ache in the centre of a woman’s brain that comes but once a month and that no amount of acetaminophen or prayer will lessen. 

But a headache — of whatever type — doesn’t just affect mood and energy levels. According to an Italian study (via Marie Claire), for some women, it puts their sex drive in park. 

Researchers at the University of Pavia in Italy found that women who seek treatment for headache and migraine were also highly susceptible to having low libidos. A whopping 90 percent of the women seeking doctors' help had lower sex drives. 

Of the group — the study analyzed 100 women —20 percent were diagnosed with having Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), a condition that’s characterized by a chronic lack of sexual desire. 

The type of headache a woman experiences either regularly or on an episodic basis appears to come with its own associated symptoms too. The researchers reported that painful headaches related to tension increase the experience of anxiety. Migraine headaches were associated with low sexual desire and even physical pain during sex. 

Are headaches a symptom of low sex drive or are they the cause? The study’s researchers are left to ponder that question, as at the moment there’s no clear answer. But other studies done in the past by other researchers has suggested that there may be a link between HSDD and relationship conflicts — and as any woman will tell you a troubled romantic relationship is definitely headache-material.