I was reading NPR news today, when I came across this rather, odd story to me --and definitely some new realization -- that some women became ill after having coitus with their husbands. Why?
'Turns out, the blame was not on the usual and commonly known STDs but, some fish neurotoxin called “ciguatera.”
That, it was noticed in some men who ate species of some tropical fish and a few hours later started having stomach pains and diarrhea, tingling and burning in legs. What’s more bizarre with the symptoms is
that, as “their sense of temperature also went haywire as ice felt hot while fire felt cool”.
Blame that to ciguatera, as it is considered “one of the most potent poisons on Earth since its molecule pokes little holes in nerves, triggering crazy symptoms: reversal of how you experience temperature, vertigo and the sensation that your teeth are falling out,” writes the NPR adding that, “…then there's dyspareunia, otherwise known as painful coitus.”
When they had coitus, their partners started complaining of similar signs and symptoms
NPR also reports that a team of doctors wrote a hypothesis in the journal Clinical Toxicology that the men had ingested the fish poison and passed it along to their wives through their sperm. For several weeks, the women had terrible pain and burning in their pelvis.
Reportedly, the toxin can also cause hallucinations or "giddiness" if the fish came from the Pacific or Indian Oceans.
Ciguatera is produced by a single-celled protozoan that sticks to algae on tropical reefs. It then moves up the food chain and eventually accumulates in large, predator fish, such as red snapper, grouper, amberjack and barracuda — species that also happen to be quite tasty.
There's no cure for the poisoning, and treatments only offer minimum relief.
Some researchers are now reported to be worrying that warming seas could make the poison even more common.
Since you can't cook, clean or freeze the toxin away from the fish, it is recommended that you stay away from fin fish, red snapper or grouper in tropical places where outbreaks have occurred.
