New user; Symptoms and supplements

[Clues]

Hi everyone, new user here. I'm 40 and have had POIS for as long as I can remember (at least 20 years).

Main symptoms (in descending order of awfulness):

• Irritable demeanour.
• General fatigue.
• Cognitive difficulties, most notably in forming sentences.
• "Heavy" legs.
• Muscle and ligament aches, especially in jaw, neck, shoulders and lower back (though not sure they are all POIS-related).
• Queasiness.
• Red eyes, bags under eyes.
• EDIT: Increased light sensitivity.

Symptoms peak the second day after orgasm. Same day is not so bad, while 1st and 3rd days after are somewhere in between. Irritability is the worst symptom for me because I have a wife and child.

Notable other health issues and facts:

• Received many antibiotics treatments as a child due to ear infections.
• Treated with Tetracycline (IIRC) and Roaccutane for acne as a young adult (early 20's).
• Sensitive digestion, intolerant to gluten and FODMAPs.
• Poor long-term memory.
• Suspect I may have had a traumatic experience as a child as I have very few childhood memories.
• Depressed intermittently in my 20s, treated with Cipralex one time. No mental health issues in the last 10 years apart from POIS symptoms. EDIT: Except some anxiety and a mild OCD.
• Exercise used to give me strong POIS symptoms the day after. After I started working out very regularly (2-3 times a week), this almost completely went away.
• I function very well professionally as a programmer. During POIS, I struggle a bit in social contexts, but the programming work itself is OK.
• EDIT: Strong immune system, rarely get sick.
• EDIT: I seem to be unusually sensitive to light (even without orgasm).
• EDIT: I get some POIS-like symptoms from wearing glasses: Dizziness, brain fog, fatigue. Not as strong as after orgasm though.

I've been testing a few dietary supplements and prescription-free meds to alleviate symptoms. My current-best cobbled-together regimen has a noticeable effect. I'd estimate a 40% reduction in symptoms, although I'm not ruling out placebo.

Current supplements:

• Saw palmetto 320 mg daily
• Vitamin D daily
• Ibuprofen or Paracetamol before orgasm and during symptoms as needed

I don't know which of these help.

I'd be interested to know what people with similar symptom sets have had success with. Thanks for reading.

[Simon66]

Hi Clues,

Welcome to the forum. I don't have any solution for you as I am still investigating my own issues and documenting them on my own thread here, I think systemic candida could be part of my issues which might also explain your systemic, body-wide symptoms.

If I had to guess what might be helping in your current regimen, I think the ibuprofen could be suppressing an inflammatory response but I would be very careful with the ibuprofen, it can cause damage to the digestive system long-term.

Good luck with your investigation.

[certainlypois2]

the best thing is to try supplements one at a time to see what is working.
But vitamind and NSAIDs have mentioned by many to be helpful.

[Nas]

the best thing is to try supplements one at a time to see what is working.
But vitamind and NSAIDs have mentioned by many to be helpful.

I've also experienced that stacks might work better than individual supplements

[Quantum]

Hi Clues, and welcome to poiscenter!

To see some example of what members have found to be helpful for them, see my POIS Types Chart at http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=2338.msg19448#msg19448 .

It is interesting to see that you can carry on with intellectual work like programming, even during POIS attacks.   I do too, but we are a minority - many POIS sufferers have difficulty just concentrating during POIS, as they lose their problem solving ability, have major memory problem, and many other cognitive symptoms ( for that reason, many members have not been able to maintain a professional career or even complete university or college education).   But, I have more emotional symptoms than the average POIS sufferer ( mood swings, personality changes for the worst, intolerance, anxiety, ...)

[demografx]

Clues, welcome to the forum!

[Clues]

Thanks a lot for your tips and the warm welcome everyone!

Quantum, your symptoms sound a lot like mine. I've been lucky enough to escape the worst of the fatigue and cognitive/memory problems it seems, based on the reports of others in the forum.

One thing I forgot to mention, which seems weird, is that my immune system is very strong wrt fighting disease. Yet my microbiome seems messed up wrt food intolerances. This is from a total layman's perspective of course, might not be unusual at all for all I know.

[an-y-more]

If your pois hits harder on the next day maybe it's cause your sleep. I used to get unbearable brain fog and headaches day after orgasm if I slept more than 5-6 hours. It also can be that you have apnea- many people on this forum talked about it so you can find and read about it.

It's not so uncommon for poisers to have strong immune system - on other forum I've seen a lot of people mention it, me too hardly get sick.

[Clues]

an-y-more, that's interesting! So your symptoms are improved by sleeping less after orgasm? Have you had any input from medical professionals as to why?

[an-y-more]

an-y-more, that's interesting! So your symptoms are improved by sleeping less after orgasm? Have you had any input from medical professionals as to why?

Yep As I said above brain fog and headaches was unbearable if I slept too long. Otherwise that was not so bad. Overall sickness was at it's peak during the morning and was slightly subsiding towards the late afternoon/evening. Btw now with my pre-pack I can sleep full time without any problems though.

Regardless medical professionals.. These dummies in white robes useless when it comes to pois in my homeland

[Clues]

Yep As I said above brain fog and headaches was unbearable if I slept too long. Otherwise that was not so bad. Overall sickness was at it's peak during the morning and was slightly subsiding towards the late afternoon/evening. Btw now with my pre-pack I can sleep full time without any problems though.

Regardless medical professionals.. These dummies in white robes useless when it comes to pois in my homeland

By pre-pack, do you mean supplements you take before orgasm? I read in another thread you take niacin and 5-HTP. I'll give that a try, thank you.

EDIT: Ah, 5-HTP requires a prescription where I live. I'll talk to my doctor about it.

Btw my experience with GPs and urologists here in Norway so far has been that they acknowledge that POIS exists, but then do some digging around and find there's no proven treatment, and at that point they give up. From memory, I think doctors here are very restricted when it comes to speculative/experimental treatment.

[drop247]

Does Tryptophan require a prescription there? It could be a good substitute.

[Clues]

Does Tryptophan require a prescription there? It could be a good substitute.

Yes that also requires a prescription in Norway. Thanks a lot for the suggestion though!

[an-y-more]

By pre-pack, do you mean supplements you take before orgasm? I read in another thread you take niacin and 5-HTP. I'll give that a try, thank you.

EDIT: Ah, 5-HTP requires a prescription where I live. I'll talk to my doctor about it.

Btw my experience with GPs and urologists here in Norway so far has been that they acknowledge that POIS exists, but then do some digging around and find there's no proven treatment, and at that point they give up. From memory, I think doctors here are very restricted when it comes to speculative/experimental treatment.

Yes. The best way try supplements is to be thoughtfull and try them one by one to figure out what's work for you! Pois is really tricky condition with various cross sympthoms so if my pre-pack won't work for you give a read to pois chart provided by Quantum above to find the most reliable for your situation case hence the most accurate supplements, good luck!

[Muon]

• Received many antibiotics treatments as a child due to ear infections.
• Treated with Tetracycline (IIRC) and Roaccutane for acne as a young adult (early 20's).
• Sensitive digestion, intolerant to gluten and FODMAPs.

Have you ever done FODMAP breath testing (lactose, fructose etc)?

[Clues]

Muon, no, I haven't had a breath test IIRC. I just heard about FODMAPs and started avoiding them, and it greatly improved my digestion.