24 Mar 09 MEN IN BED: INTIMATE ALLERGIES

Women who are allergic to sperm. Some women are allergic to their husbands. They may love and desire them, but when it comes to sexual intercourse, they have an allergic reaction. These women are physically allergic to semen. They cannot touch it without reacting. As soon as any part of their body comes into contact with it, they have an allergic response.

At the mild end of the reaction scale, they may experience swelling and itching only in the area of contact. If they are allergy prone, their reaction may become more generalized and they can break out in hives all over or have an asthma attack. In extreme cases, semen can send women into shock. Minutes after contact they feel faint, their blood pressure falls, and they collapse. If they lose consciousness, they usually recover spontaneously. If they don’t, they need emergency treatment. Fortunately no fatalities have yet been reported.

Just as people who are highly allergic to bees carry medication with them in case of a sting, so women who are highly allergic to semen need to keep medication at hand in case of accidental exposure.

One 25-year-old woman experienced vaginal burning and stinging within five minutes of her husband’s ejaculation, symptoms which would last up to an hour. Using her husband’s fresh semen, doctor’s did skin tests on her and quickly produced an allergic response. She developed weals.

Although rare, this problem has been seen in Australia. Several such cases have been reported in the past decade. Some women are allergic to any semen and others are allergic only to a specific man’s semen. There has been one report of a woman who was not only allergic to her husband’s semen, but to his sweat, too. Further testing showed she also had a reaction to her sons’ sweat.

It is unlikely that a woman will grow out of this. Like any other allergy her reaction would probably escalate at first and then remain fairly constant. Although the reaction can be delayed, it usually occurs within five to ten minutes. Even if the exposure to semen is only vaginal, within minutes a woman who has a history of hayfever or asthma can begin wheezing, sneezing or feeling her throat swelling.

Oral sex can be particularly dangerous for such women, as exposure to semen can cause massive swelling in the throat and block off the airways.

The standard way of overcoming a semen allergy is for couples to use condoms. This solution, however, doesn’t suit everyone. Some men suffer from ‘condom impotence’. Without a sheath they are perfectly potent, but the minute one is unrolled they falter. Such impotence has been attributed to performance anxiety or fear of loss of sensation. It is also said to result from the break in stimulation necessary to fit a condom. There are also men who are allergic to latex or to the lubricant used on the condoms. They have to experiment with different brands to find one suitable.

Women can be allergic to condoms, too. Some women have been known to suffer ‘consort dermatitis’: they have allergies to both condoms and semen. Such women could try being desensitised to their husbands’ semen. This can be done with regular injections of semen extract, although this treatment is not 100 per cent successful. Taking antihistamine tablets before intercourse or using a vaginal medication can also help reduce allergy. Others have tried reintroducing contact after long periods of abstinence, but this can be dicey. As a Royal Society of Medicine report says, ‘avoiding contact with semen for prolonged intervals by sexual abstinence or condom usage has lessened the degree of symptoms in some patients but has allowed progression to anaphylaxis (shock) in others’.

So how do couples with this allergy problem have children? One method is to wash the sperm free of the seminal fluid and then place it in the woman’s uterus. Another method involves collecting the woman’s eggs, fertilizing them invitro and then implanting them.

Although women can be physically allergic to their husbands, it seems men can always tolerate their wives. No one has reported anything to the contrary, yet!

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