I think I have POIS

[FrenchGuy]

Hello every one,
I think I have POIS. I am French, and I am 17 years old. I just started to have symptoms 2 years ago. It usually start after ejaculation (orgasm). I feel very bad. I have chest pains (near the heart), I am exhausted, I?m sweating a lot (especially hand palms, underfoot, underarms), I have brain fog, I am less concentrated and very angry. But that?s not all. I have also psychological problems like agoraphobia, claustrophobia, panic attacks, anxiety etc? It?s very hard to bear because it usually happen in super market or during class at school. I went to the doctor and he said it was just anxiety ?cause to the hard studies. At this time I didn?t know what I had. But just few days ago I found this POIS and I just thought it could be my problem but I?m still not sure. Doctors in France seem not to know about that illness. When you talk about orgasm and masturbation they don?t see the problem. So it?s very frustrating. I think that pois comes to me because of ?pornography dependency?? I just started masturbating about 4 years ago very intensively in front of pornography. At the beginning I had no problems by doing that. I had no symptoms. But like I said, pains started 2 years ago. I supposed at first it was masturbation the problem, so I stopped maybe one week. But I couldn?t held it more. And I said to me that it was idiot that orgasm (a very natural thing) could provoke such a problem. My worst symptoms are chest pains very embarrassing and the agoraphobia. I would like you to tell me if I have POIS ?cause I?m not a doctor. And I would like to know what kind of specialist I have to see in order to solve this problem.
Thank you for everyone who will be able to help me. Have a great day.
I just forgot to mention that during this symptoms I have changes in the color of my hand. It turned to red dots and white dots. COntrary to white color.

[Quantum]

Bonjour FrenchGuy, et bienvenue sur ce forum !

The symptoms you described are sure part of symptoms experienced by POIS sufferers.  No one has exactly the same symptoms with the same severity or has all the known POIS symptoms, but everyone has symptoms that are part of the list of possible symptoms seen in POIS.

The other element typical to POIS, and that will help determine f you do have POIS, is the timing of apparition and disappearance of your symptoms.  Do your symptoms disappears if you refrain from ejaculation for several days?  And, is there a consistency in the delay the symptoms reappear after ejaculation ?  A POIS cycle is from a few days to a week, typically, so if you masturbate every day, it will be hard to tell if your symptoms are related to ejaculation, or are simply chronic symptoms.  If your symptoms subside when abstaining for a certain time, and come back as soon as you ejaculate, this is POIS, as defined by Dr Waldinger  ( for the exact 5 criteria, set by Dr Waldinger, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postorgasmic_illness_syndrome#Diagnosis )  The last criteria  "symptoms disappear spontaneously", need you to avoid ejaculation for at least a week, unless you will be constantly "reseting" your POIS cycle to day 1.

If you do have POIS, letting go of your porn addiction would be the first step toward improving your quality of life and avoiding being more or less in a POIS acute phase on a constant basis.

About the doctors not knowing about POIS, it is not only in France, it is worldwide.  Only a handful of doctors in the whole world know about POIS, so do not have much expectation from them.  It is not yet in their textbooks, there is no blood test or other test for diagnosis, and no official treatment neither.  Currently there are two clinical studies going on about POIS, so it will help raise awareness of doctors when they will publish.  Check on the forum for more information about these studies, and about ways to get some relief, possibly, with what works for others.

Bonne fin de journée !