What is Dangerous Sex?

*. About 0.1% of ER admissions to University Hospital Bern come about as a result of sex *. Between 2000 and 2011 the hospital recorded 445 such cases *. Of these, 308 cases (69%) were male *. Most of the patients (78%) were younger than 40 *. A total of 276 (62%) had a possible infection *. Fifty-five cases (12.4%) were neurological, including headache, amnesia and bleeding between the brain and skull *. Two patients had cardiovascular emergencies and no penile fractures were recorded Source: "Sexual activity-related emergency department admissions: eleven years of experience at a Swiss university hospital", Journal of Emergency Medicine "I must tell you it is no myth," wrote one woman who asked to remain anonymous. "It happened to my late husband and myself one night. He literally could not withdraw i.e. was 'stuck'. I attributed it to the intensity of the vaginal muscle response during orgasm." Another correspondent, who asked to be referred to simply as John, grew up near an airport in southern England. "I remember hearing a story when I was 14 or 15 about an American airman who got stuck inside a lady and they had to get an ambulance and get them to a hospital to get them parted," he says. John eventually joined the merchant navy and started an on-off relationship with a woman in Japan. On one occasion he and his partner were having "very enjoyable sex" when he suddenly found that he couldn't withdraw. "Proceedings came to a halt and we decided that we'd better separate," he recalls. It took two or three minutes of fumbling and laughing - the experience wasn't painful for either of them. John, who is now 75, has never before spoken about the incident and it was never repeated. Dr John Dean, a senior UK-based sexual physician, says that both accounts are credible examples of a rare phenomenon that doctors sometimes call "penis captivus" (captive penis). "When the penis is in the vagina it becomes increasingly engorged," he says, giving his hypothesis of what causes the problem. "The muscles of the woman's pelvic floor contract rhythmically at orgasm. While those muscles contract the penis becomes stuck and further engorged." Finally the vaginal muscles relax, the blood flows out of the penis and the man can withdraw. Many dog-owners will have seen their pets getting stuck during copulation, which breeders refer to as a "tie". However, there are distinct anatomical reasons for this, according to Peggy Root, an expert in animal reproduction at the University of Minnesota. A dog's penis has a compartment which fills with blood after intercourse has begun, effectively locking the male in place.