This post may seem as if it is X-rated or something, but I assure you it is not. It could have potential consequences for cholinergic urticaria sufferers.
The other day, I was reading an article on AOL that was discussing semen allergy (also called POIS, or Post Orgasmic Illness Syndrome). Apparently, men were becoming ill after intimacy, which was stumping many doctors. According to the article, these men would have flu-like symptoms and feel weak after sex.
Initially, doctors didn’t know what was causing it. I suppose the connection was made that the men actually suffered from an allergy to their own semen. If you are a man (like me), I know what you are probably thinking. You are probably thinking, “Maybe cholinergic urticaria isn’t so bad after all”, right? Well, maybe not, but I know hives have certainly ruined a romantic moment for me at times in the past. But at least not EVERY moment.
And any women out there may be thinking, “I am glad I am not a guy.” Not so fast. It turns out women can also be allergic to their husbands semen, although it is very rare. I remember reading a similar article on AOL months ago, where a woman was featured on there. At first, she and her husband had no idea why she would have a painful sensation in her reproductive parts after intimacy. It turns out, she was allergic to him…literally.
The interesting thing about that story was that they desperately wanted children, and I think she was able to eventually become pregnant (I think).
Anyway, here is where the story of male semen allergy gets interesting. In that same AOL article I linked to above, these men we given a unique allergy experiment. They took the men’s semen, and then diluted it with water, and injected it back into their body. This is somewhat similar to “allergy shots” people get each spring, which contain small amounts of allergens (such as pollent) that aggravate them. Over time, they become desensitized to those allergens as the dilution is decreased and their body adapts.
In that same way, men were injected for 1-3 years with their own semen solution. The result? Most noticed a dramatic improvement within 1-3 years. That is very interesting.
What’s This Got to Do With Cholinergic Urticaria?
Several research articles have suggested that cholinergic urticaria may have an autoimmune factor involving antigens in the sweat (or our serum). If this is true, that there could be an underlying autoimmunity, then it stands to reason that similar hyposensitization therapy involving diluted injections of our own sweat or serum could be a potential cure/treatment.
What got me thinking about all of this was when a new forum member, nowash, posted a great post on the cholinergic urticaria forum including information about those cholinergic urticaria being autoimmune.
Wouldn’t that be amazing? Have our own serum and/or sweat removed from our body, and then make allergy shots from it. And then do this for a few years and be done with hives? That would certainly be nice. But not so fast.
Some Potential Road Blocks in This
Before you get too excited, there could be some potential road blocks here.
- 90% of doctors don’t even know about our hives. So convincing them to do such a therapy would be like pulling teeth in most cases. It is hard enough just convincing them we have a hives problem.
- Costs–we all know medical costs are out of control (at least here in the U.S.). So would insurance cover it, and if not, how many hundreds or thousands of dollars are we talking here? It may not be financially feasible for the average CU person.
- It may not work–Even though some research strongly suggests that cholinergic urticaria could be autoimmune in nature (for at least some), there is no guarantee it actually is autoimmune. Even if it is, there is no guarantee this treatment would work. And even if it helped, it still may not cure it.
Nevertheless, this little article was interesting to consider. I definitely think the idea or treatment is worth considering further. Especially seeing as how it helped those men, and allergy shots do help a lot of people. If you have any more info to add, feel free to comment on a thread in the forum about it.