Radiological Findings of Sexual Intercourse Related Emergency Department Admissions: A First Overview

Abstract

ObjectivesSexuality is an essential aspect of human function, well-being and quality of life. Many people have sex without complications. However, there are some people who need to seek emergency medical help for related health problems. The aim of this study was to present a first overview of patients who received a radiological examination related to sexual intercourse based emergency department admission.MethodsOur centralized electronic patient record database was reviewed for patients who had been admitted to our emergency department with an emergency after sexual intercourse between 2000 and 2011. The database was scanned for the standardized key words ‘sexual intercourse’ or ‘coitus’ retrospectively. For all patients identified in the electronic patient record database the radiological examinations were searched for manually in our Radiology Information System, and reviewed by three independent radiologists.ResultsOne hundred and twenty nine out of 445 (29,0%) patients received a radiological examination after immediate emergency department admission related to sexual intercourse. Fifty two out of 129 (40.3%) patients had positive radiological findings while 77 (59.7%) did not. Eighty point seven percent (n = 42) of the radiological findings were a sexual intercourse-associated pathology and 19.2% (n = 10) were considered to be incidental findings. Age and male sex positively correlated with radiological imaging workup (p<0.001, respectively p<0.037). The most common sexual intercourse-associated pathology was headache attributed to cerebrovascular insult (n = 21, 40.3%) followed by epididymitis (n = 7, 16.6%) and obstructive uropathy (n = 5, 11.6%). Of the patients with headache attributed to non-traumatic intracranial hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage (n = 14, 66.6%) was the most common, followed by intracerebral bleeding (n = 4, 19.0%) and one subdural hemorrhage.ConclusionsPathological findings are manifold. Cerebral imaging is the most common type of radiological imaging performed. Further prospective and standardized studies should be performed to better evaluate the significance of radiological imaging in this patient collective with the aim to gain better knowledge on what patients profit from what type of radiological imaging when presenting with a sexual intercourse related emergency.Advances in KnowledgeThe present study provides a first overview on radiological findings of sexual intercourse related emergency department admissions.

Sexual Behavior, Function and Satisfaction in Headache Associated with Sexual Activity: A Systematic Review of Literature

“…The frequency of HSA was 0.28% in 1 health checkup study [14] whereas 6.06% in 1 emergency service-based study of any sexual complication events [15], and ranged from 0.28% to 1.63% (average being 0.36%) in 5 clinic-based studies [16] Table 2). Frese et al [26] suggested the frequency of HSA to be 1% in their database but the total number of headache patients was unknown.…”

“…After an exclusion of duplications and studies from the same groups and data, there were a total of 97 publications eligible, including 1 community observational study [13], 1 health checkup study [14], 20 clinical case-series studies (more than 5 patients in index report) [15]- [34], and 75 case-report studies (1 to 5 patients in index report) ( Figure 1). …”

Death after Sexual Intercourse

“…Our case features sexual intercourse as a trigger of an acute intracerebral hemorrhage in a young female. Several studies have shown that sexual intercourse may provoke intracerebral hemorrhage, especially subarachnoid hemorrhage [ 3 , 4 ]. It has been reported that 14.5% of all subarachnoid hemorrhages are precipitated by sexual activity [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…Sexuality is an essential aspect of quality of life [ 1 – 3 ]. Nevertheless, sexual intercourse is physically challenging and leads to distinct changes in blood pressure, heart, and respiratory rate [ 3 , 4 ]; for an overview see Table 1 .…”

“…The true incidence is not known, as patients may not report the sexual circumstances of their health problems to health care professionals [ 5 , 6 ]. Nevertheless, it has been reported that sexual intercourse may lead to severe injury [ 3 , 4 ].…”