Hi all - GoingCrazy, Vincent, observercenter, Daveman, nordnurse, all other POIS sufferers here, and a special hello to demografx,
My name is Ryan. I've had POIS since I was about 14; I'm 23 now. (Before that I did notice after each orgasm that I felt some fatigue, but my symptoms were not nearly severe enough that I could call it POIS.) My POIS is 90% cognitive, and the rest is mostly strong fatigue. My symptoms are: difficulty thinking, memory problems, trouble finding the right words, itchy scalp corresponding to foggy thinking, insomnia, occasional severe headache, racing thoughts, possible OCD, anxiety, social withdrawal, extreme frustration and irritability, general discomfort. I've lived in South Florida my whole life (though it's possible I could be moving out of FL and north at the end of the year). I did receive an accidental electrical shock in August '03, and for a long time I thought that is what was causing my symptoms. The shock was not strong enough to seriously injure me. I have since concluded that my POIS was not caused by the jolt, and I think that my POIS might have developed anyway.
Even though I'm new here, I've been following the forums for over a year now. I read through a lot of the information (not all 700+ pages word for word yet though). Perhaps what fascinates me the most is Animus' posts about his cure. I share so many symptoms with what he had before his cure, and even though I do not know what causes POIS, I also have a slight feeling that it has to do with the ejaculation of semen (regeneration theory). I can recall the very few times in the past I had a dry ejaculation for whatever reason, and I had very little POIS symptoms. I do not know if this is because of an allergy or something else, but I, like a few people, think it might have something to do with the body not liking the fact that semen has just been lost. Maybe, like others have said, the act of replenishing the semen is too taxing on the body. A few things that help my POIS are: 1) GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP, 2) not ejaculating for a long while , 3) physical pain (I know it sounds really strange, but when I am injured in POIS, such as from a small skin burn or insect bite, I can usually think a little more clearly, almost like it "wakes me up"). 4) staying well hydrated. Using niacin seems to help me a little bit, but I'm still unsure, and it's definitely not a 100% cure for me whether it works or not. One interesting thing I've tried and had some nice results from is actually applying strong pressure to the area couple inches behind the testicles while ejaculating. This has given me completely DRY orgasms and seems to help a lot in many instances, although a few times I still had POIS later on (maybe because of retrograde ejaculation). Also, I'm not sure if this is necessarily the healthiest thing to be trying, but it seemed to work for me, albeit with varying effectiveness. My guess is that this action squeezes the prostate, not allowing much semen to be ejaculated. That's one more reason why I also believe ejaculation of semen causes POIS, and not the orgasm itself.
By the way, I remember reading several months ago on these forums about a member stating that hot showers made his POIS worse. Well for me, this is also definitely a big YES! Hot showers feel awesome and make me so relaxed DURING the shower, but several minutes after I get out, my POIS usually becomes much worse, especially if I was in strong POIS to begin with. Mainly severe cognitive symptoms result from this. After a good night's sleep, the next morning I feel much better.
[sigh] So in summary, POIS is a heck of a thing to have! But I think it can and will be cured one day soon. I think this not only because of the few people that actually had theirs cured, but because of the strange transient nature of POIS. I even had a hunch my POIS could be cured before I knew about the word POIS, so much that one of my main goals I kept telling myself back then was to "cure this "imbalance" I thought I had. I thought my symptoms were the result of some kind of chemical imbalance in my head. Luckily, I found out that my earlier guess about it being able to be cured was correct. That was a huge relief to me, and by far my favorite point that was made to me by reading through the forums. Thank you everyone!
Sorry for the long post. Hope to post again soon.
