Boys, do you get a stuffy nose, fatigue and the sweats after you’ve had sex?
No, it’s not because your performance was so mind-blowing your body couldn’t cope – you could actually be allergic to sex.
That’s right, post-orgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) is an actual medical condition.
The rare condition causes flu-like symptoms to start immediately after you have, ahem, finished.
It was first documented in 2002 and there have been more than 50 cases recorded worldwide – but it could be even higher if men have not heard of the condition before.
A recent paper from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans noted: “POIS is a rare condition that is underdiagnosed and under-reported.
“Further studies are warranted to investigate the prevalence, pathophysiology, and treatment of this debilitating condition.”
Men who suffer from the condition can experience extreme fatigue, weakness, a fever or sweating, mood changes or irritability, problems concentrating, a stuffy nose and itching eyes after getting down and dirty.
They may occur within seconds, minutes or even a few hours after ejaculation.
And they can last as long as two to seven days.
While the symptoms of the condition are widely recognized, the cause of them is not.
The most commonly held belief is that the flu-like symptoms may be caused by a semen allergy which causes an immediate immune reaction.
A semen allergy is an allergic reaction to a protein found in a man’s ejaculate.
It mostly affects women but has been known to affect men too.
Another theory is that some men may have a disorder affecting their endogenous opioid receptors – the most common being endorphins.
Their body is unable to cope with the amount of endogenous opioids being released when they have sex.
As the cause of the condition is not known treating it can prove difficult.
Some men have been treated with antihistamines, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (typically used as antidepressants) and benzodiazepines (a depressant).
One study has used hyposensitization to treat two men by decreasing their allergy response through exposure – in other words the more they ejaculated the lesser their symptoms became.
The treatment did not cure their symptoms entirely, but they did ease up over time.
Until the exact cause of the condition is known a cure cannot be found.
Now, it might seem like an allergy you’d be prepared to live with – after all a stuffy nose is worth a toe-curling orgasm, right?
But it can have huge impact on a man’s love life and even stop him having sex entirely.
Experts from Tulane University also noted the condition limits sexual encounters, can ruin a man’s chance at romance and can even cause them to completely avoid anything that turns them on.
That’s certainly not something you’d be willing to give up.