biology

Postorgasmic illness syndrome

Postorgasmic illness syndrome is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Postorgasmic illness syndrome rather than just read about it. In short: Postorgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) is a syndrome involving chronic physical and cognitive symptoms following orgasm. The symptoms usually onset within seconds, minutes, or hours, and last for up to a week.

Key takeaways

Postorgasmic illness syndrome belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Postorgasmic illness syndrome to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Postorgasmic illness syndrome from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Postorgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) is a syndrome involving chronic physical and cognitive symptoms following orgasm. The symptoms usually onset within seconds, minutes, or hours, and last for up to a week. The cause and prevalence are unknown; it is considered a rare disease. It typically affects men but in rare instances can affect women.

Signs and symptoms The distinguishing characteristics of POIS are:

the rapid onset of symptoms after orgasm; the presence of an overwhelming systemic reaction. POIS symptoms, which are called a "POIS attack", can include some combination of the following: cognitive dysfunction, aphasia, severe muscle pain throughout the body, severe fatigue, weakness, and flu-like or allergy-like symptoms, such as sneezing, itchy eyes, and nasal irritation. Additional symptoms include headache, dizziness, untimely sleepiness, lightheadedness, extreme hunger, sensory and motor problems, intense discomfort, irritability, anxiety, gastrointestinal disturbances, urinary tract disturbances, craving for relief, susceptibility to nervous system stresses, depressed mood, and difficulty communicating, remembering words, reading and retaining information, concentrating, and socializing. Affected individuals may also experience intense warmth or cold. An online anonymous self-report study found that 80% of respondents always experienced the symptom cluster involving fatigue, insomnia, irritation, and concentration difficulties. The symptoms usually begin within 30 minutes of orgasm, and can last for several days, sometimes up to a week. In some cases, symptoms may be delayed by 2 to 3 days or may last up to 2 weeks. In some men, the onset of POIS is in puberty, while in others, the onset is later in life. POIS that is manifested from the first ejaculations in adolescence is called primary type; POIS that starts later in life is called secondary type. Many individuals with POIS report lifelong premature ejaculation, with intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) of less than one minute.

The 7 clusters of symptoms of criterion 1:

Synonyms and related conditions POIS has been called by a number of other names, including "postejaculatory syndrome", "postorgasm illness syndrome", "post ejaculation sickness", and "post orgasmic sick syndrome". Dhat syndrome is a condition, N. N. Wig first coined the term and described in 1960 in India, with symptoms similar to POIS. Dhat syndrome is thought to be a culture-bound psychiatric condition and is treated with cognitive behavioral therapy along with anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs. Post-coital tristesse (PCT) is a feeling of melancholy and anxiety after sexual intercourse that lasts anywhere from five minutes to two hours. PCT, which affects both men and women, occurs only after sexual intercourse and does not require an orgasm to occur, and in that its effects are primarily emotional rather than physiological. POIS affects both men and women but more frequently affects men, consists primarily of physiological symptoms that are triggered by orgasm and that can last, in some people, for up to a week. While PCT and POIS are distinct conditions, some doctors speculate that they could be related. An array of more subtle and lingering symptoms after orgasm, which do not constitute POIS, may contribute to habituation between mates. They may show up as restlessness, irritability, increased sexual frustration, apathy, sluggishness, neediness, dissatisfaction with a mate, or weepiness over the days or weeks after intense sexual stimulation. Such phenomena may be part of human mating physiology itself. Sexual headache is a distinct condition characterized by headaches that usually begin before or during orgasm.

Mechanism

The cause of POIS is unknown. Some doctors hypothesize that POIS is caused by an auto-immune reaction. Other doctors suspect a hormone imbalance as the cause. Different causes have also been proposed. None of the proposed causes can fully explain the disease.

Allergy hypothesis According to one hypothesis, "POIS is caused by Type-I and Type-IV allergy to the males' own semen". This was conditioned by another study stating "IgE-mediated semen allergy in men may not be the potential mechanism of POIS". Alternatively, POIS could be caused by an auto-immune reaction not to semen, but to a different substance released during ejaculation, such as cytokines.

Hormone hypothesis According to another hypothesis, POIS is caused by a hormone imbalance, such as low progesterone, low cortisol, low testosterone, elevated prolactin, hypothyroidism, or low DHEA. POIS could be caused by a defect in neurosteroid precursor synthesis. If so, the same treatment may not be effective for all individuals. Different individuals could have different missing precursors leading to a deficiency of the same neurosteroid, causing similar symptoms.

Withdrawal hypothesis The majority of POIS symptoms like fatigue, muscle pains, sweating, mood disturbances, irritability, and poor concentration are also caused by withdrawal from different drug classes and natural reinforcers. It is unknown whether there is a relationship between hypersexuality, pornography addiction, compulsive sexual behavior and POIS. Some evidence indicates that POIS patients have a history of excessive masturbation, suggesting that POIS could be a consequence of sex addiction. There is anecdotal evidence on porn addiction internet forums, that many men experience POIS like symptoms after ejaculation.

Other possibilities POIS could be caused by hyperglycemia or by chemical imbalances in the brain. Sexual activity for the first time may set the stage for an associated asthma attack or may aggravate pre-existing asthma. Intense emotional stimuli during sexual intercourse can lead to autonomic imbalance with parasympathetic over-reactivity, releasing mast cell mediators that can provoke postcoital asthma and/or rhinitis in these patients. It is also possible that the causes of POIS are different in different individuals. POIS could represent "a spectrum of syndromes of differing" causes. None of the proposed causes for POIS can fully explain the connection between POIS and lifelong premature ejaculation.

Diagnosis There is no generally agreed upon diagnostic criteria for POIS. One group has developed five preliminary criteria for diagnosing POIS. These are:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Postorgasmic illness syndrome

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Postorgasmic illness syndrome claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Postorgasmic illness syndrome before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Postorgasmic illness syndrome ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Postorgasmic illness syndrome

In research: Postorgasmic illness syndrome appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Postorgasmic illness syndrome in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Postorgasmic illness syndrome is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Autoimmune diseases, Ejaculation, Orgasm, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Postorgasmic illness syndrome outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Postorgasmic illness syndrome in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Postorgasmic illness syndrome means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Postorgasmic illness syndrome out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Postorgasmic illness syndrome in simple terms?

Why does Postorgasmic illness syndrome matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Postorgasmic illness syndrome?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Postorgasmic illness syndrome.