Comments on: Sneezy After Sex? You Could Have Post Orgasmic Illness Syndrome

By: Vincent Marcus

Vincent Marcus — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:05:17 +0000

I’ve had POIS for four years now and it’s ruined my life even caused me to drop out of college. I’m kind of skeptical of the theory that it’s autoimmune in nature. I think it could also be caused by an imbalance in hormones or neurotransmittors caused by or excacerbated by orgasm.

I feel the title of this article is misleading since most POIS sufferers have debilitating mental fog and exhaustion and/or physical pain and exhaustion. (Sneezing isn’t a common symptom of POIS although eyeburning is).

To Dunbar: The symptoms of POIS are caused by both masturbation and sex. All that is needed is ejaculation even nocturnal emissions cause symptoms. However in some cases orgasm without ejaculation (achieved via surgery or drugs) causes no symptoms.

By: Dunbar

Dunbar — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:32:12 +0000

ah I answered my own question. Never mind.

By: Dunbar

Dunbar — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:30:44 +0000

The testes, among several other places (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_privilege), is normally not visible to the immune system. Also, they’re having allergic symptoms– therefore, it isn’t a great leap of faith to consider that they are having allergic reactions.

I haven’t read the paper but did they consider the possibility that they might be allergic to their partner? I seem to recall some hilarious (after a fashion) research on oral sex and pre-eclampsia. Also, do these symptoms arise after masturbation?

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:48:05 +0000

There’s a big logical problem here.

OK, so posit that men can be allergic to their own semen.

How then are they not suffering these symptoms all the time? The semen is in their gonads at all times. Inside their bodies! Yeah it’s assembled from components into ejaculate (if I remember correctly), but it should still be triggering major ongoing suffering.

I call B.S. on saying that the sufferers are only exhibiting symptoms post-orgasm. Or more correctly, that if such symptoms are only present then, they cannot be a result of an allergic reaction. Something else must be going on.