METERAccording to experts, women can be “allergic” to their own orgasms.
French researchers studying the extremely rare post-orgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) say it can manifest as seven different types of symptoms.
Some unlucky men may experience headaches, burning eyes, or a runny nose that last seconds, minutes, or even hours after ejaculation.
Others, doctors found, may experience sore throat, fever, muscle weakness and fatigue.
French researchers studying the extremely rare post-orgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) say it can manifest as seven different types of symptoms. Some unlucky men may experience headaches, burning eyes, or a runny nose that last seconds, minutes, or even hours after ejaculation.
Symptoms can be triggered during sexual intercourse, masturbation or even after spontaneous nocturnal ejaculation, researchers say.
More extreme symptoms of POIS could include palpitations or incoherent speech, an expert at the Center des Quatre Villes Hospital, outside Paris, wrote in a French medical journal.
Although it was first reported in 2002, experts have only examined about 60 cases in the two decades since.
However, thousands more men could be affected, because many of those affected are not likely to seek medical attention.
Scientists are puzzled by the cause of the flu-like symptoms, although they believe it could be due to an allergic or autoimmune response to the patient’s own sperm.
This would generate an autoimmune response in the body, which could explain the allergy-like symptoms that some men experience.
Another hypothesis is that POIS could be triggered by a chemical imbalance in the brain.
The problems this causes can last up to a week, Dr. Charlotte Methorst wrote in Progress in Urology with the words “post-coital flu” in the title.
He added that since so few people are aware of POIS, it is possible that many more are living with it without knowing it.
Symptoms vary between men, but are believed to have the same intensity with each ejaculation or orgasm.
Doctors have yet to identify a cure for POIS.
Instead, treatments previously included antihistamines, alpha blockers (used to treat high blood pressure) and anti-inflammatory medications such as diclofenac, doctors said.
Other behavioral therapies and mindfulness techniques have also been shown to be “beneficial” to patients and should be offered, they added.