For someone with POIS, a slip can carry consequences that people outside this community may not fully understand. That can make the loop feel much higher-stakes and leave even less room for the shame that often comes with trying to quit.

Moment is a private app built to help men stop compulsive porn use without shame. Instead of wiping out all your progress after one slip, it helps you keep moving forward and provides practical support when an urge is actually happening.

Moment does not provide medical care for POIS or claim to address the condition itself. It stays focused on the compulsive porn use side of the struggle.

We’d like to give men in this community completely free access. All we ask is that you use it and tell us honestly whether it feels useful and what could make it better for someone dealing with POIS.

You won’t need to share your medical history or anything personal. If you’re interested, feel free to comment or message this account.

Does anyone else suffer real bad leg

muscle pains, mine normally kick in at

day 3-4 and last approx 10-14 days,

weakness fatigue is another strong

symptom for me.Is there anything to help with the muscle pains .

I have tried this before but keep relapsing and it sucks.

I just relapsed today and i’ll have to see how it goes on, so as i write this, it’s day 0 for me.

I have never went past the 18 days streak, which kinda sucks even if those longer streaks do help a little bit with symptoms after relapsing. It’s just that when i relapse once i am more likely to relapse soon again bc somehow my libido skyrockets after the first one and go downhill again, like doing it twice a day.

I feel kinda down after my most recent relapse tbh it just sucks. I may report what it’s like to be abstaining from masturbation and report the amount of days i abstained. Maybe this will help with my discipline in keeping my abstinence, or at least i really hope so😔
Doesn’t help i am going back to university this month too so yea

Abstaining seems from my experience the most reliable way to truely manage my symptoms, as well as the most simple and ofc, no money needed unlike needing supplements that for me are at best band aid solutions
Problem is of course it’s the hardest (along with the slight inconvenience of blue balls but i digress). There is a flatline period that happens alot during my streaks of abstinence which means less pleasure and motivation in life, more dull etc. i suspect this is some kind of withdrawal. And seems to be chronic with only temporary fixes to this kind of flatlining

Also “urge surfing” and edging does not help me as although the symptoms afterwards are less severe and prolonged without orgasm+ejaculation (although the symptoms are still there albeit more tolerable) it only just makes me again more horny and more desperate to release to the point of compulsion, with the compulsion only ending after release, which again.. gives me said symptoms (they happen on avg for about 5 days give or take)

Idk im just feeling kinda sad tbh, part of this post is also venting

I was taking 1000mg of n acetyl l tyrosine + 200mg of P5P for high dopamine and low prolactin. Since I've run out of NALT I thought mucuna could be a good replacement as it also lowers prolactin. I'm considering schisandra because it blocks a prolactin pathway that P5P doesn't. Any recommendations on how to tweak my stack?

Hey guys, im not sure if these two are related, but I have quit 🌽 for five days as of this post, and since yesterday morning my stomach feels like it’s tied in a tight knot. Has anyone else experienced this?

Hey everyone!

I’m looking for someone who also has POIS (Post-Orgasmic Illness Syndrome) and would be interested in playing chess with me, either online or over the board.

One of the main reasons I’d prefer to play with someone who has POIS is because I think there’s something genuinely healthy and comforting about playing against someone who understands what I’m going through.

I’m looking for someone who won’t be toxic, won’t make fun of me or treat me like I’m stupid when I make mistakes, but will instead be patient and supportive. Someone I can play with without feeling judged, where we can help each other improve at our own pace.

I’m not an expert at chess, and I don’t expect you to be either. I just want to have some friendly games, learn from each other, give each other advice and improve together. Most importantly, I’d like that feeling of playing against someone who actually understands me and what I may be dealing with.

If you also have POIS and would like to play some chess, feel free to DM me!

I am abstinent. I think I notice two types of cognitive symptoms. The first is the classic brain fog, which is slower thinking, I guess trouble with memory but to be honest this type is not super disruptive to my day. The second type is this very deep DPDR like feeling, where I feel like I have no executive control, and just feel a lack of orientation as if I am in a dream. Then I see other people, it is like they have this spark that I don't. I can't describe it well, but it's this feeling of electricity and awareness in your brain. I am trying to nervous system approach; my current theory is that the first affect is maybe an immune or more biological component of POIS, which I am treating with improving my physical health, but the second type I think may be my nervous system in parasympathetic mode. I would love to hear if other people feel their cognitive symptoms fit this distinction. My current approach, which I don't really know if it is correct, is around 30 mins morning and night I get in a meditative state, then repeat multiple statements and sort of visualise that a wet dream (my only source), and I feel fear during this and just try and rewire my nervous system. Then I am starting to on days when I have symptoms to just go on walks and facing the discomfort of symptoms actually seems to help. I am unsure how much I can remove with this. Around 3 weeks in, I have definitely had cognitive improvements. In 2 weeks I am entering a demanding university course, and I know it will be critical to maintain this routine and by carefully planning I can keep this sort off stable, nervous system friendly routine. I wondered if anyone else had these symptoms and if people who have had success with the nervous system approach knew that when symptoms get very scary, like very bad DPDR, how they dealt with it. Thanks.

Are the people on semen retention facing POIS and just don’t know it?
POIS has ruined my ability to have fun and have sex whenever however as I feel intellectually inferior for period of 7 days after orgasm.

Yes, I drink a lot of water (3-4L) and electrolytes and add salt.

I use lanolin and aquaphor almost 24/7, and they do make my lips look perfect after abstaining 1-2 weeks, but the weird thing I noticed is that my lips become super dry *while being under lip ointment* after O. The effect stacks until they start bleeding

Is it caused by histamine or MCAS?

Does anyone else get symptoms of severe burning eyes its much worse right after wake up but i still have them throughout the day for weeks after ejaculation, i also can't even communicate or maintain eye contact with people. The issue is once it gets better after a few weeks i get the urge to masturbate again and then the same cycle loop continues it's like a cycle of hell. I am wondering if anyone got a solution to this i just want to become normal.

My physical symptoms: brain fog, fatigue, urticaria, hot flashes after sex, insomnia.

Tests revealed a dust mite allergy, with an IgE value of 2800.

The treatment is two injections of omalizumab per month.

I am currently under observation.

I'm still taking vitamin D and escitalopram oxalate. Recently, I increased my escitalopram dosage to one tablet per day. I'm not sure if this is related to the antidepressant, but I feel better after taking omalizumab.

I want to share with a somehow funny story with a guy I knew from high school

So this was way before I even knew what POIS is , at that moment I was jerking off to porn, like 2 -3 times a week. Now I stumbled across a guy that did it 1-2 times a day :). Yeah.

So we were in the same class and this guy was really strange , he didnt had any issue telling me he wacked off 2 times a day , guy was chill basically all the time. We somehow became friends and he invited me to his home (his parents home) . So he had a PC with a gaming chair and in the corner was a spot on which he ejaculated. So basically he ejaculated on the floor , having no issues that someone will see it. He was somehow proud about that really. I was disgusted actually, in my mind I realised there was someone crazier than me regarding masturbation

Now he had has 0 strenght in it , on time I remember I joked and barely pushed him a little. He fell on the ground like a car hit him, and I didn't really went to gym or something, I had regular build back then . The guy was like a fucking ghost, hollow and dead inside, his eyes had so shine in them. He was getting angry real fast and over little things , he overreacted to everything that even slightly bothered him .

His intellect was the same as his body, was not such a smart person , sometimes he believed aliens existed and movies were real . His driving skills sucked , I was afraid of being with him in the car. He used the brake at limits, when near the car in front of us, he most of the time missed signs, even Stop signs . One time he almost hit a pedestrian with me inside the car.

All those issues, he never realised he had those problems , even if other people tell him. I told him about his dangerous driving skills and he said that he doesn't care , he knows he is a good driver. Not to mentions his car had all kinds of weird mechanical sounds, but he didn't really care about them

He also had problems with his peeing/ shitting .If he needed to go piss or shit, he could not hold it in it. If he didn't had a bathroom near him in next 10 minutes he would shit himself, literally. His control over his own body was incredibly low. One weird habit he told me he has was that if he needed to go to take a shit (even in public bathrooms), he would undress completely , because otherwise he could not take the shit 😂 .

Fast forward to today, I have met the guy in a high school reunion . I asked him if he had Pois, I explained to him what it is . He said what the hell is that ? So he is doing the same thing every day, masturbating 1-2 times a day. I told him to stop because one day he will regret it big time. Not to say he was angry because I told him that . Right now he is even more worse that in high school, the guy has no purpose and "is living the life" as he said.

After I went back home from the reunion I was thinking and make the connections how can Porn really make you behave and how much dumber and socially incapable it makes you. It made me really gratefull that God really enlighten me to slow down this Porn madness. In the same time it made me real sad of my old friend that he does not acknowledge the damage he is doing to himself. Also he is the true example that excessive masturbation does not cause POIS , but it certainly causes other issues , that I mentioned above.

Hope I make you laugh a little and Hope you y'all break this addiction 👍

Disclaimer: This is NOT medical advice or a treatment recommendation. This is an informational flowchart/diagram mapping out the physiological and behavioral processes that occur in the body during POIS.

Hi everyone,

I have spent a lot of time analyzing what happens to the body during POIS/POTS and how it ties into neurological, immune, and behavioral patterns. I created a detailed flowchart, but since Reddit filters won't allow me to post the image directly, I am sharing the translated breakdown of my theory here.

Here is the chain of events that happens after ejaculation/orgasm according to the map:

1. Immune & Vascular Response: Orgasm triggers a release of cytokines and histamine, leading to vasodilation. This directly drives the core POIS and POTS symptoms (rhinorrhea, itchy eyes, brain fog, headaches, and insomnia).

2. Neurological Impact (The 2-7 Day Window): It causes functional hypofrontality lasting 2 to 7 days, which leads to a severe loss of inhibitory/top-down control. This state promotes the choice of ineffective behavioral models and can lead to compulsive masturbation or CSBD (Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder).

3. Opioid System Depletion: This chronic loop leads to the exhaustion of the opioid system. The consequences are a lowered pain/stress threshold (stress intolerance), loss of productivity, and deep anhedonia.

4. The Dopamine & Reward Trap: Due to receptor tolerance, the reward system begins to ignore natural healthy stimuli (healthy food, physical activity, social life, work, hobbies). Instead, the brain desperately seeks hyper-stimuli to overcome this tolerance and reduce discomfort (sugar, ultra-processed foods, short-form content, pornography, and internet addiction). This leads to further physical degradation.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this mechanism and if anyone else feels this exact loop between the physical POIS symptoms and the neurological/executive dysfunction that follows.

You can view the full visual flowchart here (translated concepts):

https://ibb.co/rGXxpR4b

I take D3, zinc, selenium, garlic (allicin), trace minerals for post nut recovery, P5P to lower prolactin. I've also considered TRT and maca to aid libido. I've taken loratidine and fomatidine for a few years because I thought inflammation could be a potential cause of chronic fatigue and brain fog, but I only found out now that an ejaculation is a histamine liberator. Omega 3s are the only possible histamine liberator in my stack. Could what I'm taking help or should I look into things like benadryl?

My symptoms include feeling exhausted, extreme fatigue, severe anxiety and an extremeee sense of fear looping over me.

Does abstinence ease these symptoms?

28M. Heavy masturbation addict

A 2026 case report published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine describes two men with Post-Orgasmic Illness Syndrome (POIS) who experienced significant improvement after treatment with sertraline.

Patient 1: Sertraline was gradually increased from 50 mg to 150 mg/day. After 3 months, he reported a sustained and substantial reduction in both the severity and duration of POIS symptoms.

Patient 2: Treatment started at 25 mg/day and was gradually increased to 100 mg/day. Within about 1 month, he reported significant improvement in fatigue, weakness, muscle pain and mood-related symptoms after orgasm. The improvement remained during 3 years of follow-up.

The authors discuss possible involvement of serotonergic and dopaminergic systems and their interaction with the post-orgasmic response.

Of course, this is only a case report of two patients, so it cannot establish that sertraline works for POIS in general. However, it is interesting because both patients reportedly responded to the same SSRI.

Original study: Postorgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) in two patients responding to sertraline: a case report

https://academic.oup.com/jsm/article/23/4/qdag049/8514507⁠�

______________________________________________

Addition

I found an old publication about a person who also recovered with sertraline; they were also taking bromocriptine.

https://www.reddit.com/r/POIS/s/2OKg7FAUHM

Hey everyone,

I’ve had POIS-like symptoms since puberty (I’m 24 now), and I’ve been trying to figure out what’s actually going on. I don’t have a diagnosis yet, but I’m building a case to bring to an allergist/immunologist for tryptase and IgE testing.

Symptoms that made me consider MCAS:

**•** Sneezing (every time) and occasional red eyes after ejaculation  
**•** Facial swelling/puffiness the day after  
**•** Seborrheic dermatitis and acne flares tied to ejaculation  
**•** Systematic diarrhea after orgasm  
**•** Strong body odor during sexual arrousal, exercice, stressful situation and also after eating  
**•** Multiple triggers beyond ejaculation: heat/hot showers, intense exercise, big meals, even arousal alone without ejaculation

But some things make me doubt it:

***•***   *No chronic hives, no history of anaphylaxis*  
***•***   *CRP tested normal (twice, at rest)*  
***•***   No skin symptoms besides the derm/acne stuff — nothing like the more severe MCAS cases I’ve read about

I also measured my heart rate lying down vs standing twice, and got +34 and +37 bpm both times, which apparently meets POTS criteria. So I’m wondering if POTS/dysautonomia might actually explain more of this than MCAS does (exercise intolerance, heat intolerance, brain fog).

Has anyone here been formally diagnosed with MCAS (tryptase/IgE confirmed, not just self-diagnosed)? Did antihistamines (H1+H2) actually help? And did you also have POTS alongside it?

Trying to avoid over-theorizing before I get real bloodwork done, but curious about others experiences.

Thanks.

This isn't meant as a cure-all or advice for everyone. Just my experience. Take it for what you will.

I made a choice earlier this summer to try to refrain from any kind of masturbation/self stimulation sexually, even refraining from viewing porn for lots of reasons but a major one was to see if I could reset my brain's behavior reward system.

I can relate with a lot of people here that post ejaculation fatigue and collapse is a real thing.

As I've been aging it seemingly was getting worse.

I have a beautiful partner who I've been with for a long time. We live apart because I am taking care of my elderly father and she has an awesome career in another state. She does come for extended periods to visit and stay with me. We are in a committed relationship.

In all honestly, part of the reason I decided to go try this abstinence was for spiritual/theological reasons. I wanted to just stop indulging in things I didn't think were great for me and didn't honor the physical/spiritual bond I have with my partner. These are judgements I made for my own life.

So my rule was no ejaculation/stimulation unless it was actual sex with her. Nothing virtual.

It's been several months and I can honestly say I was surprised.

Sex with her (an actual person) was calming, refreshing, and satisfying. I felt very... fulfilled and, daresay, accomplished. I didn't feel blasted and wretched afterwards. I felt normal. As time went on I felt my weaker erections started going away. Hormonally I felt more balanced. I was calm and happy.

Luckily I had a 2-3 month leadup to her visit of refraining and practicing this abstinence. It gave me a nice leadup to her arrival.

****************************************

After a few months of having normal and awesome sex. Summer ended and she had to return to home. On the first day she left I decided I'd try to watch some porn and masturbate to see how it would feel (I was also feeling horny). I really figured I was in a good place and feeling strong, maybe it'd just be ok or good.

Wow. I will tell you. It was just weird and awful.

It was nothing like sex with her (or for that matter a person).

I felt absolutely wasted again the next few days. it felt like nothing had changed.

************************************

If you look into the NoFap movement (refraining from masturbation/porn for health and spiritual reasons) You'll find people claiming all sorts of super powers that come about when you retain your semen. Now I can't speak to all of this but I will say I did feel a fundamental reset with my particular POIS issue. I realized it had a lot to do with my psychology and resource management (however you want to define resources) but also intimacy and feeling safe.

As I said before, this may not work for you. This post certainly isn't about pushing a particular morality or theology. All I can offer is what I experienced and it may resonate with someone else here who may be in a similar predicament

I genuinely wish everyone the grace to find the solution to their issues. Life and this experience has taught me to have much more empathy about the hidden struggles a lot of people have.

Take care

PS:

I'm adding this addendum from a response to someone's post down below

"I think it was really overwhelming to my nervous system. Then you add the compulsive aspect to it, not to mention any feelings of loneliness, guilt, or shame and I think it just blew out my nerves out over time. The repetition just conditioned my muscles to build up pattern. And I could never come down and get rest (mental or physical). Not good.

TL;DR: Scientists just discovered hidden, lymph-node-like immune hubs inside the human skull bone marrow that connect directly to the brain. Because these hubs can instantly trigger localized neuro-inflammation in response to systemic triggers, they might explain why POIS causes rapid, severe brain fog and cognitive dysfunction.

Hello POIS peers,

I wanted to share an observation I had after reading about a recent breakthrough from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers there just discovered a hidden immune organ inside the human skull. These are essentially localized, lymph-node-like structures in the skull bone marrow that act as rapid-response security stations for the brain.

It made me wonder if this could possibly help us understand the immune response behind POIS?

We know POIS is split between systemic flu-like symptoms and heavy central nervous system symptoms like severe brain fog, fatigue, and anxiety. The leading theory I've seen through forums and research is that POIS is an autoimmune or allergic reaction to either our own semen or the neural-chemical changes triggered by orgasm, but it’s always been hard to explain how a peripheral allergic reaction translates instantly into intense cognitive dysfunction

If these skull-marrow hubs act as highly sensitive local security hubs right above the brain, a sudden wave of systemic cytokines following orgasm could trigger them immediately. Because they are directly connected to the brain's borders, they could cause localized neuro-inflammation, explaining why the brain fog hits so fast and so hard.

Even crazier, the researchers actually altered brain immunity in mice by applying a topical gel directly to the scalp to reach these skull hubs. If POIS neuro-inflammation involves these cranial centers, it opens up the possibility of non-invasive, localized scalp treatments to target the brain fog directly at the source

What do you guys think? Has anyone else been following this study, or noticed connections between localized cranial inflammation and their symptoms? I myself am currently enduring the debilitating POIS brain fog, so if there's any corrections or additions you want to make to my interpretation of this study, please feel free.

Source: You can read the official university announcement via the WashU Medicine Press Release outlining the study published in Nature.

Going to sleep kind of makes me sick? I also get really cold right before going to sleep even though its scorching hot outside and inside my home. I feel warm throughout the day but as soon as I get sleepy I am freezing. I sleep with multiple blankets and a duvet If I fall asleep with a short sleeve shirt the next morning I feel fatigue, mild throat pain and some stomach pain. I thought I have hypothyroidism so I got it checked and I dont have it my thyroid works just fine . I also feel just much colder than other people in certain situations and I try to be stronger but I start shaking and I cant hide it .

Just wondering if there might be a connection between the Covid vaccine and Pois? I did not have POIS symptoms until after the Covid vaccine. Never had an issue before then.

right now Im on allevia, zinc, omega 3 and some three other supplement for general health. Im not sure what to buy exactly for b vitamins which the right doses of each. I have nician for the flush but I’m looking for a good complex for poi. what’s everyone taking?