A woman who experiences dozens of ‘spontaneous’ orgasms a day has revealed the isolating reality of her condition.
The 29-year-old believes she developed persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) as a trauma response to being sexually assaulted as a child.
The rare condition, which causes unwanted arousal and unpredictable orgasms, has become so debilitating the woman cannot work, she barely leaves her house and was forced to miss her mother’s funeral.
Strangers have even asked if she can ‘be around children’ out of fear that PGAD is rooted in perverted behavior.
And while some say having multiple orgasms per day sounds pleasurable, the woman, who held an anonymous Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) said: ‘It’s not something you want to have… it can be very distressing.’
A 29-year-old woman on Reddit detailed her experience living with persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD), a rare condition that causes spontaneous orgasms
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PGAD is not well understood and it is believed to affect about one percent of females, but due to its embarrassing nature, people may be hesitant to seek help. Research is ongoing to determine PGAD’s incidence among men.
In addition to spontaneous orgasms, people with PGAD may feel pain or tingling around their genitals and vaginal lubrication or contractions.
While orgasms are typically pleasurable, these are unwanted and can interfere with day to day life.
For the anonymous woman, when she is having an episode, tingling starts around her clitoris before spreading up to her rectum and cervix, a small canal that connects the vagina and uterus.
‘I feel it strongest in my cervix area,’ she said.
This could be because parts of the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body, partially runs through the cervix.
While she has a long distance boyfriend who knows about her condition, she said he is her ‘only friend,’ as the condition has left her so fearful that she can barely leave the house.
She said: ‘It’s very rare that I’m actually around anyone. I order my clothes and groceries, and most of my appointments are telehealth. I don’t work and I live alone.
‘You can’t really prove that someone is having an orgasm, but I am scared that someone will realize, so I avoid people.’
The woman said in her AMA thread: ‘For me it’s not sudden but it’s a slow build up, and the build up doesn’t always end in an orgasm, so I never truly know if I’m going to have an orgasm.
‘But just that alone makes me order groceries to my front door.
‘It’s intense pleasure that if it does end up causing me pain, it makes me nauseous and the nausea makes me more fearful or upset than the pain because I hate throwing up.’
When Reddit users asked how she hides it, she said that the pain makes it look like she is very cold and shivering.
Her orgasms also come with ‘a lot of vaginal lubrication.’
She said while the orgasms aren’t always painful, ‘it’s still too much of a good thing.’
The woman noted while her condition is largely unpredictable, loud noises have triggered her orgasms in the past.
At one point, a motorcycle racing down the street would cause her to orgasm, even though she lived several floors up in an apartment building.
On a ‘good day,’ she deals with about three to five orgasms. But on a bad day, that number can be as high as 25, with 50 being the most she’s ever suffered in a day.
Most of her orgasms occur early in the morning or at night when she tries to sleep.
Sitting up suddenly also makes her more prone to an orgasm, possibly due to pressure on her genitals. The woman added that she avoids masturbating to keep from intensifying the sensations.
Rhode Island native Scarlet Kaitlin Wallen (pictured left and right), 21, has dealt with PGAD since she was just six years old. The condition causes a painful burning feeling in her genitals
While she suspects her PGAD could be a trauma response from being molested as a child, she said it could also be from taking antidepressants off and on for schizoaffective disorder.
Schizoaffective disorder involves a mix of hallucinations, delusions, depression, and mania and affects about three in 1,000 Americans.
Starting and stopping these medications could lead to imbalances in pleasure hormones like dopamine and serotonin. This could cause an influx of these hormones, leading to increased blood flow to the genitals.
Experts have also suggested that varicose veins in the pelvis, cysts along the base of the spine, and abscesses near the clitoris could be to blame.
She said that people often misconstrue PGAD, believing that it may stem from perverted thoughts or make her a danger to children.
The woman said: ‘Someone here asked me if I can be around children, and that’s probably the worst thing I’m afraid someone would ask me because they might interpret my illness as something much more insidious.’
However, she does belong to support groups for other PGAD patients.
Some stories of recovery, she said, ‘give me hope that I won’t always have to hide.’
She said she hopes to seek out a pelvic floor specialist, who can help her release tightened muscles that could be causing her orgasms, as well as talk therapy to deal with the anxiety and depression that PGAD causes.
