This post is a summary of some of the data gathered from the POIS forums.
The two most widely experienced symptoms seem to be cognitive impairment(brain fog) and both physical and mental exhaustion. Other common symptoms include depression, anxiety, and headaches. Less common are physical pains such as joint pain, muscle pain, or back pain. Skin problems such as psoriasis, dryness, and itchiness are sometimes reported as well as itching/burning eyes and stuffy sinuses. Gastrointestinal problems such as bloating or food sensitivities have been reported. All of these symptoms and more usually appear after orgasm/ejaculation, but can also be triggered by sexual thoughts/activity without climax. Onset of symptoms ranges from immediately after orgasm to a day (or two days?) after orgasm and usually lasts for a few days to a week or even longer in some cases.
Blood tests have returned varying results. Some have tested low in testosterone and others have been out of range for other hormones, but it seems for the most part general blood tests have not been able to reveal an underlying common mechanism causing POIS. However our testing capability is limited and with more extensive tests a common diagnostic could likely be found.
Our POIS compendium site lists the professional POIS research studies and case reports. The TLC television episode about one of our members who cured himself with surgeries to eliminate semen production is there. It also summarizes much of the hypotheses discussed and treatments tried at the forums and includes a map showing the general locations of our members around the world:
https://sites.google.com/site/poiswebsite/The ABC documentary television episode on POIS that includes Dr. Waldinger and one of his patients speaking on the subject and also includes our member, observer, who was cured with niacin is available at our youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_kqIpGUYpISummaries of treatments found to be helpful by individual forum member trials written by member, CertainlyPOIS:
General treatments:
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=75.msg692#msg692Auto-immune treatments:
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=73.msg480#msg480Hormonal treatments:
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=74.msg481#msg481The last links includes links to compilations of treatment trials done by members including quotes by those members describing the treatment experience with links to their original statements.
B_Jim's list of all cases:
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=6576.msg149009#msg149009All member symptom & treatment compilation by me(work in progress):
https://sites.google.com/site/poiscompilationsbyvm/