Dear Fellow POISers,
I have been following the POIS Center forum for a while, and I am immensely grateful for all of the treatments, experiences, and stories you all have shared. I feel that it is time to join you, and share my experience. I have suffered from POIS since puberty, and my symptoms have progressively worsened from 1-2 days to a full 7 days after emissions. I have less symptoms from nocturnal emissions, and most symptoms from an induced emission. Being in medical school, I was able to manage with a strict abstinence routine, however recently after taking Tramadol for a month began to experience spontaneous fluid emissions (simply coming in contact with shorts, sheets, and in some cases from laughter or simply walking across the room). These have not stopped even after stopping Tramadol, and I needed to take a leave of absence from school.
I have read that Prozac (fluoxetine) can be very beneficial in terms of increasing ejaculatory latency time, in theory preventing spontaneous and nocturnal emissions. I noticed that a few people have had mixed results with Prozac, anyone else tried it, or have any advice with regards to SSRI's/other medicines that reduce frequency of emissions?
My experience with Tramadol led me to broaden my perspective with regards to the autoimmune theories, as my condition moves from POIS to POIS + PGAD symptoms. I am now very curious as to whether POIS Syndrome results from a spinal cord abnormality. Dr. Komisaruk recently spoke on Tarlov cysts in Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJvfyTvqs38), and mentions that Tarlov cysts could cause other sexual disturbances given they take place in the region responsible for many sexual functions. Looking further, there is some recent research on the way in which the GRP system in the spinal cord regulates ejaculation (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25426011), and on the fact that there is possibly an independent itch driven mechanism from this system - raising the possibility that POIS is not a primary IgE allergy mediated process. There is also research on the role of GRP in immune system activation (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22735756).
In brief, this seems to raise the question for me as to whether POIS could be the result of neurological disease in the spinal cord (Tarlov cyst or other lesion), that is inflamed by ejaculation. I have severe constipation, urinary retention, and pelvic pain after ejaculation, which can all be seen in Tarlov cyst disease. I am going to have an MRI of my spine soon, and I'm curious to know if anyone else has had a spinal MRI? Or similar symptoms including pain with sitting down, hyper-sensitive feelings or decrease of sensation in the lower body.
I would like to end this post by emphasizing that my medical knowledge is rather limited, I am very naive in my medical training, and these are simply ideas that I had.
Since a few weeks I have lower back pain. I felt something swollen. First I thought my pelvis is infected because of prostatis. But now I think it’s a small cyst. I googled and came up at Tarlov cyst. I saw that people with Tarlov cyst have problems with the bladder. That’s what I have. I will go the doctor next week to have it checked.
The symptoms of Tarlov Cyst that I have:
Pain in the area of the nerves affected by the cysts, especially the buttocks
Weakness of muscles
Difficulty sitting for prolonged periods
Loss of sensation on the skin
Changes in bowel function, such as constipation
Changes in bladder function, including increased frequency or incontinence
Changes in sexual function (POIS, no full orgasm)
Cold hands
Cold feet
