Kinsey Institute Research Blog
Exploring sexuality, relationships, and well-being.
The Kinsey Interview Series: A Conversation with Dr. Nicole Prause, POIS Researcher
https://blogs.iu.edu/kinseyinstitute/2020/07/16/the-kinsey-interview-series-a-conversation-with-nicole-prause/Excerpt:
Lehmiller: Please tell us a bit about one study you’re working on at the moment. For example, what research project are you most excited about right now?
Prause: Dr. Tierney Lorenz and I received a grant [funded by POISCenter.com] from the National Organization of Rare Diseases to study Post Orgasmic Illness Syndrome (POIS), which is thought to primarily affect men. This enabled us to collect blood and saliva biomarkers before and after orgasm, providing the first robust glimpse into the inflammatory effects of physiological orgasm. We hope this not only clarifies the nature of the POIS disorder, but the unaffected, control participants also will provide extremely unique data. I believe this is this first standardized protocol of climax collecting biomarkers of inflammation before and after climax. We also are capturing brain and peripheral physiological measures to further characterize male orgasm. I already have those data in women and expect they might challenge aspects of Masters and Johnson’s “Sexual response model” that has remained largely untested, despite its popularity. There are so many unique pieces of data that will come from this project, we cannot wait to see the results ourselves!