Fact or Fiction: Can Masturbation Help Headaches?

On your short list of reasons to masturbate, your first answer probably isn’t to ease a headache. But maybe it should be. Some research has shown that pleasuring yourself may help alleviate certain types of head pain. Surprised? Part of the reason may be the way self-touch has been shown to release endorphins in the body, reducing stress and offering headache relief. Let’s take a closer look at the science behind it all and figure out if masturbation can actually play a role in managing an aching head.

Masturbation seems to soothe some headaches through a few key mechanisms. When you orgasm, your brain releases chemicals that serve as “natural painkillers,” says Amanda Ellison, Ph.D., a professor at Durham University in the U.K. and author of Splitting: The Inside Story on Headaches. These chemical are serotonin (which helps with mood regulation), dopamine (known as the “reward” hormone), and oxytocin (the love or “bonding” hormone). “These neurochemicals stop pain signals [traveling] from our body up to our brain,” which is similar to how opioids work, Dr. Ellison says.

The release of oxytocin, in particular, can relieve stress and make you feel more relaxed, adds Holly Richmond, Ph.D, a certified sex therapist and somatic psychotherapist in Seal Beach, CA, and New York City. Richmond says masturbation can put us into what’s essentially the opposite of “fight or flight mode.”

“Masturbation can stimulate the parasympathetic branch of the vagus nerve,” Richmond says, referring to the main part of the parasympathetic nervous system that plays a key role in our involuntary sensory and movement functions. “The parasympathetic branch is the ‘rest and digest’ [branch],” she adds, known for its role in heart rate and digestion, among other functions. While masturbating probably won’t wipe out level 10 head pain, “when we stimulate the vagus nerve and we get that serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin [flowing], we’re down-regulating. Maybe we get to a six or a five or even a four” on the pain scale.

Another effect of masturbating might help migraine sufferers specifically. During a migraine attack, blood vessels in the cranial arteries can become dilated. A class of drugs known as triptans induce what’s known as “vasoconstriction,” or the narrowing of the vessels, says Stefan Evers, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of neurology at the University of Münster in Germany. “Sexual activity also makes your blood pressure higher and increases your heart rate, and it also induces vasoconstriction,” Dr. Evers says. This, in turn, helps with the pain.

To that end, masturbation might even play a role in preventive migraine care: In what’s known as the prodrome phase, the days before a migraine comes on, neurochemicals are out of balance in the brain, eventually leading to the throbbing or pounding ache you know all too well if you get migraine, Ellison explains. “There are ways of self-medicating before you get to the pain stage,” she notes.

Your brain might naturally seek out serotonin in the prodrome phase, because levels of this neurotransmitter are affected, Ellison explains. For instance, you might incline toward human touch, and the serotonin boost it offers. So, she says, if you’re feeling like a migraine might be coming on, it’s not a bad idea to give masturbation a try. “Listen to your body,” Ellison says. Doing so can allow you to take steps to head off pain—whether that’s masturbating or something else.

Dr. Evers himself conducted the largest cohort study on how sexual activity can help with idiopathic headaches (migraine and cluster headaches). Of the migraine patients in the study who’d had sex during an attack, 60% reported an improvement in symptoms (with 70% of them getting moderate or complete relief). “Surprisingly, sexual activity helped to cope with the migraine and make it go away faster.” This phenomenon wasn’t present in those with cluster headaches, which were also studied (in those with cluster headaches who had sex during an attack, 50% said their symptoms worsened after sexual activity, per the peer-reviewed journal Cephalalgia.

Still, there’s a lot we don’t yet know. “There is a gap in the literature of being able to extrapolate from what we know about these particular hormones and neurochemicals and behavior, and then being able to say: Well, if you carry out this behavior, this should happen,” Ellison says. “The link hasn’t been proven.”

Ellison adds that more brain studies and research needs to be done on this front. But with so many worthy causes vying for health research, this topic likely isn’t getting first chair.

Much of research into sexual activity and orgasm doesn’t get super specific and tends to assume all study participants achieved orgasm. For example, one PLoS One study specifically says: “Pain can be significantly lessened by sex/orgasm.” Of course, not all masturbation or sex leads to orgasm, and that’s okay. At this point, there’s scant research into how generally deriving pleasure while getting yourself off vs. orgasming could impact pain relief.

Ellison notes that MRI scans have looked to see what’s happening in real-time in the brain while enjoying sexual pleasure. “With men, it’s [primarily] a visual-motor response action that’s happening in the brain, but in women, so much more of the brain is active.” In terms of pain and orgasm, there’s room for further study.

In Dr. Evers research, he found that in some patients, sexual activity like masturbation could actually cause headaches or make them worse in some cases. “What we found when we tested these patients is that how their blood vessels increased and decreased in diameter was not in the normal range,” Dr. Evers says. “So they’d have problems in vasodilation, vasoconstriction, and then, if they increased sexual activity… their vessels remained more dilated, bringing them some pain.” This type of headache isn’t deeply understood, he says, but tends to happen more in younger men and in women in their 50s.

“About 1% of the world’s population get sex headaches,” Ellison adds. Meanwhile, if you deal with migraine it’s important to note that while your pain might improve from sexual activity, other symptoms may not. For example, if you get nauseous or are sensitive to touch, masturbating may just make things worse.

There’s no one size fits. If you have sexual trauma or struggle with shame associated with sexual activity, masturbating may not be a good fit, Richmond says.

“Whereas masturbation may work for one person, it may make another person feel even more frustrated and worse, for example, if they can’t bring it to orgasm,” Ellison adds. “In that case, you might get more of a benefit from simply wrapping yourself up in a weighted blanket and watching Ted Lasso.”

Masturbation is effectively just one more tool in your kit when it comes to headache treatment. You may find relief among the headache medications available, from ibuprofen to migraine-specific medications or Botox, and there are also lifestyle changes you can make, including avoiding certain foods, stopping smoking, and reducing stress. Getting enough sleep is a big one.

If you’re going to pursue self-pleasure to help your headaches, Richmond recommends figuring out when you get the most benefits. “I’d like them to try morning, midday, and evening,” she suggests. “Does one have more of an impact than the other?”

Ellison suggests trying it as soon as you feel a migraine coming on, though you can see what works best for you. You can track your symptoms in a journal, Richmond suggests, rating your pain by number before and after, or just jotting down how you feel.

One note: If you experience a sudden or unusually painful headache, see a healthcare professional ASAP, Ellison adds. It might not be “just” a headache. In some rare cases, severe pain can be an indicator of bleeding in the brain, Dr. Evers adds. “It could be a vessel was disrupted during sexual activity. If it’s the first time you’re having a very severe headache, just go in, and to be sure, get a CT scan.”

You don’t necessarily need to consult your doctor before trying self-pleasure as a supportive treatment—and you should certainly stay on any prescribed medications (unless your doctor tells you otherwise). If you’d like to broach this topic with your doctor, but feel uncomfortable, try posing it as something you found in your research. “I was looking into possible remedies, and came across masturbation—what are your thoughts?”

Meanwhile, it’s worth reporting it to your doctor if you find your headaches get worse after sexual activity like masturbation, as that could be a clue into what’s happening in your body and help guide your treatment. Yes, it may be embarrassing, but it’s worth being brave and asking. Write it down ahead if it helps you get the courage up by just reading it from your phone’s Notes app, vs. going off script.

But outside of the doctor’s office, you can also experiment to see if masturbation happens to help your symptoms. “This is your body,” Ellison says. “It’s really about seeing what works for you.” After all, it’s low-stakes, it’s free, and you might have fun while doing it.