In 1988, a forthright woman in a headache treatment study inspired an Oklahoma doctor to question the sexual healing of migraines.

"This lady said ‘I really don't need a pill, I need a guy's phone number," said James Couch, a neurology professor at Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The patient told Couch she had trouble curing her headaches since her husband had divorced her and she'd signed up for a pain treatment study.

Couch thought this was interesting, in a scientific way, of course. "A physiologic process - the climax - is turning off another physiologic process," said Couch.

So he asked 84 other female migraine patients if they ever had sex during a headache and, if so, what happened?

Two out of three women reported having sex during a migraine - those intense debilitating headaches characterized by nausea and sensitivity to light, or sound. Doctors estimate about 18 percent of women and 9 percent of men get migraines often.

Of the women who tried sex with a migraine, 61 percent reported some sort of migraine relief. Not bad, compared to the latest migraine drugs called triptans, which might soothe 60 percent to 80 percent of headaches, says Couch.