THE Irish public have been warned over the dangers of medical experimentation after a man injected himself with his own semen to treat severe back pain.
According to the Irish Medical Journal, the 33-year-old man visited his local doctor complaining of a sudden onset of lower backpain after lifting a heavy steel object days before.
Upon further examination, the patient – who has a history of chronic back pain – was found to have a "red rash" on his right upper arm, leading to a startling revelation.
The man admitted that he had been injecting himself with his own semen for a year-and-a-half after becoming desperate for a "cure" to his ailment.
"The patient disclosed that he had intravenously injected his own semen as an innovative method to treat back pain," the IMJ noted in its case study.
"He had devised this 'cure' independent of any medical advice. 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.
"Upon this occasion the patient had injected three 'doses' of semen intra-vascularly and intra-muscularly".
'Semenly harmless'
The man's doctor advised him to undergo a "drainage" procedure after discovering that the semen had leaked into soft tissue in his arm, causing his rash.
But the inventive sufferer, whose identity shall remain confidential, opted to discharge himself after experiencing an improvement in his condition.
"This patient’s back pain improved over the course of his inpatient stay and he opted to discharge himself without availing of an incision and drainage of the local collection," the case study added.
Dublin-based IMJ said the case was "the first-ever described case of intravascular semen injection and associated abscess in the medical literature".
The peer-reviewed medical publication further warned the public not to experiment with their own "semenly harmless" treatments when suffering from a complaint and to always seek out a doctor for advice.
"This case demonstrates the risks involved with medical experimentation prior to extensive clinical research," they said.
