Being allergic to cats still passes, but can you be allergic to another person? For Maura, 43, this question has become vital. It all started in his twenty. “I noticed that my private parts were burning after an unprotected ratio”she says in a BBC article. First thinking of a reaction to cosmetic products, she eventually understood that the real trigger was … contact with sperm.
The symptoms, first localized, worsened: burns, redness, then one day, his tongue swells after a report. His companion is alarmed and administers the inhaler in extremis. Since then, the couple has lived under high vigilance, convinced that a failing condom could be fatal.
If allergy to sperm – or hypersensitivity to seminal fluid – is extremely rare, it is however very real: less than a hundred cases would have been identified in the world. Symptoms vary and go from simple itchy to anaphylaxis, the most serious form of allergy, which can start the vital prognosis. Most often, the reaction is linked to a seminal plasma protein, a substance produced by the prostate, but the exact mechanism remains poorly understood by doctors.
“It’s like acid”analysis the dr Jonathan Bernstein, professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) and allergy specialist. The sudden irruption of pain makes the situation psychologically and physically very hard to live.
But sexuality is not the only terrain where humans become an itinerant allergen. People with a blurred condition named «People Allergic To Me» Or Patm live a real hell. By their simple presence, they trigger allergic type symptoms (cough, itching) among them, without being understood why.
In a study published in 2023 in the journal Scientific Reports, a team of Japanese researchers identified in these patients an abnormally high emission of toluene, a gas usually metabolized by the liver and rejected by the skin. The concept of PATM does not yet have an official medical status yet.
Costly desensitization
Body fluids are also vectors of unexpected reactions. The medical literature is full of cases of women or men reacting intensely after a salivary exchange with partners who have consumed allergenic foods (nuts, seafood, etc.), or drugs, despite careful washing. Cross allergies during kisses are thus well documented, as well as those that occurred after sex with people under antibiotic treatment.
Sperm is not the only criminal fluid and similar reactions have been reported with vaginal secretions. Marek Jankowski, professor of dermatology and venerology at the Nicolas-Copernic University of Toruń (Poland), observed in men redness and itching after intimate contact. “Many doctors do not believe it, but our investigations show that [cette allergie] touches as many people with sperm. ” However, it would tend to decrease with repeated exposure, where seminal plasma allergy requires real desensitization protocols.
The heavy price
How is this hypersensitivity to the other? The Dr Bernstein details his method: separate sperm and plasma, dilute the liquid, then gradually introduce it, in increasing doses, into the patient’s vagina. This expensive protocol, rarely proposed outside the major medical centers, is often effective, then allowing to have unprotected sex without risk with the same partner.
The emotional impact of these allergies is far from negligible. Maura, for example, made the difficult choice to give up maternity unit: the risks and costs linked to medical follow -up seemed insurmountable. For its couple, intimate life requires vigilance and a lot of communication: «[Mon compagnon] told me that he was injured by the idea that I was allergic to his sperm. He doesn’t blame me, just in the universe. “ Added to this is the gaze of society, often skeptical or mocking towards these invisible and poorly known pathologies.
Behind these rare cases, science questions the mysteries of the human immune system. The latter, designed to defend us intruders, can sometimes get carried away to the point of transforming our relationship to the other into a biological test. If allergy to the other upsets everyday life, the stories of Maura and other patients recall the importance of diagnosis, recognition and medical and psychological support.
