200 Orgasms a Day!

[Ksyrup]

I have to admit, I've never heard of this before...


Sexual syndrome that takes joy out of life
By Carey Goldberg, Globe Staff, 11/11/2003

When Jean Lund, a 51-year-old office manager and mother of three, told her gynecologist the problem, he snickered and said, "You're every man's dream."

"I wanted to punch him," she recalled. "I'm suffering here, and he's laughing, `Hardy-har-har.' So I looked him in the face and said, `How would you like to walk around on the verge of orgasm every second?' And he shut up."

Lund has a rare condition that prominent sexual medicine researchers have just "discovered" and begun to document. They have given it a name -- Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome -- and are trying to develop treatments for it, so far with patchy success.

The syndrome is the opposite of the usual female sexual complaint -- difficulty getting aroused. Instead, patients sustain unrelenting physical arousal, no matter how many orgasms they have. They are not nymphomaniacs; they do not experience desire. Rather, they feel the vaginal congestion and pulsation of arousal, and it is not about pleasure -- far from it.

"It's just a horror," said Lila, a 71-year-old woman who has had the syndrome since brain and bladder surgery in 1999, and said she often has 200 small orgasms a day. "It bothers me more than the breast cancer," an advanced case that was diagnosed two years ago.

"This never stops, it never lets up," she said, and it ruins everything, including car travel, dinner parties, and simply sitting on the couch. "It colors your whole life."

The syndrome appears to be quite uncommon. The sexuality specialist who published the first journal paper on it two years ago said that she has received thus far only 30 or 40 e-mails from patients around the country and world.

"I don't think it's very prevalent at all but I think it's real," said the specialist, Dr. Sandra Leiblum, director of the Center for Sexual and Relationship Health at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey and author of "Getting the Sex You Want."

At Boston University's Institute of Sexual Medicine, about 2,500 women have been seen in the last five years, and only about 10 had the persistent arousal syndrome, said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, the institute's director.

It appears, he said, to stem from "a grab-bag of conditions." Certain medications can bring it on, like Trazodone, an antidepressant known to cause the male equivalent, priapism. Seizures also seem to be likely triggers, as do abnormal connections of arteries to veins.

Goldstein has tried various treatments, he said, from taking a patient off Trazodone to prescribing Depakote, a drug normally used to tamp down the manic episodes of bipolar disorder.

He also has tried local applications of ice and anesthetics such as Lidocaine, hoping the numbness would free the patient from the constant distraction of arousal for a little while. One woman whose arousal stemmed from an overactive blood supply to her clitoris -- a malformation she had been born with -- underwent multiple procedures to choke off the abnormal blood supply, he said.

In general, however, the arousal tends to be hard to conquer, and some of the specialists' attention has focused simply on helping the women cope, and letting them know they are not alone. Both Goldstein and Leiblum have formed support groups, and have websites on the syndrome. One of the worst aspects of the syndrome is "how invalidating it is," said Julie Johnson, a sex therapist who works with patients at Boston University. "Going to various doctors and having the symptoms misinterpreted and downplayed, or having it called psychological." Among gynecologists, she said, "If you call up 10 of them, at least half won't know what it is."

Sex -- alone or with a partner -- helps little, Johnson said. It becomes just "a drudgery," to try to get rid of the arousal for a spell: "There's no joy or fulfillment in it."

Some women have been so tormented by the arousal they have become suicidal. And, for many, there is also an element of mortification.

"For a woman even to acknowledge it to a physician is often so embarrassing," Leiblum said. "And for some Christian women, there's a sense of shame that if you're feeling this way, you must be bad, or having impure thoughts."

And those who do summon up the courage to talk about the syndrome must deal with the potentially hostile reactions of people who -- understandably -- have never heard of it.

"God forbid you ever tell anyone you have this problem," Goldstein said. "It gets misconstrued, you become `a public menace,' because you're `a pervert.' "

Jean Lund -- also a freelance writer, who only wants her pen name used in print -- -- said that it does help to know she is not alone. "For the first three years, I thought I was the only one on the face of this planet," she said. But what she really needs is a cure: "No one has been able to help me."

Lund said she believes the problem is some kind of imbalance in her brain, possibly triggered by the chronic pain of a compressed nerve in her neck several years ago and surgery to relieve it. The persistent arousal began a couple of months later.

A patient of Goldstein's who asked to be identified only as Alice is similarly convinced that the trouble in her groin is caused by her brain. A health professional in New York, she began taking a mood stabilizer called Lamictal two years ago, and it is as if it "permanently flipped a switch in my brain." For a while, she had the worst of both worlds -- constantly aroused, but unable to reach orgasm.

Depakote has helped a little, she said, and she can now have orgasms, but she is still feeling uncomfortably hyper-aroused.

"It's physical," not mental, she said of the persistent arousal. "Men can relate to that more than women. I feel like a 17-year-old boy -- my idea of what it's like to be a 17-year-old boy."

But at least 17-year-old boys know they will grow out of it. For women with persistent arousal, it is not clear whether it will ever end.

"If you gave me the choice of this or never having another orgasm as long as I live," Lila said, "I'll take never having another one as long as I live."

[The Afoci]

At least now I can masturbate with a purpose. I will not be outdone.

[Wasabiak]

Isn't this what happens when you get your clit pierced?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Wasabiak
Isn't this what happens when you get your clit pierced?

[Insert obvious Fritz joke here]

[Franklin]

Originally posted by The Afoci
At least now I can masturbate with a purpose. I will not be outdone.

You have a purpose. Now, I give you your inspiration:

[The Afoci]

I wonder if this pic is consider work safe.

[Franklin]

Originally posted by The Afoci
I wonder if this pic is consider work safe.

The picture is, but what you're planning to do with it is not.

Unless you work at a sperm bank, that is.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally posted by Wasabiak
Isn't this what happens when you get your clit pierced?

from what I'm told, yes.

[Franklin]

Originally posted by Draft Dodger
from what I'm told, yes.

Cool... I wonder if I should get my clit pierced.

[JeeberD]

Prince Albert...

*shudders*

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by Franklin
Unless you work at a sperm bank, that is.

At 200 per day, I think I could be the highest paid sperm donor ever.

How did you make you millions?

In a dark room with a cup and a pic of a muscular black man who sings folk music.

Interesting.

[CamEdwards]

A hyper-orgasmic 71 year old.... mmmm.

[Eaglesfan27]

I went to medical school at Robert Wood Johnson in NJ and actually did a brief rotation with the doctor who is now treating those patients - Dr. Leiblum.

[mckerney]

Just 200?

[illinifan999]

Finally a goal worth reaching!

[Ben E Lou]

200 per day is astonishing. Assuming 16 waking hours, we're talking 12.5 per hour, or every four minutes and 48 seconds.

[Draft Dodger]

I think one a day is pretty tiring.

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by Draft Dodger
I think one a day is pretty tiring.

I think SkyDog would agree that is 'Sissy-fied'.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by The Afoci
I think SkyDog would agree that is 'Sissy-fied'.

Draft Dodger is gettin' old.

[mckerney]

Originally posted by SkyDog
200 per day is astonishing. Assuming 16 waking hours, we're talking 12.5 per hour, or every four minutes and 48 seconds.

Yeah, you're right. I just posted that to hide the fact that I got nothing.

[Franklin]

Originally posted by SkyDog
200 per day is astonishing. Assuming 16 waking hours, we're talking 12.5 per hour, or every four minutes and 48 seconds.

So, basically, that's an orgasm every five minutes or so. Sounds like my college days...

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Franklin
So, basically, that's an orgasm every five minutes or so. Sounds like my college days...

Sounds more like my Junior High days....

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by mckerney
I got nothing.

A trendsetter. A visionary. A leader for the people who provide nothing. That is I.

As for DD, your initials are DD. That is huge. That should give you at least 6 to start.

Franklin, college days, forget that, sounds like junior high. The art teacher was a hippie and the clay bin was pliable.

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Sounds more like my Junior High days....

He beat me too it. So to speak.

I make me smile on the inside.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by The Afoci
Franklin, college days, forget that, sounds like junior high.

Beat ya to it.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by The Afoci
Franklin, college days, forget that, sounds like junior high.

Beat ya to it.

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Sounds more like my Junior High days....

He beat me too it. So to speak.

I make me smile on the inside.

[JeeberD]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Beat ya to it.

But he beat ya to the "beat ya to it."

And now I'm getting all dizzy...

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Beat ya to it.

Beat you to telling me you beat me to it. That is lots of beating. At least it keeps on the same theme.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by JeeberD
And now I'm getting all dizzy...

Every 4 minutes and 48 seconds will do that to you....

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by JeeberD
And now I'm getting all dizzy...

Every 4 minutes and 48 seconds will do that to you....

[The Afoci]

Now he deleted it. We are going mad! I am lost.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by JeeberD
And now I'm getting all dizzy...

Every 4 minutes and 48 seconds will do that to you....

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by JeeberD
And now I'm getting all dizzy...

Well duh! Every 4 minutes and 48 seconds, what did you expect????

[JeeberD]

Zoinks! That's four times!!!

[JeeberD]

Zoinks!

[mckerney]

What the hell is happening!?!?

[JeeberD]

Zoinks!

[JeeberD]

Zoinks!

[JeeberD]

Zoinks!

[JeeberD]

Zoinks!

[CamEdwards]

all right. this thread is getting redundant. I am not satisfied. My urges must be satiated elsewhere.

[JeeberD]

Whoa...

The first one (the one that says "four times") was the last one that I tried to post.

Something truly strange is going on tonight...

[tucker342]

what the hell is going on? The scary thing is I'm not even high right now, and I still don't know what's going on

[The Afoci]

I just got the Paris Hilton tape. Next day off, 200 times before breakfast. That is if I stop to eat.

[Suicane75]

I'm merely trying to pad my post count without breaking rules, I'll be back in 5 minutes to see if it worked.

[CamEdwards]

Originally posted by The Afoci
I just got the Paris Hilton tape. Next day off, 200 times before breakfast. That is if I stop to eat.

Yuck. Dude, seriously... there are soo many more women out there more attractive than Paris Hilton.

[Suicane75]

Originally posted by CamEdwards
Yuck. Dude, seriously... there are soo many more women out there more attractive than Paris Hilton.

Her hoo hoo dilly is bizzare looking if ya ask me.

[korme]

The Afoci's postcount is the equivalent of something else per day, is it not? The .09th of a time each day must be rough, leaving you so unfulfilled.

[JeeberD]

Originally posted by The Afoci
I just got the Paris Hilton tape. Next day off, 200 times before breakfast. That is if I stop to eat.

Saw it earlier today. Not that impressive. The night-vision green doesn't really help it much...