‘It was painful…’: Woman suffers erection for 5 DAYS, unable to walk

‘It was painful…’: Woman
suffers erection for 5 DAYS,
unable to walk
In a bizarre case, a woman suffered a five day erection
of the clitoris after taking an increased dosage of a
libido increasing drug.
The unidentified woman is said to have also been part
of a group partaking in a clinical trial of anti-
depressant drugs, Wellbutrin (bupropion) and
trazodone.
The woman is said to have been unable to stand due to
the erection.
Daily Mail reports:
The 29-year-old had been taking
medication to boost her libido, but had
recently upped the dose, according to a
medical report of her case.
She was part of a clinical trial group
taking the anti-depressant medications
the website LiveScience reports.
Painful: A 29-year-old woman
developed a permanent erection of the
clitoris for five days. She had been
taking two types of anti-depressant
medication to boost her libido (file
picture)
When she began experiencing pain and
swelling in her genital area, she stopped
taking the drugs – but the symptoms
got worse and worse.
The woman was suffering from a
condition called priapism. This usually
affects men but in rare cases, can affect
women too.
The condition is where a penis or clitoris
becomes engorged with blood, causing a
painful, long-lasting erection.
It is caused by a blockage of the blood
vessels that empty the penis . Also, a
number of medications can sometimes
disrupt the normal workings of the
nerves that help trigger an erection by
widening the arteries in the penis.
The nerves essentially ‘forget’ to narrow
the arteries after the feelings of sexual
arousal have passed, leading to
priapism.
Those that have been linked to priapism
include anti-depressants (as this
woman was taking), erectile dysfunction
medication and some recreational
drugs.
The woman was diagnosed from a
condition called priapism – for women,
where the clitoris becomes engorged
with blood, causing a painful, long-
lasting erection
‘The pain had become debilitating, as
she was unable to walk, sit, or stand
without significant worsening of the
pain,’ according to the case report in the
Journal of Sexual Medicine.
When she was examined, doctors
discovered her clitoris had become a
purple colour and swollen to 2.0 × 0.7
centimeters (0.8 × 0.3 inches),
LiveScience adds.
The drugs the woman was taking,
wellbutrin (bupropion) and trazodone,
block receptors in the body called
alpha-adrenergic receptors.
The decongestant Sudafed is known to
stimulate these receptors, so doctors
gave the woman a dose of this every six
hours.
A day later, the woman was discharged
from hospital and recovered soon after.