Why More Men Die During Marathon Sex – Experts

Checks have shown that unless Nigerians take the issue of regular medical check seriously, more men are likely to die during sex.

This fear was confirmed by some medical experts, one of which is the Chief Medical Director, Hosanna Hospital, Festac Lagos, Dr. Chikodi Onyemkpa, who argued that since sex is an intense physical activity, just like sports.

In an interview with DAILY POST, he said that those who already have a compromised health condition are likely to fall victims if they are not aware of their health condition before embarking on such intense physical exercise like sex.

He noted that just like any other ordinary life event could end in sudden death, sexual activity, which is also an ordinary life event, should not be an exemption.

Dissecting the matter from the prism of its ordinariness, he said: “I will prefer to hold a very simple view in this respect. You probably would have heard that somebody was driving a car and died. You may also have heard that somebody was eating food and died in the process or that somebody even went to bed, slept and died sleeping.

“So, if these ordinary life events can end up in death, is sex not a life event? In other words, if somebody can be driving, eating or sleeping, and suddenly dies, why is that of sex generating so much fuss?

“In fact, some people were even talking when they died, and we know of those that were playing football and they died; so there is nothing out of place that somebody is having sex and he dies, while doing so. He/she is living, and while in the middle of living, death comes. That is a simple view that I would rather have of that.”

But, as a medical doctor, he also did not forget the contribution of somebody’s health condition to all of these occurrences.

And he said: “If we try to think of what could also go wrong during sexual intercourse, and maybe, we try to apportion blame to that segment of normal part of the process of sexual intercourse, we should know that sexual activity itself is an intense nervous and physical activity.

He explained that people who already have problems with their health, especially heart-related problems, are more exposed to dying during sex.

“And for people that their health is already suffering one compromise or the other, this intense activity might now become too weighty to bear in terms of an already compromised situation.

“For example, if you see somebody that is sick and you ask him to do a 100-metre race, it is not the race that is really a problem; it is that he is sick and you are now adding to that.

“So, if you see somebody that has a compromised heart function and you add the intense activity of sexual intercourse on that person, it already becomes too much load for the heart to bear. That itself can lead to death.

“Or in the event that somebody’s blood pressure is already plenty and you add to that the increased blood pressure that will happen as a result of intense sexual activity, you can have the person getting into trouble,” he explained.

He identified sex enhancing drugs as another factor that could lead to death during sex, when he said: “There is a popular medicine in the market that is used to enhance sexual activity for people that have erectile dysfunction. A popular brand in the market is called Viagra and you often notice that part of the warning there is that the medicine might raise your blood pressure.

“So, if you already have a raised blood pressure, you already know that the manufacturer is forewarning that you get counsel from your healthcare provider before using it because the medicine will raise your blood pressure.

“While having sexual intercourse, such medicine can cause you to have a stroke, and the story will be that the person was having sexual intercourse and he developed stroke; meaning there is a problem with the woman.

“That is what the interpretation in the street will be but the reality is that you already had a compromised health condition and you are piling pressure on it.”

Dr. Onyemkpa decried a situation where such sad developments are blamed on the innocent woman when the man actually caused his death.

“So, because we are a deeply religious and superstitious people, we tend to read more meaning into these events than it should ordinarily be.

“And maybe, it is good for public knowledge that we should make it as simple as it should be, so that we don’t label and cast them in bad colour when the actual blame should go to people that are otherwise having a problem already before the incident,” he stated.

He argued that the person that has a problem during sexual intercourse did not commit anything more than any other person.
“Probably, if you do a background check, you will actually find what created that problem and help him appropriately,” he submitted.

Responding, Dr. Onyemkpa argued that by nature’s design, men are more vulnerable because they are the aggressor gender.

He said: “I don’t see why it should be the other way round. The way nature designed it is that the aggressor gender is the male. It is the male that would more easily start up sexual activity; the female sometimes does, but it is the male that is more physically involved in sexual intercourse than the female.”

He cited a statement credited to an artist to drive home his point, saying, “An artist once said that female nudity means nothing. It is male nudity that means something because it is when you see a nude male that you actually determine whether there is intent for sexual activity or not.

“He is the aggressor; it is in him that you find quick play of hormonal activities that are involved in sexual intercourse. It is just a design of nature more than an intentional problem.”

Solution

He stressed that the only way to avoid or reduce incidence of death during sex is for people to take the issue of their general well being seriously.

“You know, on grounds of culture more than poverty, we don’t believe that we are not well as long as we are breathing and kicking. But, the increase in awareness has even made people more inclined to make enquiries about the status of their well-being even when they are apparently healthy, but if people are not health aware and you compound it by an environment of lack of means, they will not go to enquire about their health as long as they feel well.

“But, feeling well in itself does not imply that everything is alright. I have seen people that walk into hospital apparently without any problem, but when you check their blood pressure, it is 220 over 120 or 240 over 140 and you tell the man that he is almost dead, he will tell you that he doesn’t know what you are talking about.

“And you now take time to explain to him that his blood pressure is so bad that in the next minute, if God doesn’t help him, he might be brought into the hospital unconscious.

“Well, you will need a lot of persuasion for him to spend his time and money to address that issue, which to him, is not causing any discomfort as yet.

And, if we have to believe those that said that Nigeria is the poverty capital of the whole world, if such a man has no means, he will be more concerned with eating food to stay alive than addressing a problem that does not cause him any discomfort at the moment.

But, that same person will like to live life like any other person. So, you can now picture what will happen if such a person goes ahead to have sexual intercourse and suddenly a blood vessel bursts in his brain and he has a stroke and they are thinking that he will get up; a few hours passed and he is a dead man; the innocent wife will now be accused of having killed her husband.

“After all, he was very healthy and all over the place; in fact, we greeted him this evening. It is only you that knows what you did to him, especially if there was even a quarrel about money in the morning of that day and they exchanged words.

“It is the same poverty issue that may have been responsible, yet, you have a dead man and the wife is accused of killing him because people think it is not usual for a man to have sex with his own wife and die; the woman must be a witch. That is the way we rationalize such things and it is so unfortunate.”

He submitted that the only solution is for people to go for regular health checks to determine their health status.

Dr. Uche Okenyi of the Hova’s Place Hospital, Festac, equally aligned with his colleague, advising that people should be very much aware of their health status.

He also argued that there is nothing mysterious about somebody dying while having sex “because if a man has a heart condition and he doesn’t know, and he goes on to take sex enhancing drugs, he might just be exposing himself to sudden death.”

“So, if you don’t know your health status, it is a problem. Knowing your health status is very important and key to avoiding sudden deaths during sex,” he stated.
Dr. Okenyi argued that death during sex happens to both men and women, but maybe, the case of women has not been reported as widely as that of men.

He cited an instance of a woman that almost died during sex because she was asthmatic.

“During orgasm, she passed out but she was lucky that she was quickly rushed to hospital and she was revived. She could have died. So, it could happen to both sexes. But, again men are the ones that exert more energy during sexual intercourse,” he stressed.

He equally pointed out that most often it has to do with heart-related complications.

“Again, if the person has a swollen blood vessel in the brain, it could burst during ejaculation and that could lead to sudden death,” he said.

Also looking at the issue, a Consultant Sonologist, Dr. Chike Ilukwe who spoke with DAILY POST described the development as worrisome and pointed out a number of situations that could predispose a man to death during sex.

He said: “Apart from the reasons so far adduced by my colleagues, it is also possible that there could be some drug-related incidents.

“There are some drugs that people take to enhance sexual performance. Some of them will have side effects in other parts of the body like the heart. There are some concoctions, that is a mixture of local herbs that enhance sex, with questionable constituents and in the body.

“They can cause other things that are not related to the reason for their consumption. Some of those drugs can cause negative effects on people such as narrowing of the blood vessels, embolism, or fatigue of the cardiac muscle.”

He further said that other possible causes in the body could be diabetes.

“For instance, there are endocrine problems like somebody that has diabetes and the blood sugar level is low. If the person takes something that will further depress the blood sugar level with the motive of enhancing sexual performance, the person may die suddenly because the blood level will drop so much,” he explained.

He also did not forget the place of alcohol in the system, when he said: “Another possible cause is extreme alcoholic consumption.

“There are some levels of alcoholism that can disorganise the body in such a way that the stress of sex becomes a danger. Sometimes, such people don’t easily admit their limits because they want to impress their partners.”

He equally included epilepsy as one of the causes of sudden death during sexual encounters.

“For somebody that has epilepsy; that is abnormal electrical activity in the brain, the stress imposed on the body and the brain by intense sexual activity can trigger an epileptic attack and at that point, the person aspirates saliva or discharge, suffocates and dies,” he said.

He also believes that there is nothing mysterious about dying while having sex, but strongly advised that people should go for regular medical check to be able to know their health status before embarking on any intense physical activity, which sex, incidentally, happens to be one.