Allergy to Husband’s Sperm Was ‘Game-Changer’ in Marriage
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Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Newlyweds Jeff and Clara, both 35-year-old professionals, fell in love quickly and were convinced they were the “right match” — until they had sex.
“I had this bizarre reaction,” said Clara, who for privacy reasons did not want to use her real name. “I had burning and swelling and redness, which was very unusual. I thought I had contracted an STD [sexually transmitted disease].”
Horrified, she made an appointment with the gynecologist for testing and was nervous about having a “tricky conversation” with Jeff.
After several doctors’ visits and hours of research online, the North Carolina couple finally got some answers, but it derailed their sex life and shook their marriage.
Clara had seminal plasma hypersensitivity, an allergic reaction to the proteins in Jeff’s semen. Even using a condom didn’t help, so the couple avoided intimacy.
“It’s really bizarre,” said Jeff. “Neither of us had ever come across anything like that. It was a real problem, because everything else was great. We were madly in love, but it was a real game-changer for a while.”
Clara’s condition affects an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 women in the United States, according to Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, who specializes in allergies and immunology and recently treated the couple.
“We feel they are more common,” he said. “Not common like asthma, but more than people realize.”
Some women have been known to sleep with their new husband for the first time and break out in hives. Women can experience abdominal swelling or a local reaction that they describe as “like a needle sticking in to their vagina,” according to Bernstein.
Fertility is never affected. Once the woman is desensitized and can have sex comfortably, the chances of getting pregnant are the same as any other couple.
But women often don’t get an accurate diagnosis because the condition can be confused with yeast and vaginal infections.
Dr. Andrew Goldstein, director of the Centers for Vulvovaginal Disorders in Washington, D.C. and New York City, said the condition is so uncommon, he has only treated “about a dozen” cases in the last 10 years.
“What is more common are hypersensitivities to latex or spermicides or even a chemical on your partner,” he said. Lubricants and warm gels can also be allergens, he said.
Goldstein, who did not treat the couple, said men do not typically experience allergies to their wives. But there’s a lingering mystery that still baffles the couple: Jeff has had similar allergic reactions to Clara — but only when she has pain. Taking antihistamines on the advice of his allergist helped.
“His reaction is not typical and he only had it once or twice,” said his doctor, Bernstein. “I’m not sure what to make of it.”
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio