Deadly Sex Allergies

Many areas in the sexual world have remained hidden for too long behind the doors of fear, ignorance, inexperience, and hypocrisy. With the belief that the repression of any and all sexual information is physically and emotionally damaging, we present this series of revealing articles to keep your sexual knowledge current, to lessen your inhibitions and—ultimately—to make you a better lover.

Jessie slid in between the sheets, and Alex pulled her warm body to him. In the last six months, he'd gotten to know every curve, every cleft of her body. She rolled over to receive him, and Alex entered her easily.

Soon she began the quick, sharp breathing that signaled her approaching orgasm; Alex could feel her muscles contracting. He couldn’t hold back any longer, and he came into her as she let out a low groan.

But something was wrong. Jessie was having a hard time breathing; She had turned pale and was gasping for breath, trying desperately to suck air into her lungs. She began seeing spots and grasping at the dark in panic. An adrenaline rush of fear swept through her body. She was suffocating. Alex called the paramedics, and they rushed Jessie to a hospital, where emergency room doctors were finally able to resuscitate her.

Jessie was lucky, luckier than many women like her, because she suffers from a very deadly and little-known condition that is hard for doctors to detect. Jessie is allergic to sex.

Most of us have heard something about the common sex-related allergies women contract from time to time. They’re usually mild skin rashes caused by the body’s sensitivity to a foreign substance like a douche, a spermicidal jelly, vaginal creams, and even certain brands of condoms. While the resulting rash can be a nuisance and can cramp a couple's sex life for a week or so, such allergies are usually not very serious and clear up soon after the woman stops using the product in question.

Seminal Plasma Allergy

But there are two much more serious sex-related allergies: One—the condition suffered by Jessie—is a severe allergic reaction to seminal plasma, the fluid that is ejaculated during orgasm and carries the male sperm. The second is an allergic reaction to the sperm itself, which causes infertility. Either of these allergies, if undetected or untreated, can shatter a couple's lives.

The seminal-plasma allergy, known by doctors as "acute allergic reaction to seminal plasma," is a relatively rare condition that remains a virtual mystery. Although research is currently underway to unravel the riddle of this disease, doctors understand very little about the actual mechanics of the allergy.

What they do know is that certain women start producing antibodies against proteins found in seminal plasma. The allergy can suddenly occur years after a woman has begun having sex, or it can happen the first time; Doctors still don’t know what exactly triggers the reaction. But when the plasma enters the affected woman's vagina, her antibodies—a person's natural defense system—somehow bind to the tissue of the vaginal walls, creating an allergic reaction within the body. It's as if the body’s defense system mistakes the seminal protein for an invading foreign body.

"It’s a very unusual problem, and we don’t know all there is to know about it," conceded one doctor researching the issue. "We don’t even know why it actually happens." The doctor, an immunologist at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, has specialized in treating the disorder.

Once the woman starts producing antibodies against the plasma, the allergy, in most instances, advances in three stages. Like an allergic reaction to penicillin, it grows more severe each time the afflicted woman is exposed to the substance. The initial reaction to the allergy is generally a mild skin rash. This deceptively harmless reaction is especially dangerous because these early symptoms for the most part go unnoticed and untreated. If not treated, however, the allergy enters the second stage, which involves respiratory complications similar to those experienced by Jessie. If the condition progresses to the third stage, the woman slips into shock. At this point, her blood pressure plummets, and without immediate medical attention—usually shots of adrenaline—the allergy will prove fatal.

The allergic reaction is unpredictable in the speed of its progression. Typically, it grows gradually more serious with each repeated contact during intercourse. However, with some—as with Jessie—it can take several months to become critical. With others, it may lie dormant for a period of time and then strike again.

The major obstacle in treating this allergy is a general ignorance about the condition itself—on the part of victims and doctors. Because the allergy is relatively rare, most physicians don’t look for a sex-related allergy when treating a case of hives, and by the time they suspect something else, the victim's condition is usually critical. When the allergy is suspected, it can be diagnosed with a battery of high-tech scratch tests and blood samplings, in which seminal plasma is injected into the patient in order to gauge her reaction to the substance and isolate the protein involved.

Once the allergy is diagnosed, its prevention is really quite simple: The woman’s sexual partner must wear a condom during intercourse with her. The woman must also avoid fellatio or at least stop before ejaculation, since it doesn’t matter how seminal plasma gets into her body; The effects are the same whether it enters through the mouth or the vagina.

Sperm Allergy

The second sexual allergy involves an allergic reaction to the sperm cells that are carried inside seminal plasma. The condition, known as sperm antibody, can affect both men and women, and it causes infertility. This allergy can cause far-reaching emotional and psychological problems and has led to the painful deterioration of more than a few marriages.

For example, Rob and Andrea had been trying desperately for years to have a child. Both come from family-oriented backgrounds, and Andrea's inability to conceive was driving the couple crazy.

Andrea felt she had failed as a wife and woman. Rob suffered incredible guilt and stress. Both dreaded going to bed. Eventually, the fear of sterility interfered with Rob’s ability to become erect.

A counselor referred them to a special fertility clinic. After a series of tests, doctors found that Andrea was allergic to Rob’s sperm cells. Unlike Jessie, though, Andrea was not allergic to the plasma but to the sperm itself. For reasons not fully understood by scientists, Andrea’s body was producing antibodies against the sperm cells. For conception to take place, the sperm must be able to penetrate the egg waiting in the uterus. However, in Andrea’s condition, the antibodies surrounded and coated the sperm cells, creating a surface between the sperm and the egg membrane and thus preventing conception.

Doctors believe that about 15 percent of all couples are infertile and that about 30 percent of this group are affected by the sperm antibodies. But diagnosing the problem isn’t easy. Doctors must determine if the woman is reacting to the male's sperm or if the man is producing antibodies against his own sperm.

This is further complicated by the fact that most men who do produce antibodies against their own sperm have perfectly healthy-looking ejaculations.

"The semen may have a high sperm count, it may have a high motility [the ability of the sperm to swim around inside the semen], and it may look as if nothing is the matter," explains one director of a Sperm Antibody Laboratory. "It fools the doctors in many cases. But the problem is that those sperm cells all have a coating of antibody molecules."

Treatment Plan

When the doctor determines the source of the allergy, the patient is usually treated with corticosteroids, a group of specialized hormones that help regulate the body's chemistry. Rob and Andrea were lucky. Andrea was able to conceive after five months of treatment. For many, though, the treatment is fruitless; Doctors report only a 50 percent success rate in treating the allergy.

Although these sex-related allergies are far less common than many of the sexual diseases that plague our society today, they can, nonetheless, wreak havoc on the lives of their victims—more so because they are so hard to diagnose. But a knowledge of symptoms and an ability to detect the condition is half the battle. Ignorance about sexual matters is never healthy, and in the case of sexual allergies, a lack of knowledge can prove fatal.

Prevent Sex Allergies

While there is little that can be done from home for those suffering from sperm antibody, those with a seminal plasma allergy have a simple remedy: wear condoms. However, if you know you are predisposed to sex-related allergies, you may want to play it safe with the types of condoms you use. Sustain condoms are made with natural latex and contain no toxic chemicals, spermicides, dyes, or fragrances.

Sample all three styles of Sustain condoms with the variety pack. With one Ultra Thin 3-pack, one Comfort Fit 3-pack and one Tailored Fit 3-pack, the variety pack is the best way to select the perfect fit for you and your partner. All Sustain condoms are Fair Trade, vegan certified, and sustainably produced.