I have recently been diagnosed as suffering from post coital cephalgia and i have a few questions as the doctors didn't really have many answers for me.

I am a reasonably fit and active 27 year old male. Apx a week ago i had intercourse and at the point of ejaculation i had a very sudden and severe headache that hit me in the back of the head like a hammer. The headache was excruciating and lasted for apx four hours. I could feel every pulse surge through the back of my head and at first i thought it might be a migraine. I do not usually suffer headaches/migraines.

I tried everything i could think of to lower the pain. I immediately took ibuprofen and medocodene but this did not seem to do a great deal for me. I tried freezing water on the back of my head and i tried darkness e.t.c. but nothing seemed to help.

Over the next four days i began to worry about how the headache came on and the severity of the pain. I eventually decided i needed to know if it was brought on by orgasm/ejaculation or if it was a one off.

So i reluctantly masturbated when i was on my own hoping it would not re-occur. To my distress it hit me again at exactly the same point and i felt a feeling of dread wash over me. But this time the pain was so severe that it had me in tears and i was shaking and sweating and could not lay/sit still.

It was so painful that NHS DIRECT sent an ambulance to me and i was taken to hospital. i had six injections of morphine over apx four hours but this did not help the pain at all. By now the pain was so unbearable that i was writhing on the hospital bed grasping my head.

In all my attack lasted nine and a half hours before settling down to a manageable pain level. The next day i had a CT scan that came back ok and a lumbar puncture which showed small traces of blood but not to a worrying level. My blood pressure was over 180 during this and my blood test came back with a raised white cell count indicating a possible infection on my meningis.

It is now three days later and i am still experiencing a dull headache. I am unsure if this is a result of the lumbar puncture or I'm still experiencing the 'after pain' of my attack.

I gather from reading about this condition that it affects people differently and i would say i had a fairly severe attack. My concerns are that i know of nothing that can help me once the pain starts and i would appreciate anybody that has severe episodes of this condition to tell me if there is anything that i can take to help with the pain as it really is unbearable, especially for such a long duration.

On top of this i am very concerned that i feel every time i wish to have intercourse or masturbate i will be playing Russian roulette with the possibility of inflicting this type of stress on my body. It really is something i never wish to experience again and i am worried that this may lead to sexual dysfunction of some sort for me.

If anybody has experienced similar severe attacks or has had similar concerns and have answers I would appreciate any assistance they could offer.