NEWS YOU CAN USE: Have A Headache? Have Some Sex. “Streicher went on to cite a study out of Southern Illinois University, which found that women who suffered migraine headaches and had sex tended to experience a 50 percent decrease in their headaches. That’s partly because of the endorphins released during intercourse, she said, but also because sex makes for a pretty good distraction from pain. It works, in effect, the same way that other painkillers do.”