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Checkup: Sperm Allergy
Host:
Time now for this week's Sound Medicine Checkup.
Sexual problems come in a wide variety -- everything from erectile dysfunction to lack of libido. But what happens when a woman is allergic to a man's sperm?
Remember the movie "Look Who’s Talking," about a baby who think out loud in the voice of Bruce Willis? There’s this one scene near the beginning, when the main female character, played by Kristi Alley, is in the practice of getting pregnant, the sperm are swimming along her fallopian, on the lookout for the egg and they’re talking.
The scene is played for laughs. It’s supposed to be funny. It sort of is funny. But in real life, sperm aren’t always quite so hilarious. In fact, sperm, or at least the fluid they swim in, can be downright irritating. Literally. It’s pretty rare, but some women are actually allergic to sperm.
The condition is called seminal plasma hypersensitivity, and it can cause irritation and burning, and sometimes hives and breathing problems. Now, only only about 20,000 to 40,000 women in the U.S have this condition. So it really is rare. And there’s a simple, obvious solution.
"Lack of contact with the fluid is probably the most simple thing to do. And obviously if one doesn’t want to give up ones partner then maybe a condemn, maybe a non-latex condemn is way to avoid the contact."
That’s Dr. Marguerite Shepard, an obstetrician/gynecologist at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She says that being allergic to sperm is so rare that women should explore other causes for the discomfort.
"For instance if condoms were used, were they latex condemns? Is the allergy really to what’s in the condemn? If condemns were used, was there spermicide, and is the allergy really related to the spermicide?
So if sperm is causing you trouble, have your doctor check it out. The problem may not lie with sperm after all.
Additional Resources:
- Read more about sperm allergy at MSNBC.
