Can you really be allergic to sex?

Yes you can! Mercifully, it is a very rare condition. There are only around 100 women in the UK who are confirmed to have human seminal plasma hypersensitivity i.e. they are allergic to their partner’s semen.

Semen is the fluid which carries male sperm. But it also contains a variety of proteins and other substances which can act as an allergen and cause the body’s defence mechanism to overreact, resulting in an allergy.

Signs of a semen allergy usually include redness, burning and swelling soon after sex, wherever the semen has come into contact with the skin.

Women who are highly sensitive to their partner’s semen may also develop trouble breathing, and can be at risk of anaphylactic shock, the most type of severe allergic reaction, which can be life threatening.

Because it is so rare, the symptoms can be mistaken for other conditions – allergy to latex, spermicides and lubricants, as well as sexually transmitted infections. However, symptoms only occur during unprotected sex, and stop once condoms are used.

Treatment for a semen allergy usually involves “desensitising” the woman to her partner’s sperm. This can be through frequent local injections of the allergenic sperm, followed by regular weekly sex. Not all bad then!

If the couple want to have a baby, sometimes the man’s sperm can be washed to rid it of semen, and the woman impregnated by artificial insemination.

And you thought hay fever was bad!

This article was published on Thu 19 November 2009