A man lost his short-term memory after having afternoon sex with his wife, a new study has found.
The 66-year-old suffered Transient Global Amnesia within 10 minutes of having sex, the Irish Medical Journal report stated.
The Department of Neurology at University Hospital Limerick said that the case demonstrates that sex could lead to memory loss.
The man went to hospital to complain of the amnesia, having experienced similar symptoms seven years earlier.
The report called “Recurrent Postcoital Transient Amnesia Associated with Diffusion Restriction” stated how he lost his recent memory of the last two days.
It said: "On the afternoon of presentation, he had engaged in sexual intercourse 10 minutes before the onset of memory disturbance.
"After seeing the date on his phone, he became distressed that he had forgotten his wedding anniversary the day before.
"He had, in fact, celebrated his wedding anniversary with his wife and family on the previous day.
"His autobiographical memory remained intact, but he had no memory of that morning or the celebrations the night before."
The paper continued: "The man repetitively questioned his wife and daughter over the events of that morning and the previous day.
"No other neurological symptoms were reported and upon arrival to the emergency department his neurological examination was completely normal."
This memory loss followed a similar experience by the same man seven years before when he went to the hospital and according to doctors that episode also happened within 10 minutes of having sexual intercourse.
The scientists have said in their report that the earlier amnesia event came “with an identical postcoital onset”.
Transient Global Amnesia has been linked in the past to having migraines or physical exercise. Similarly it could be brought on by hot or cold water, emotional stress, pain and sexual intercourse.
It usually takes place with people who are aged between 50 and 70 years, and generally they are isolated incidents that do not happen with any frequency. But at the same time there is an annual recurrence rate of between 6% and 10% of Transient Global Amnesia, according to the study.
