A MAN allergic to his own orgasms tried to steer clear of sex for years to avoid debilitating symptoms.
The 22-year-old was consumed by sneezing, watery eyes, stomach cramps, muscle pain and deep fatigue in the hours after climaxing.
His symptoms grew steadily worse, leaving him unable to get out of bed or go to work for two or three days.
The man was struck by this bizarre collection of symptoms from the very first time he ejaculated aged 14 and he continued experiencing them over the years - after sex, masturbation, or even 'wet dreams'.
It got to the point that he began avoiding sex and had problems with his relationships.
Before being seen to by medics at the Carmel and Lin Medical Centers in Haifa, Israel, the 22-year-old had been prescribed anti-depressants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs (ADHD) by neurologist, which failed to ease his symptoms.
He visited the clinic in Haifa after reading about semen allergies.
The patient described his full list of symptoms to medics, who published a paper on them in the American Journal of Case Reports.
"The symptoms included [a runny nose], sneezing, conjunctivitis and itchy eyes, abdominal pain with soft stool, [pain while peeing], fatigue, muscle pain, lethargy, brain fog, inability to get out of bed, difficulty expressing himself, and a feeling that his brain is 'not functioning'," the case report authors wrote.
The symptoms started off mildly two to three hours after ejaculation and worsened eight to ten hours later, lasting up to three days.
After examining him, medics from the Carmel and Lin Medical Centers determined that he was in fact suffering post-orgasmic illness syndrome (POIS).
This is a very rare condition, with less than 500 documented in medical literature so far.
Medics aren't sure what brings on the flu-like symptoms following orgasm, but the condition was first described in 2002 by Dutch neuropsychiatrist Dr Marcel D Waldinger, who developed criteria for diagnosing it.
Someone would need to experience telltale signs of the condition shortly after ejaculating for two to seven days in order to be diagnosed with POIS.
The 22-year-old patient was prescribed a combination of strong anti-histamines, anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids, which seemed to ease his allergy-like symptoms and feelings of weakness.
But the drug cocktail did little to alleviate his brain fog and cognitive symptoms.
The man was instead given omalizumab, a drug often used to treat severe asthma, which "completely resolved" his symptoms.
His symptoms resumed when medics tried to lower his dose of the medication, so he was once again put on a higher dose.
"After seven months, he tried to stop the treatment, with recurrence of the symptoms," the case report authors said.
"He therefore resumed treatment once more and he is now symptom free and not taking any other additional medications for POIS.
"He was also able to engage in a relationship," they added.
Doctors suggested that semen allergies may be an underlying cause of POIS.
This would trigger an autoimmune response in the body, which could explain the allergy-like symptoms that some men experience.
The man tested negative for a semen allergy, meaning his condition probably wasn't caused by an allergy to proteins in his semen.
Doctors suspected his orgasms may have activated immune cells called mast cells, which live in the body's connective tissues.
Mast cells are normally activated when they sense invaders like bacteria and viruses, bringing on allergy symptoms like headaches, itching, diarrhoea, and vomiting.
