Intralymphatic Immunotherapy With Autologous Semen in a Korean Man With Post-Orgasmic Illness Syndrome

Tae Beom Kim; Young Sup Shim; Sang Min Lee; Eun Suk Son; Jung Woo Shim; Sang Pyo Lee

doi:10.1016/j.esxm.2017.12.004

Intralymphatic Immunotherapy With Autologous Semen in a Korean Man With Post-Orgasmic Illness Syndrome

Sex Med. 2018 Jun;6(2):174-179. doi: 10.1016/j.esxm.2017.12.004. Epub 2018 Mar 15.

Authors

Tae Beom Kim¹, Young Sup Shim², Sang Min Lee³, Eun Suk Son⁴, Jung Woo Shim⁴, Sang Pyo Lee⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Radiology, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
³ Division of Pulmonology and Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Incheon, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: sangminlee77@naver.com.
⁴ Division of Pulmonology and Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Incheon, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Post-orgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) is a very rare disease characterized by local allergic symptoms and transient flu-like illness that nearly always occur after masturbation, coitus, or spontaneous ejaculation and last for 2 to 7 days. In a previous case report, 2 patients with POIS received hyposensitization therapy composed of multiple subcutaneous injections of autologous semen that resulted in a gradual decrease of symptoms. However, this procedure requires patients to endure pain and discomfort during frequent subcutaneous injections and preceding masturbations to obtain the autologous semen used for therapy. Recent studies have suggested that intralymphatic immunotherapy is a promising new method of allergen-specific immunotherapy against allergic diseases, showing a faster onset and longer duration of therapeutic effects after only several intralymphatic injections. We report on a case of a Korean man with POIS who received intralymphatic immunotherapy that alleviated POIS-related symptoms and in whom the existence of semen-specific immunoglobulin E was confirmed using immunoglobulin E immunoblotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Kim TB, Shim YS, Lee, SM, et al. Intralymphatic Immunotherapy With Autologous Semen in a Korean Man With Post-Orgasmic Illness Syndrome. Sex Med 2018;6:174-179.

Keywords: Desensitization; Immunologic; Injection; Intralymphatic; Post-Orgasmic illness; Semen.