A guy thought he found a fix for his back pain, but it seriously backfired.
If you’ve ever had ongoing back pain, you know it can really wear you down. People get desperate for anything that might help.
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But veering off from real medical advice? That usually doesn’t end well. And for this Irish man, it went way worse than anyone could’ve expected.
A sudden hospital visit led to an unexpected discovery
Back in 2019, a 33-year-old man showed up at the hospital complaining about sharp, sudden lower back pain. He said it happened after lifting something heavy a few days earlier.
While the doctors were checking him out, they noticed something odd. His arm looked swollen and red. Naturally, they asked him about it.
The strange truth behind his swollen arm
That’s when things got weird.
Turns out, the back pain wasn’t new at all. He admitted he had been injecting himself with his own semen for over a year and a half, trying to treat it himself.
He used a needle he bought online
He had been using a hypodermic needle he ordered from the internet.
Just before going to the hospital, he had injected himself three times in one go. Yeah, not once, not twice — three times.
Medical scans revealed severe internal damage
Doctors did an X-ray and found something called subcutaneous emphysema. On top of that, there was a collection of semen built up in his muscle.
He needed antibiotics right away. That air trapped under the skin?
Cleveland Clinic describes subcutaneous emphysema as “a rare condition that happens when air gets trapped under your skin.”
He left the hospital before full treatment
His back pain calmed down after a while, and once it did, he discharged himself from the hospital.
But his arm still needed to be drained after all that.
Doctors revealed he had been injecting semen monthly
Later on, the case was written up in the Irish Medical Journal. Dr Lisa Dunne, who led the report, wrote:
“Upon further interrogation of this alternative therapy, he revealed he had injected one monthly ‘dose’ of semen for 18 consecutive months using a hypodermic needle which had been purchased online.”
It was the first reported case of its kind in humans
This was actually the first time anything like this had been reported in a human. Apparently, it had only been tested on animals before.
“Although there is a report of the effects of subcutaneous semen injection into rats and rabbits, there were no cases of intravenous semen injection into humans found across the literature,” the report said.
No online sources supported his method
They even checked some of the weirder corners of the internet. Still, no one else seemed to be doing this.
“A search of more eclectic internet sites and forums found no other documentation of semen injection for back pain treatment or other uses.”
Doctors issued a strong warning to the public
The journal didn’t hold back on the warning.
“The dangers of venepuncture when carried out by the untrained layperson are highlighted as well as the vascular and soft tissue hazards surrounding the attempted injection of substances not intended for intravenous use,” it said.
“The case also demonstrates the risks involved with medical experimentation prior to extensive clinical research in the form of phased trials inclusive of safety and efficacy assessments.”
