Marriage Nearly Destroyed by Wife’s Allergy to Husband’s Semen

Imagine if you found your soulmate, the one that you waited a lifetime to meet, got married and went away on your honeymoon only to discover a horrible truth–you were allergic to partner's sperm. That's exactly what happened to newlyweds Jeff and Clara, and it nearly destroyed their otherwise perfect union.

Clara, who did not want to use her real name for privacy purposes, said that every time she and Jeff would be sexual, she would break out in a horrible rash on her private parts. Worried that she had somehow contracted an STD, she made an appointment with her gynecologist for testing and to discuss the delicate issue. After several doctor's visits and hours of testing, doctors pinpointed her problem: she suffered from seminal plasma hypersensitivity, an allergic reaction to the proteins in Jeff's semen. Unfortunately, Clara and Jeff found out that treatment was very expensive and decided to put off any further movement to resolve the problem. However, after 10 months of near abstinence, they said they began to feel more like roommates than husband and wife.

This condition is rare, and affects between 20,000 to 40,000 women in the United States and does not affect fertility. To resolve the problem, doctors must desensitize a woman's body by isolating the protein that she is allergic to in the man's semen and then help her become accustomed to it. After nearly losing their marriage after the imposed abstinence period, Clara and Jeff decided to call about treatment once again. To their delight, they discovered that insurance covered the problem. Recently, Clara underwent an intravaginal "graded challenge" using serial dilutions of her husband's seminal fluid, which were injected every 15-20 minutes over the course of three hours. Jeff and Clara were then instructed to have sex within 12 hours of the procedure and see how it went. Thankfully, the results were much better–not perfect, but substantially better. Now Clara and Jeff say they have interest in being intimate with each other again.