I recently received a letter that made me laugh, wondering whether the world had changed so much that people had become so sexually aggressive or that my column was starting to become useful for people. Here's the letter.

"I'm 29 years old and in the third year of being a housewife. I've got one child. I've known my husband for about 10 years, but for some reason I just don't seem to match with my husband's semen. Inside my vagina it's always itchy. And it gets even itchier if we have sex after my husband has been drinking. I've talked to several of my friends about this problem, and nobody else is going through anything like it. Is it possible our body fluids just don't get along together?"

The symptoms the woman described in her mail appear to be a case of semen allergy, an extremely rare affliction.

Semen allergy's symptoms include painful twinges in the genitals, genital soreness, hot genitals and red blotches like a rash that appear in the external areas of the sex organs. At times, a semen allergy can be discovered following sex without a condom. Putting it simply, using a condom from go to whoa is the best way to prevent a disease and thus be an effective treatment at the same time. Prevention is the best medicine.

But, what caused the semen allergy? Semen is made up of seminal fluid and prostate fluid and has sperm swimming inside it. Some recipients of ejaculated sperm (in this case, it was the woman's body) treat the presence of semen as an invasion by a foreign object. The most common explanation of why semen allergies occur is that the body that receives the semen treats it as a foreign object and reacts to try and expel it by bringing about an allergic reaction. Plainly speaking, this is either an immunological reaction or an antigen-antibody reaction. When the body's immune system brings about a reaction, it can sometimes lead to the symptoms that the woman who mailed me described.

If women experience ailments such as those described, they can seek the aid of a gynecologist, but because so few people -- sufferers and medical practitioners alike -- know much about semen allergy, there is a high likelihood of misdiagnosis, with some women being told such things as their ailment resulting from having a partner's penis that is too big for their vaginas, or having allowed insertion to occur before she is sufficiently lubricated. Some physicians may only look at the local reaction and put women through tests for such diseases as candidal vaginosis, vulvitis, genital herpes or chlamydia. While it is very important to check whether there is some sort of illness there, if the cause of the ailment is a semen allergy, then no amount of treatment for a sexually transmitted disease is going to bring about a cure.

Semen allergies can also affect more than just the genitals. A semen allergy can bring about the same reactions as hay fever, with coughing, sneezing, rashes all over the body and itchiness among its unexpected effects. Normally, these reactions would appear about 20 to 30 minutes after ejaculation and can last anywhere from hours to days. Semen allergy can also be deadly if it leads to what's called an anaphylactic shock, which is typified by breathing difficulties and plummeting blood pressure.

A simple check for a semen allergy involves applying semen to a soft part of the skin, say on the upper arm after scratching the skin, then waiting for about 20 to 30 minutes to see whether it causes redness or a rash to appear. I recommend anybody who suspects they may be allergic to give the test a try.

As I mentioned before, the best prevention and treatment for semen allergy is to use a condom at all times. Doing so, however, eliminates the possibility of pregnancy. If a couple finds themselves in the position where a woman has a semen allergy, many elect to go through the in-vitro fertilization process. (By Dr. Kunio Kitamura, special to the Mainichi)

NOTE TO READERS: Dr. Kitamura's regular "Slow Life, Slow Sex" column, which was supposed to run today, is unavailable this week. Today's story originally ran in Japanese on Oct. 1, 2004. "Slow Life, Slow Sex" and Dr. Kitamura's regular consultation column will appear on the site again as normal next Sunday, Nov. 18. We thank you for your understanding.

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written by Nicole , January 03, 2008

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