Hi fellow sufferers! This is my first post here and I am a newbie, but I could also be considered a veteran to the POIS experience. I am not a native speaker of English and also not a quick poster, so don’t expect of me otherwise. I will also try to post more of my findings as I have the time.
So I have had POIS for more than half of my life and unfortunately only discovered it was named so in late 2018. Before that I was considered a hypochondriac and a psychiatric case and was treated so. At least knowing its name gave me a lot of new information and motivation. As I had already had a vague theory at the time first I wanted to verify and expand on it. What I represent here is the short version of it. It might not be true, but at least it can give a new perspective which is important in search of an unknown disease. I also try to do reverse thinking when I can as it may lead to unexpected results.
I have read most of the research articles on POIS and it seems to me that the conventional approach is fundamentally foiled. Although an immunological response can be the root of the problem, but in my opinion the symptoms themselves are not caused by this, but rather by a parallel release of a
mildly toxic compound. Many also theorized here that toxins might be involved, but also thought that it is of bacterial or fungal origin or inorganic in nature like heavy metals, but really only of external origin. What I believe is that the compound released is one of organic in nature and of internal in origin. I actually base this on a personal experience, as I had colonoscopy twice and my intestines were totally cleared still I had POIS symptoms at the time. (As a side note they didn’t find anything abnormal aside from being a hypochondriac.
) You could say that it is kind of like a
reverse leaky gut syndrome although concomitant mechanisms also make it a both ways one really. To date I haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact compound/s
(VOCs), but preliminary theoretical research points to several possible candidates like
lactic acid, butiric acid and kind a lot of the esters (like lactates and butyrates, etc.) also seem highly likely. It doesn’t seem to be an alcohol at least, nor a strong acid (normal pH), but diols and aldehydes might not be excluded. So I don’t really know what it is, but I think it must be something that is very essential to the working of the body and that is why it is not lethal. I think the “sola dosis facit venenum” principle must be at work here.
Another wrong assumption is that this is only a 7 day disease. Although it might be true from a medical perspective as it focuses on apparent symptoms, but this approach also thwarts research. As symptoms persist at low levels even months after ejaculation it seems more prudent to divide it to a
chronic and an acute state, in which the acute phase superposes the chronic phase by an increased amount of released compounds, especially at the moment of ejaculation. The greatest proof of the chronic phase is
dietary deterioration as foods that worsen symptoms in the acute phase also do so in the chronic phase. It is not a mere food allergy as they evidently and specifically enhance ongoing symptoms.
Another much mistaken concept is that symptoms only occur after orgasm. Symptoms are actually present all the time just below the perception threshold, but fluctuate as a wave on this margin and sometimes become apparent when any kind of imbalance happens in the homeostasis. In my experience symptoms are enhanced by the
mere thought of desire and begin to rise further by any kind of sexual activity. If there is no O than symptoms begin to vane and reach chronic phase by the next day. If O occurs than there is a brutal spike in compound release and thus symptoms become aggravated. In this regard it can be considered a kind of
compound induced reduced anaphylactoid shock. The reason it lacks its apparent symptomatology is because there is a pronounced tolerance to the compound/s in question which might have been building up even before acute disease onset during the chronic phase that might predate even adolescence. In my case several symptoms (like feverishness, diarrhea, coughing etc.) reduced or disappeared during the years supposedly because of repeated acute states and a further increase of tolerance, though even tolerance increase has an upper limit. Unfortunately some other symptoms like periodic severe chest (not heart!) pain appeared in the course. This of course also means a kind of
self induced desensitization (I think they call this flooding). I think tolerance build-up also happens in the gut flora as microbes become more resistant. This also causes a natural selection of microbes which are more adept at handling the compound/s in question. This gives rise to the phenomena of
disbacteriosis which is only the effect as it actually stems from
disfermentation as its causative. Microbes can either lessen or enhance symptoms based on how they convert the high concentration of the substrate. If microbes die off because of inhospitable environment they can themselves release endotoxins or so called lipopolysaccharides (LPS), which are also mentioned here and this can also aggravate symptoms. This can lead to a lot of other immunological responses that can make a whole mess. In this regard for example it is possible that
autoantibodies, cytokines, NK cells, mast cells, TRPM8, TRPA1, TRPV, SERT, enterochromaffin cells, 5-HT receptors, nicotinoid receptors, ACE2, LPS and many others are mentioned on this site also to nominate a few may play a part in the etiology of the disease.
It seems undeniable that serotonin is a key factor as it links cognitive, sexual and gastrointestinal function. In my case there is a self proven link with serotonin deprivation syndrome which actually stopped POIS for a short time even though paradoxically it can itself cause a flu-like state. It seems to me that serotonin is also crucial in the
maintenance of the butyrate equilibrium. In my opinion this is actually the root cause of the symptoms, but not for the disease itself. I have a strong suspicion that this also means a link to all flu-like diseases and symptoms and by the way to coronavirus too. I theorize that in both CFS, POIS, postcovid and similar diseases there is an
acquired inclination to the disbalance of the butyrate equilibrium, although the disregulating factor might be different. I think our best bet in controlling the disease (not a cure just treatment) is to try to balance this equilibrium. The following may have a positive effect, but others may know more: anti-inflammatory agents; avoidance of disease enhancing foods as they increase unwanted substrates; as serotonin controls bowel movement it has a profound effect on the equilibrium, but it is also a double edged sword; probiotics are also a double edged sword in this regard, but can help at the right time. In my case testosterone (and maybe antihistamine) seems to inhibit (but not block) the release, while tryptophan/serotonin (SSRI) mainly accelerates its clearance, although it may have a slighter inhibitory property too. Coming here I also got good information on the
mu-opioid possibility. As the effect of low dose naltrexone (opioid antagonist) resembles very much to what I experienced with Zoloft deprivation it seems very likely that it would work very well in my case too. The only big problem is its unavailability in my country. Recently LDN has turned out to be a very good candidate in the pharmaceutical treatment of COVID-19. I just hope they soon realize this and begin to pump it out of factories all over the world so that I may get some of it too.
As a final word I would like to emphasize that this is all a mere theory and remains to be proven or disproven by scientific method. I also have to confess that I left out the most crucial part of my theory but even its supposition would have unprecedented consequences, so it better remains one of my paranoid delusions as I sometimes wish that all this was so. Nevertheless I hope a usable strategy can still be based on this theory.
Recently I also bought a lot of supplements, but as there is a high probability of a relation to covid (butyrate equilibrium disturbance, several medicine working in both cases) I hardly ever dare to masturbate, which I think would be quite hilarious for an outsider, but it also stopped practical research for me.
