Doctors at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland reported the case of a 33-year-old man who came up with an odd cure for his chronic back pain.
Semen For Back Pain
The unidentified man injected his own semen into his arm every month for a year and a half to treat back pain. Unfortunately, his self-developed treatment did not work and even made things worse.
Eighteen months after starting the treatment, the man sought medical attention after a severe and sudden onset of lower back pain. He said he lifted heavy steel objects three days before.
It was during the checkup that his doctor noticed a patch of red swollen skin on his right forearm. The man then admitted he had been injecting himself his own semen using a hypodermic needle he bought online.
The semen had entered his blood vessels and leaked into the soft tissue of his arm. The swollen area eventually grew and hardened.
An x-ray revealed there was an area of trapped air beneath the skin. Doctors immediately hospitalized the patient, treating him with intravenous antimicrobial therapy.
Lisa Dunne, from Adelaide and Meath Hospital, and colleagues wrote in the case report that the patient's back pain improved during his treatment.
The man decided to discharge himself when his condition improved albeit he opted out of incision and drainage of the fluid.
Doctors' Warning
The doctors said it was the first ever case of a man injecting himself with semen to treat back pain. They nonetheless warned about the dangers that untrained individuals could face should they perform intravenous injections on themselves.
They also advised against experimenting on treatments whose safety and efficacy have not been tested through extensive clinical research.
"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," Dunne and colleagues wrote in the Irish Medical Journal.
