We never really think about these things, do we?
Who would go have sex thinking that they may end up blind by the end of it? Almost comical it sounds, eh?
Well, not for this guy who had to be admitted to the hospital after becoming blind in one eye when he orgasmed too hard during sex, according to a story published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Our 29-year-old hero reported to the emergency eye clinic complaining of an obstruction in the central vision of his left eye, which he noticed that morning.
After examination, the doctors couldn’t fathom what was up so the man was asked to return for follow-up three days later. And that’s when after being asked questions about his recent sexual activity by a different clinician did he get a diagnosis. As it turned out, an episode of vigorous sexual intercourse on the evening preceding the onset of symptoms lead the man to have postcoital valsalva retinopathy.
In other words, when the man performed a Valsalva maneuver, his abdominal muscles tensed up, straining and holding his breath, and the air was forced against a closed windpipe and pressure increases in his chest. The result? The pressure created resulted in the popping of blood vessel in the eye of the man after his ‘vigorous’ sexcapade.
Luckily, the condition is self-resolving. Phew! But hematologists have also found that Valsalva maneuver can also produce memory loss if the intense pressure in the brain’s blood vessels results in temporary lack of blood flow to the central part of the brain. Yikes!
Gotta play safe I guess, in more ways than one.
