Personal POIS Summaries and Histories.

[emi_b]

Topic purpose:
   To collect personal summaries and histories regarding POIS.

Posted cases (in the order of posting date):
 1. cornelius
 2. Bulls eye
 3. Egordon
 4. Daveman
 5. ...

Note:

• Eeach summary should have only one post

[Bulls eye]

I want to start by saying i cant believe that i actually met people with the same problems that i have i thought i was alone , it sure is helpful to know that the problem has some form of acknowledgment  , I hope you all the best

It all started right after puberty at age 15 , my symptoms are strictly cognitive ,  i remember before pois all my teachers used to say  that am the smartest kid they've seen , i never actually had to study for my exams and have always been the top of my class , i remember the symptoms started at the first year of what you call high school , i managed to get by a B average , which was very hard for me to achieve during my first experience with pois , i am still very depressed , the most valuable asset i had was my IQ , till now i dont really care if i live or die  , i feel that i have nothing to achieve. i have no self esteem .

The symptoms are almost exactly like Cornelius , especially the part about full night sleep would worsen the severity of  pois .

I'm currently 23 ,  i'm afraid to get in a relationship for the obvious reasons, i'm having trouble trying to find a job that suites my condition , am also having problems writing about this in details currently because of pois
 

[emi_b]

Hi Bulls eye, and welcome to this forum.

Yes you are not alone, that's what I also felt when I found this disease, and that there is a forum to discuss this.
I also felt that one of mine abilities was affected (to think), and for a person who relies on this, it is like a sportsman having a injury, which make him unable to do sport for some time.
Good things are happening now in the world of POIS more than anytime, stay close to this community, and also try to find a doctor whom is willing to listen and understand you. This is a curable condition, a recent study proves, and doctors are begining to to more resarch on to this

Best wishes.

[Bulls eye]

Thanks emi_b , well i'm very much willing seeking any professional  help , but i dont think there are doctors who are understanding of new illness where i live (middle-east) , currently  my best hope is staying close to this wonderful community 

[Bulls eye]

Does anyone know any medical tests that i can have ?

[Observer]

I'm currently 23 ,  i'm afraid to get in a relationship for the obvious reasons, i'm having trouble trying to find a job that suites my condition , am also having problems writing about this in details currently because of pois
 

All i can say to you is that the remedies to alleviate the symptoms that i have found here have allowed me to enter in a relationship; this would have been impossible if i wouldn´t find this page. I wish you the best. 

[Samir]

Topic purpose:
   To collect personal summaries and histories regarding POIS.
Note:

• Eeach summary should have only one post

Do you have a suggested format for each summary?  I think all of us should do this, so we have a complete record of our condition.

[Egordon]

Hi Guys,

Intro:  I’ve had POIS for about the last 6 – 7 years. I’m 26 now and since graduating from university I’ve become more interested in diagnosing and finding a cure for this disorder, as it’s become something of a barrier to my professional development. I’m sure many of you can relate. My symptoms have been pretty intense for the past few years as I generally have a very active libido and spent much of them orgasm-ing once or twice a day. Fortunately, my symptoms aren’t especially severe – I have fairly intense “brainfog” and fatigue but very little in the way of pain, insomnia, swelling, etc. It takes me about 4 days to recover from orgasm.

Symptoms:

Cognitive issues: I’m a very intellectually engaged dude and regularly participate in the sorts of activities that typically allow one to develop a strong memory (reading, analysis, writing, some puzzles, etc.) but for years have had trouble remembering JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. This problem is especially severe for me: I used to have trouble remembering things as simple as my birthday, what my “life story” is, or what I was saying/thinking of a few seconds ago. When suffering from POIS I also have a lot of trouble recalling the correct words and organizing my thoughts – which is a huge problem because my writing ability is really my only marketable skill. In turn, the difficulties I’ve had thinking have made me somewhat socially anxious, as it’s hard for me to recall the sorts of things that make for normal and interesting casual conversation when suffering from intense brainfog.  This anxiety is reduced by about 70% when I’m able to think clearly – when I’m not under POIS, that is.

Fatigue: When suffering from POIS I lack motivation completely and performing the most basic mental functions wears me out. (I’m especially interested in this symptom, as it (-- like many of my cognitive-related symptoms --) doesn’t go away entirely even once POIS has subsided, which leads me to think that I may have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and that POIS exacerbates the problems that I normally have to a slighter degree. I’ll start a separate thread for this, but how do you guys feel about this theory? Do you retain traces of your symptoms when not suffering from POIS?)

Head/Eye pressure: After orgasm I get a great deal of pressure in my head and especially my eyes. The pressure is so intense that it leads to the partial closure of my left eye for about 2 days after O. I’m a little photosensitive then too. This makes seeing things slightly more difficult but I still retain 20/20 vision (I’ve been tested multiple times) (I’ve also had my ocular pressure tested and been told that it’s completely normal). It’s mainly just incredibly uncomfortable. When I was a teenager, on the other hand, my eye problems used to be incredibly severe. After O, as I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep my eyes would squeeze the pressure or inflammation or whatever out of themselves for about a half hour. This would happen every night (ah, teenage hormones) and was incredibly painful. It was later diagnosed by a clearly nonplussed doctor (wrongly, I believe) as a migrane…

When under POIS this head pressure also gives me a weird, congested feeling in my head. I just feels like my sinuses and all the other chambers, pockets and passages in my head that should be open, have been closed up.

Muscle Tightness: After O muscles in my neck and shoulders remain tight for about 3 days. They used to be so tight that it would cause pain and require constant stretching but (as I’ll discuss in a minute) breathing exercises have significantly alleviated this problem.     

Things that help:

Diet: Cognitive dysfunction has always been my biggest difficulty and diet has helped some. I’ve found that it’s really important to ensure that you’re getting enough water and enough iron as water REALLY impacts your mental clarity and iron-levels are a major determinant of energy-levels. Again, these haven’t made my POIS go away, they’ve only made some of the symptoms less severe. I want to experiment with diet more, as it seems a fruitful and somewhat unexplored aspect of this disorder – especially if you believe, as I do, that there may be a link btwn Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (which many people say is caused by yeast-levels and mitigated by elimination diets) and POIS.  (I should also mention that I think my POIS 1st began to get bad after I stopped using antibiotics to eliminate acne.)

Meditation: Let me start by saying that I’ve been addicted to porn since I was about 17. As a result, I’ve had really disruptive POIS just about every other day since my teen years. Recently, though, I’ve begun to meditate and found that it helped my POIS in a few MAJOR ways. First off, the relaxation and focus associated with meditation has really allowed me to control my mind a lot better and veer away from sexual thoughts. This, naturally, has allowed me to significantly reduce orgasm and POIS. If there are any other individuals that have struggled with hyper-active sex drive and porn-addiction out there, I really cannot say enough about the benefits meditation! You all should try it! Furthermore, I’ve found that breathing meditations – which require the meditator to focus exclusively on her/his breathing for a significant amount of time – have really helped reduce the mental clutter and achieve better focus.  This, in turn, helps with motivation and workplace productivity. Lastly, I’ve found that meditation more or less eliminates the neck/shoulder pain and tension I was experiencing, probably by helping me relax. (As I said, I’ve become kind of anxious because of my difficulty with memory and articulating my thoughts when under POIS. Meditation helps A LOT with this.)

..so essentially I’m a meditation freak now.

Things I’ve tried that haven’t really helped:

-Anti-inflammatories: Although these help somewhat with the head/eye pressure, they don’t do much for my other symptoms

-Marijuana: Yep, as a long-time Californian I can say that I’ve “self-medicated” with this quite a few times. It too made my head/eye pressure and muscle pain less noticeable but (obviously) made cognitive problems way worse.

-Muscle relaxers: Was prescribed these by that doctor that diagnosed my head pressure as a migrane. They did very little for me.

-Claritin-D: This is a histimine-blocker and as many people seem interested in them on this site I feel obliged to address my experiences with them. I took Claritin-d for about 1.5 years after a sympathetic doc diagnosed my pressure as sinus congestion. I remember it helping somewhat – probably because when I get POIS I feel like all the chambers in my head close up. So the Claritin probably helped my sinuses open up a little. The gains weren’t especially large though (and only the congested/tight head feeling was impacted) and I ultimately discontinued use.


Sorry for writing so gosh darn much and thanks for accepting me as a member of your board!

[Green]

It's extremely invigorating to see how similar we all are in terms of personality, when I read some of the posts above it felt as though I'd typed them, myself.

I'll also do a write up very soon, once I'm out of this POIS haze.

Thank you for the above writeups, it truly makes me feel I'm not alone with this.

[Daveman]

POIS Summary Daveman

Intro

Well, I feel like I'm repeating, but all the more reason to put our summary here. We can come here if we want to know if someone is "in the same POIS group", or when we need to tell someone about our history, instead of repeating it in a million parts of the forum, we can refer to this post.

My POIS started late, maybe about 6 years ago, I'm 62 now, although I really only came to understand that the symptoms were related to orgasm in the last 2 or 3 years.

I believe my POIS started as a result of a vasectomy reversal about 10 years ago. I had a vesectomy when I was about 22.... I had had my two daughters and my wife (EX) had a difficult time with both, needed induction and had bleeding and stuff.. so I decided to shut down the factory.

No problem, in fact had a great time!!

Then with THIS marriage, my wife was still young enough to have children, and really wanted them so we tried a reversal. I was 50 ish, so had had the vasectomy for about 30 years. The urologist that did the reversal told me that my chances of having children would be quite low, the main reason was that I had developed antibodies to sperm and once I had the reversal, that these anitbodies would destroy the sperm.

He indicated that the autoimmune battle could also probably effect the vas and epydidimis, therefore closing the pathway that he would be opening with microsurgery.

But after the operation, and for a good 4 years, although I was still sterile, I was healthy. Sperm counts showed sperm, but they said it looked like a war zone. Most were DOA, many crippled and the rest were few.

But the autoimmune battle took it's toll.

I am certain, that each orgasm releases the sperm into the beaten up tubes, another battle begins, and the type I reaction leads to the type IV reaction, just as Dr. Waldinger suggests.

Symptoms

Physical

I have mostly physical symptoms.

• Within an hour I feel a sort of rush, maybe similar to the histamine rush, throughout the body.
• Within 4 hours POIS is full blown. I am usually trying to sleep.
• Flu like symptoms.
• Stiffness in muscles and joints, can't stay in one position for very long.
• Sweating.
• Heavier Heart beat, although BP is low

Next day - Day 1

• No physical energy
• Joints and muscles sensitive to any work or force
• Heart responds quickly to any work
• Neck and back pain
• Sensitive skin

Day 2 to Day 4:
Physical problems give way to cognitive problems

• No energy to do anything
• Brain Fog
• No Creativity
• Rarely have depressive sessions. If I do they are strong and scary

Day 5 and beyond, can vary from 5 to 10 days

• Joints swollen and sore
• Muscles stiff and sore from very little effort

[Vincent M]

                                Vincent M POIS Treatment Summary

Age: 28 Height: 5'6" Weight: 130 to 145 lbs Ethnicity: 50% caucasian(German-English), ~40% Hawaiian, some japanese, bit of hispanic.

I learned how to ejaculate at the late age of 17 years old. Prior to this age I was in excellent physical condition and was a formidable athlete. 

Ejaculation frequency: Once a night. Without using willpower I have about 3 or 4 ejacs a day.

I believe my POIS symptoms are most likely caused by inflammation due to an allergic/autoimmune reaction to some component of my semen triggered by ejaculation or from hormonal/neurotransmitter imbalances. Could also be an immune reaction to an infection of the prostate or something else in the seminal fluid.

POIS symptoms: My symptoms include burning eyes, back pain, extreme physical & mental exhaustion, joint pain, weaker skin(cut/bleed easier shaving), dry skin, bloating, fat/puffy face (feels like my face is falling off my skull sometimes and as if there's a film of plastic between my flesh and bone), itchy anus, pain during urination and bowel movements, general and social anxiety, weak blood circulation (limbs get cold fast and fall asleep easily), increased sensitivity to any pain or irritation including noise & temperature, decreased memory, decreased thought speed, and decreased ability to hold multiple thoughts in my mind simultaneously, thinning hair, premature ejaculation, unstable emotions, feels like not enough blood is getting to my head,  and probly a few others I haven't noticed yet.

Symptom onset is immediate after ejaculation and lasts for approximately a week.

These symptoms caused me to drop out of college and become almost completely bed-ridden (before I found the following meds/treatments).

Wheat Intolerance: Cutting out wheat improved my symptoms more than any other remedy. When my symptoms first began I noticed some bloating. I now believe this was inflammation of my intestines, which lead to impaired digestion and malabsorption of nutrients. Since I cut out wheat(perhaps gluten) my symptoms improved greatly, but I developed a flatulence problem. Then I cut out most fiber and animal products, which helped decrease the gas. Now I eat mostly potatoes, white rice, oatmeal, beer, and most fruits and veggies.

Ginger Tea: I boil ginger in a tea pot for 20 minutes and then drink it. It is the second most beneficial thing for my POIS after cutting wheat out of my diet.

Fenugreek(crushed seeds)+Garlic/Tea: Also known as methi seeds. For fenugreek I've found two different brands to work for me so far: Solaray and Nature's Way. Those are the only two brands I've tried so far. I take three 620mg fenugreek capsules every morning with tea to further help me reduce the POIS inflammation from the orgasm I usually have every night. Taking the fenugreek with tea or garlic seems to be the only way fenugreek really works. Drinking green or black tea right after taking the herb works better than garlic for me. I take the fenugreek in the morning, because if I take it at night I won't be able to fall asleep due to the energy enhancement it gives me. This has been reliably improving my symptoms for over a year and has been my most effective treatment. I've recently ordered 1 pound of crushed fenugreek seeds to save money and have been taking about 1/4 of a teaspoon with green tea every morning. Seems to work just as well as the capsules.

Saw Palmetto: The saw palmetto (swansan brand) reduces POIS inflammation in a similar way to fenugreek, but I take one 540mg capsule about 15min before my orgasm since it doesn't affect my sleep. Saw Palmetto helps my lower body and joint/muscle inflammation mostly while fenugreek helps my facial and brain inflammation more. I believe saw palmetto helps stop the inflammation at the point of the initial allergic/autoimmune reaction since it is well known to reduce inflammation in the groin region. I also think this because after I started taking saw palmetto I no longer had any pain during urination or bowel movements. In this way it is best taken 30min to 15min before an ejac. This is my second most effective treatment.

Huperzine: Been taking two 100microgram tabs for the past weeks every morning with green tea, a bit of fenugreek powder, and green tea. I've noticed a steady improvement in my memory, cognitive function, and both cognitive and physical energy-The effect is small, but noticeable. While taking this I remember my dreams in more detail than I have since getting POIS and going by this measure I would say it improves my memory more than any other treatment I've tried except concerta and coffee.
If I take 200 micrograms a day of huperzine I'll notice the effect in 3 or 4 days in the form of more vivid dreams and improved memory. One odd thing that happened was a couple days after a week of somewhat heavy alcohol drinking I tried taking 200mcg of huperzine, but it caused nausea and a bad headache for a whole day.

Chocolate: After a few days of eating semi-sweet chocolate chips my energy levels skyrocketed. I know some of this was from the small amount of caffeine in chocolate, but I regularly drink tea and coffee so there is something else in chocolate that has a dramatic effect on my POIS symptoms. Under ingredients these are listed: Chocolate Liquor, Sugar, Soy Lecithin(as emulsifier), and Vanilla.

Cod liver oil capsules: Great source of vitamin D, which is why it's different than normal fish oil capsules. The vitamin D is probably more bioavailable than the tablets. Good if you don't get much sunlight and/or have darker skin.

Peppermint/ginger/fennel oil capsules: Aids digestion a lot and makes my burps and farts smell less.

Cannabis: For the past few months I've been smoking marijuana before my nightly orgasm and it seems to relieve a lot of my physical symptoms. It also aids digestion, but makes me more horny the next day.

Phosphatidylserine: One 500mg Source Naturals brand capsule relieves some cognitive impairment from POIS.

Nutmeg: Remember nutmeg can cause death in higher doses. Tried it for 3 days and it reduced my POIS significantly although it is not as effective as my other meds. I take 1/4 or 1/2 of a teaspoon of ground nutmeg in the morning with milk and that protects me from the worst of the physical and cognitive symptoms, but it also seems to make me sleepy and unmotivated. I find that it works well if I have nothing to do and if I have time to just sit around the house for a few days surfing the web.

Claritin: (An antihistamine). For about a month I took the generic version of Claritin (Loratadine) to reduce my POIS symptoms. One 10mg pill would protect me from a good amount of my physical symptoms and maybe some of my cognitive symptoms from an ejac for about 3 nights. Since I have an orgasm every night this meant I could take one pill and be protected for 3 nights. If I took another pill the second night I would get a headache the day after.

Benadryl: (An antihistamine). I take the generic version of benadryl (diphenhydramine) just cuz it's cheaper than the brand version. I picked some up at at my local pharmacy for like $5 for 20 pillls 25mg each just to try it out. I find taking a single 25mg benadryl pill about an hour before an orgasm prevents much of my physical POIS and some of the cognitive symptoms of POIS. I recently tried taking three 25mg benadryl pills and I believe I felt even better the day after the waking up from the nightly orgasm. However I now think that much of the benefit I get comes from better sleep quality after taking this.

Clonazepam: Warning-High potential for tolerance and addiction. Vaporizes social anxiety within 1 hour after taking a dose. I take 2 to 3mg about an hour before work and it makes going to work just about bearable. The only side effect I've had is that if I overwork my body while on it my pain will be worse after it wears off than previously. It actually gives me more energy and increases my cognitive and motor functions and reduces physical pain to a significant extent.

Niacin: I can get a flush with 200mg of plain nicotinic acid if I don't eat anything about 10hrs before. If I orgasm about an hour after taking the niacin as the flush is starting to die off then go to sleep I'll wake up the next day with vastly less physical symptoms than normal. It eliminates about 70 to 90% of my physical POIS symptoms. I'm still unsure of its affect on my cognitive symptoms. Capsules lose potency within weeks/months, perhaps not as quickly if stored extra carefully.

Concerta: This is extended release Ritalin. Took it for ADD, but I found it to enhance my cognitive energy and ability only if I took it about once a week.

Coffee: Improves energy and cognitive function, but makes me urinate too much to use if leaving the house and irritates my stomach lining.

Mucuna Pruriens: 350mg. Improves energy and cognition slightly and improved my eye burning moderately. Noticed stronger heart beats after about a week daily and taking that into account it's possible that the beneficial effects for me are from improved blood circulation. This increased heartbeat lasts for roughly another week and is annoying because when I lay down I can feel my heart beating in my chest without putting my hand to the area. Due to this I now think that tyrosine might be a better option to increase dopamine levels. If I took it again I'd take only 350mg daily for three days and monitor my heart for the following week before taking any more just to make sure. I've never had any problems with my heart before so it made me sort of concerned.

Cayenne pepper: Improves all symptoms to a similar extent to garlic.

Highly Bio-Available Vitamin B Complex: Seems to improve physical pois symptoms and muscle strength slightly. See this post for specifics about the B complex I took: http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=468.msg8715#msg8715

Acetyl L-Carnitine: Helped a little less than the b complex. Starts working after several days at 500mg twice daily.

Carrots: Eating one carrot a day improves my cognitive function a barely noticeable amount. Doesn't work as well as the other supplements.

Boswellia Resin: Improves scalp itching and perhaps joint pain.

Fish Oil Capsules: Decreases eye burning slightly.

Salt Water: Relieves a tiny bit of my eye pain and may improve cognitive function. A small spoon of iodized salt mixed into a glass of water.

Ginkgo: Seemed to improve cognition slightly on a few occasions, but I need to test it more to be certain.

Vaseline, tiger balm, pain relieving creams, olive oil- Helps joint pain and eye burning (via moisturization)

Leave-in-Conditioner- Helps scalp irritation

Mid-day Nap/ Meditation- Helps fatigue later in day.

Avoiding electronic entertainment or any activities that cause high pleasure spikes: Helps balance my emotions. For example if I watch a movie early in the day I will be less motivated to perform chores or less pleasurable productive activities because those activities will seem much less enjoyable compared to the movie.

Avoiding any computer screen 2 hrs before bed: Helps induce sleep. Reading over boring material during these 2 hrs helps induce sleep.

Bread & butter: Right before bed, helps induce sleep.

Milk: Right before bed, helps induce sleep.

Walking/Light exercise: If done early or mid-day helps induce sleep later that night.

Brief Cold exposure: Walking outside in winter in a t-shirt for 10-15min or taking a cold shower can induce alertness and reduce libido. It might also reduce inflammation cuz alternating hot/cold is known to have that effect.

Method used to stop pulling hair out of head: Stretching my toes apart & massaging my feet is equally pleasurable to pulling hair out of my head and keeps my hands busy.

These meds/treatments have transformed me from a bed-ridden near-vegetable in constant pain into a fairly capable person with a high energy demanding convenience store job(which I've since quit after working there for 2 months).   If you have any further questions I'd be more than happy to help out any fellow POIS sufferer.

Elevation?For the past 11 months I've been working at a place that is at an elevation of 10 meters, while I've been living at an elevation of 306 meters for the past 7 or 8 years. I work 8 hour shifts 5 days a week and over this time I've been working there I've noticed a steady improvement in my health. At my previous job located closer to home I only lasted 2 months due to developing unbearable back pain. My current job isn't any easier on my back except that we stand on cushioned mats, but I doubt that would make such an extreme difference.
Throughout highschool I was at 131 meters and an hour further north than where I now live. The first few years after I moved to a higher altitude my health worsened and then seemed to balance.
First college was 79 meters. I didn't live on campus there, but I noticed I felt a little healthier while I was attending classes there. At the time I thought the ~40 minute drive was somehow good for me.
College was 500 meters. While I lived on campus there my health noticeably worsened a lot. It was also a few hours further north though.
http://veloroutes.org/elevation/

Unhelpful Treatments:
Fluoxetine(Prozac): Just made me tired and lose hair. Increased all POIS symptoms slightly.
Venlafaxine(Effexor): Caused fatigue, bone pain, heart pain, and knee pain. The other side effects resolved, but my knees still hurt years later.
Neem: Took one capsule for almost 2 months with no effect.
SLIT: Lazy version in which I just held pure semen under tongue for 5 min and swallowed. About 3 months almost every night. No effect.
NSAIDS/Tylenol: Zero effect.
Valerian: Didn't decrease my anxiety or help me sleep. No effect.
L-theanine: No effect. ~10 separate occasions.
Sublingual Gaba: No effect, but only tried a few pills.
Zinc Gluconate: No effect. About ten separate occasions.
Kava: No effect. Only tried a few times.
Gotu kola: No effect. 16 day trial of 100mg-200mg daily.
Damiana leaf: No effect, but only tried a few caps.
N-acetylcysteine(NAC): No effect. 14 day trial of 600mg-1200mg daily.
Vitamin D3: No effect. ~1-2 month trial.
Methionine: 500mg once a morning for 6 days seemed to make symptoms slightly worse.

Look for further updates in the future.

[Jon]

Hey guys, If there is already a topic for this post pleast feel free to move it. I did look and couldn't find it so thats why I'm making this a new topic.

Thanks to fellow member on the Naked Scientists Forum, Kurtosis, i have experienced some relief and for the first time in a couple of years I have felt alive. Mind you my problem is constant, Mainly cognitive but the physical is there. Here's what I'm taking:


Before sex:
200mg Niacin

After sex:
1000 mg chlorella
1000mg Vitamin C

Every day:
1 multivitamin every morning
Fish oil throughout every day
Vitamin C - 1000mg every day
ZMA - Before bed

Once a week:
Chlorella - 1000 mg

I have only taken these products for a few days but I have felt alive for the first time in years. My ocgnitive functioning was so bad that psychiatrists thought I was a schizoprenic. Couldnt even go to the store without extreme confusion and paranoia. I have been able to start to get active in the past few days and it feels great.

I also ordered Lecithin, Folic Acid, Spirulina, Olive Leaf Extract, And Saw Palmetto in pill form but have yet to try them. If anybody has had positive effects from these and thinks that may be worth taking please let me know.

I am hoping that this is not just placebo and that this continues !

[fsol]

Hey guys, this is my POIS diary. Some of this is a repetition from another post but I thought I might as well post it here.

Introduction:

I'm a 33 year old male from Denmark. I have a pretty normal sex life, with many different partners over the years. I have no medical conditions otherwise and never had either. For years I've felt this very strong fatigue after having an "O" but I always figured that was just how it was. Who could I ask about this anyway? Someone told me that having an O is like running a 10k race.. But for me it's not just a saying, it's literally how I feel.

The last year I've started to become more and more aware of it. I've had a partner for the last year and every time we've had sex I've been totally drained the next day. If I had a bad sleep (which you can often have, sleeping next to someone else), it's been even worse. Some people here describe it as being hit by a bus. For me it's more like being hit by a minivan.. I have a heavy brain-fog and I look really tired. The muscles around my eyes and my cheeks are for some reason relaxed so I have almost saggy eyes often with a slight dark area underneath them. My muscles are also sore, mostly in the lower part of my body, my hips, lower back and my thighs being hit the hardest.

Energy-wise I feel that I have very limited energy for the whole day. In my mind I'm trying to conserve that energy by making plans like - should I drive all the way there or not? Then I might not have enough energy for the way back.. and so on. And when my energy is about to go in the red, things get really bad. Especially because I can get a bit irritable, so I often just pretend that everything is fine and try to make it through the day without my partner noticing. She sometimes comments that I look tired though, and I know I do.

The same goes for when I have an O by myself. I can literally decide if tomorrow is going to be a crap day or not, by deciding to have an O or not. If I do, I can be sure to wake up without any energy at all, and my head in a light to medium brain fog..

My symptoms mostly only last for a day, but I can definitely feel them stronger if I have O's two days in a row. With abstinence the symptoms disappear.

Treatment:

After finding this forum, I've read a lot about different kinds of supplements and I've received a lot of great advice from fellow members. I'm very thankful for all this help. Here is what I've tried so far. I will keep updating this post in the future as my experiments progress, it might be useful to someone.

1st time:
Took 10mg Claritin 10 Mins before O at night. Slept 8 hours, bad sleep. No effect on POIS at all the next day.

2nd time:
Took 2 x 10mg Claritin and 50mg of Suhagra (similar to Viagra) at night on full stomach. Felt a little drowsy as it said on the Claritin package I would. Had O around 30 mins later. Slept 10 hours, average to good sleep. Next day, POIS was around 40% less.

3rd time:
Next evening took 2 x 10mg Claritin 5 mins after O. The day after, 40% less POIS. Maybe it was the Claritin of the previous night that was still working.

4th time:
Took 2 x 100 mg niacin. Waited until flush and then 10 mins more before O. Bad sleep, 7.5 - 8 hours. No noticeable effect the day after.

5th time:
Took 2 benadryl, 3 fenugreek and 1 saw palmetto. Waited 1 hour and then had O. This was daytime and I was not able to rest after that. Felt very tired after that and had to sleep a few hours later in the day. Later that night, O again, without taking anything. Next day was very heavy, brain fog and tired but not quite as bad as in the past where I didn't take anything.

So as you can see, so far I haven't had any real breakthrough. Claritin has worked somewhat for me, but I will keep experimenting with Niacin, since a lot of people have had a good results with that.

[Suppertime]

Introduction

I'm a 23 year old chinese male, who just recently became a man/lost his virginity. I've had girlfriends, don't get me wrong, but after masturbating since I was 13, and had symptoms since I was 16. Back then, I didn't know what was causing my malfunction. I always suspected it was something I was or wasn't doing spiritually, I was a strange kid. I never suspected that ejaculating was causing it. Just recently I found out this forum and the term. So thank you.


Symptoms

Almost 30 minutes after ejaculating, I would feel a large overwhelming warmth, yet it's a hollow warmth - almost like I'm a tiny and and someone is putting a jar over me. Pain overwhelms me in the stomach area, possibly my Prostate. With the pain occurring in my abdominal area, it would give me a slight migraine. But piercing enough that it limits my cognitive abilities. I would have a hard time concentrating in a conversation, recalling memories, and even thinking of words. I felt like a poor 10 year old trying to talk to the King. So this took a toll on my confidence for many many years.

Relationships

Because of those symptoms, I lost many girlfriends. I wouldn't be able to tell them how I felt about them. I would become irritable and angry, but because of my personality, I wouldn't tell them that I was angry. I would hold it inside until the point where I couldn't look at them anymore. I avoided them, they avoided me, it was a high school mess (actually, that was in hs).

Treatment

I went to my urologist, had a prostate exam: the exam itself was painful, especially when he came in contact with my prostate. There shouldn't be any pain.

He prescribed me:

Ciproflaxacin, an antibiotic. It didn't help.

Flomax. Used for enlarged prostate. At the time I was using B Vitamins and I think it helped a little. It initially helped A LOT, but I think that was placebo, as it doesn't work anymore.

Stopped seeing him for a while. Mostly because I've given up.

[anon80]

Hi,

I've been suffering from POIS symptoms (90% on the list) for over 15 years. I somehow always suspected it was linked to O, but this just didn't make any sense, so I've never mentioned this to doctors. I've finally googled today my symptoms + O and realised that there's something called POIS. Wow! This really explains a lot now, especially that I've gone through extremely extensive tests with everything NEGATIVE and I'm in overall perfect health.

I thought maybe I'll share some experience in dealing with symptoms. I've found that the following seems to help me:
- Vitamin supplement complex really helps (someone mentioned Centrum, which also works for me), but so far I haven't tracked it to one specific Vitamin that helps,
- Getting more sun seems to help - probably linked to Vitamin D,
- Isoprinosine, seems to work extremely well, but I never took it for too long - this would also link the POIS to issues with immune system;
- Humid air - I actually permanently moved from Europe to tropical country as I could not stand dry winter weather, my eyes would feel terrible and nose could even bleed; I feel much better if humidity is over 70% and I try to avoid air conditioning
- Sunglasses - POIS really affects my eyes

I'll surely try some of the remedies mentioned here.

Thanks!

[Daveman]

Great anon80. Welcome. Sure hope we can help.

Although we haven't found a cure, we get closer day by day. We have begun a program to do some real medical research through NORD, the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

We have two main treatments that help greatly, but not for everyone. I myself consider myself practically POIS free now with niacin. You can see lots of stuff about that in the Xanthiol Nicotinate thread. Xanthiol Nicotinate is an injectable and enhanced form of niacin, but we have since found that niacin by itself is just as effective, doesn't require injection and much more available.

Our co-moderator Demografx has very good success with testosterone. It's a little more difficult to get perscriptions for "T", and there are certain precautions that need taking, it's not for everyone, but both of these methods provide more insite into what POIS is, and may eventually lead to an ultimate cure.

You'll see lots of other stuff here as well so dig in. Feel free to tell your story, share your ideas and become part of the group.

[anon80]

Thanks for the info!

[b_jim]

Introduction :
I'm a 33 old year male from France, caucasian.
I started masturbation at 14 years (1 a day at least). My symptoms started before 15 years but not after each orgasm, mainly cogntive. At 16, I get the symptoms after each orgasm and I get some flu-like symptoms (mainly warmth, knee pains/joint pains years later)
Now my orgasm frequency is once a week.

Symptoms :
Before 2008 : 3 or 4 days after ejaculation.
In 2008 year, a french friend give me an important advice. I stopped to eat sugar and I reduce bad carbohydrates. I try to eat more healthy and to avoid glucose spikes.
It make a HUGE difference in my Pois. 4 years later I can conform it was the most important thing in my Pois by far. No placebo effect.
I had especially strong typical diarrheas 3 or 4 hours AFTER each ejaculation during 15 years. Now, this symptoms is 100% by diet. Out-of-pois, sugar give me normal diarrheas and hypoglycemia. The diet improved these symptoms by 90-95%.
Day 2 is the worst.

After 2008 :
10 minutes after ejaculation, I feel cold and I'm sensible to cold. I really think orgasm cause something linked to bloodvessels.
After 3-4 hours and especially 30 minutes after the meal : I feel a warmth. I feel a  fever state. This flu-like symptoms is very dependent of diet. Junk food and carbohydrates have an huge influence of this symptoms.
During the next hours, my cognition is bad. I can't concentrate. I feel like sleeping. I feel tired and I have poor general energy.
Stress has an huge influence on my Pois.


Supplments/meds :
Diet is the only thing that improved my Pois.

Possible help : niacin, magnesium, salmon.

No help with :
Ibuprofen/Aspirin, St-John's Wort, L-Glutamine, L-Arginine, Carnitine, Multi-Enzymes, Bromelain, Fenugreek, Harpogophytum, Coco Oil, High dose of vitamin B5, multi vitamins, omega-3 oils, curcuma/garlic...

Need to test :
Anti-histamine, Testosterone.

[BarcelonaMan]

Hello everyone. I knew  about POIS and about this forum for the first time past Friday, reading an article in a spanish paper. Has been a great discovery for me, thanks a lot for this you have built. Also I don?t want to forget to thank "Observer" his welcome 
 
I?m 40 years old. I feel bad after an "O" too:
My level of energy drops. Memory and mental agility decrease. I loose flexibility in my body, I feel heavy. Sometimes I get headache. Intense light disturbes me. Suddenly I feel thirsty and specially need to relieve a "dry point" that appears in my throat. Just one minute after the ejaculation that point in my throat appears and asks to be sated urgently with a lot of water. If I don?t, I feel drowning.
Also I feel more irascible and negative thoughts arise in my mind. In general I feel empty, I feel less live.
 
Those symptoms last for hours. Twentyfour hours later I feel good again. If I wait for 48, much better.
Usually I have arround six "O"?s a week. Sometimes more. If I have 2 in a day I?m in the hole during 3 days.
I have read some post in the forum and I?ve seen people with more severe and lasting symptoms. In fact what it happens to me I don?t consider it as an illnes. I think it?s normal, I?ll try to explain my point of view:
I don?t feel as an ill, I feel like a junkie. I?m addict to a drug named sex. You don?t need a dealer to get it, your body generates it naturally, but the behavior of this natural drug is exactly the same to any illegal drug. As any illegal drug it gives to you a while of pleasure, but later you have to pay a price for those moments of pleasure. Price to pay is a kind of hangover more or less intense and lasting. For me, that "hangover" is manifested throght the symptoms I described above.

For now is all, friends. Later I?ll share with you other thoughts and experiences I have about POIS

Regards

 

[tantalus]

                              Dear fellow  'lads'with P.O.I.S.

Hello dear  pois community


 Like to introduce myself here as new 'Dutch languaged' member. Did only read a view posts since 2006, but will be here now on weekly basis. Like to help document p.o.i.s treatment, monitor the psychological aspects of integrating the syndrome in social live, sharing insight in progress as well  back-fall. Radiate a critical eye over my own process as well the opinion of others that will ask or tell here whatever comes up.

My P.o.i.s.  was Official diagnosed in 2004 by its 'inventor' prof M. Waldinger. I am one of the about 40  patients that is described in  Waldingers article in 2011, that undergo the subcutaneous test. [to test/prove if its an allergy or just a newage neurosis ] If you are new to the allergy hypothesis  [which I still approve,but*....], see also his article written  2011  in witch he describer 2 patients  who go successfully a desensitization therapy http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/Smileys/default/icon_smile_shy.giftp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/009262302760328280

I did undergo the desentization also, and am  almost at the end of it ....[and with it ;>) ]

Treated with dedesentization, partially progressed but still in  therapy. My therapy takes now about 4 years. Not finished yet. Later on I will describe the effects of the therapy and its side effects during time between the injections. Content with actual state of progress? Sorry, NO**. Of course  much lesser days sick and lesser outlaw of society but still 1 or 2 days  frustratingly under influence of  cognition symptoms and therefore  wiser  hiding for certain social contacts those days. The progress is also waving***

The treatment policy was to keep treatment quiet for the world until first results were published.  Also the goal was not to interfere with other treatments, to keep results objective. Now the end of desensitization cums near [I went from 1 to 40.000 tot 1 to 3], I like to consider adding some help of complementary therapy. Of course I cannot read backwards all 367 posts here before I say /ask needless things, but I hope not to miss alternative healing methods or  tips to help my body accept his own sperm. Need your help to inform me postpone what i can do.

you know already (see my post on naked scientist 24/6/2012) my sidekick  to progesteron became a disappointment .postpone addition:I just removed my former post in which I described the exerience , it would be to much for you to read, wil add an other day....... Whether 2x 5 mg was to less to work, or even enough to interfere negative if of later discussion, If  the skin itches so badly for 3 days it worked in any case!! ...my advise keep your hands of it till all  experienced are bundled here later.   I did read here before already  and in Wiki that a patient was cured!?? with progesteron supletion. Others on pois fora about 6 ? do experiments with it. At the moment i dont have info how the patients react on the progesterone. My first opinion is that the claims are dangerously vague and paradox. but have to read everything over again to 'shoot on it' successfully.

Have no clue if there are complimentary treatment methods. At the moment I get vitamin D supletion, since that is done for now on for all sufferers of all kinds of allergies. My specialist   will monitor progress with  the already started vit D supletion.


My allergist  ( keep him anonymous), tested hormones etc
for further future use/research
Vit D [normal nmol/l >50] ?........= 25.6. wich is to low, testosteron, [nmol/l 12-35] ?..?.=19.0) is ok
progesteron, [nmol/l 0.89-3.88]     =  <0.64)......[this result made me giving the progesteron  the benefit  of the doubt ]......so its intresting it did not help but even 'harm' to get it on normal level  (0.89)
FSH U/l 3-15                               =7.0
sex HBG, nmol/l 20-70 ?............=42
LH, U/l 1-8...................................=5,8blood.....
Hemoglobine , nmol/l 8.5-11.......=8.8
Ige ku/l <114....... ?.....................=9
My Ige before desensblstn Was 12 now 9  this looks intresting  , but does not ?say?  a lot. ****
since patients can experience  strong reactions with Ige levels that indicate opposites.Thats exactly so interesting with our allergy. It does not follow the usual  Ige interpretation strategy. For exact explanation of this paradox ask your own specialist.

again about progesterone:
> WIKI ?Dexters patient was completely treated (COMPLETELY TREATED ??!!) By 5 to 10 miligrames norethisterone Well?.: treated for sex related headaches or pois??  And in witch intervals the tablets are taken. And also in the days without sex? What is the effect on the organism on the long term?   Is there anybody that has spoken to dr. Dexter or his  patient, and !!! how  the present situation is of that patient. Is there any administrator of any poisforum that keeps monitoring the others progesteron  adepts.
> ?Certainly POIS Sr. member of poiscenter writes in
poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=74.msg476#msg476   Dosage 5-15 mg about 1.5. Hours before orgasm but no longer as 12 hrs.
Others, (cant remember the source, sorry)?.do take a tablet also after the sex, but how long after is not mentioned.
Dear  pois fellows?Please let us document this experiments more precise from now on.  I and you and we are walking  complete in the dark now.

Pois and isolation even in the own group: I like to take advantage to come in contact with other dutch patients . In the start to therapy 2004/6 I was promised to be united with the others, but during the cure never an attempt is done to unite the ones who wanted this. A lot did not dare to face the others  was the awnser, i doubt if all of  the dutch are so shy even for their own pois mates. Maybye also other  research convenient reasons will be the cause I never brought in contact with a nother.
Dus jongens, mannen  meldt je [weer] bij me . Kan iemand mijn herinnering dat we een keer samen uitgenodigd zouden wordeN bevestigen? Zie mijn diplomatieke antword op een vraag hierover op naakte wetenschappers,

...about this forum ......disapointingly, to me being on this site is   almost nobody did effort to ad a biography part  in his/her profile. May I invite you to change this, and add some info who you are , why not even your hobbies, and the way you got the clue about your pois, single or not, books who helped you sublimate, what keeps you happy against all odds. Our cause to be here could do it with some prettier info too to digest the serious subject better, and makes us feel recogniced also in nicer side of live. ^

my own biography:

    Dutch,Virgo (25 august),age >45,  profession paramedical, study philosophy, Pois diagnosed  with links to recurrent herpes  hs2.  I am set free from job obligation, so all time for  hobby's: pipe organ (www.Hauptwerk.com) massage, hi end, Bach,  esspresso making, parfume,cosmology ,facebook, I am Dutch NVVE (exit) member, accepted for assisted fulfilled live, Am glad with every love i get from people around and am never depresst, dissapointed YES but lingeing in depression is a masogistic habit. Not my style. Becouse I have POIS, I am extremely happy with all small gifts in Live, One of them are open people that can give! I meet them often because I am open too. I  like friendly irony, my hero's...Voltaire, David hume, Dame Edna, movy's: Bad day at black rock, Lemming, Arteficial intelligence, the Virgin Queen, I am single, for those it matters I am gay, and had 2 relationships which were nightmares for my partners, the last partner 'engaged' me with prof Waldingers theory, and immediately emigrated far away;>)reading/writing   ironic tekst/literature   is my mental food, speak german , my escape from pois is the typical Freudian, enjoy food like   Apfelstrudl mit  Schlagsahne, and other grate German  pasty. Favoured place: the Alps, work as volunteer for  people that had a stroke, my favorite friends: emphatic aspergers.....honest people you never get a chance to get bored.

* start to doubt if an allergy itself could not again be a result of other precursor [ design errors in our dna,genes,might we have 2 dna profiles like is already proven in other cases in the the forensic  science....but that is only my intuition/wild guess  

(will work out  the other asterisks in later posts)

Dutch p.s.
 M. ( van de propellorfirma), ik kan je niet meer bereiken, Vond je onlangs terug, kon niet meer reageren (je gegevens kwijt)na crash pc. Neem  weer kontaky met me op alsjeblieft.

i look curious forward to your comment, glad to re back  

read allso my 'gunshoot'on Progesterone  see the topic elsewhere here  "hormonal causes'