What could make a man or woman begin a journey of sexual pleasure and never return alive? In this report, Primerosenews relives some past incidences, seeks answers to this germane question and possible causes.
ON Tuesday 17th of May, Nigerians woke to the horror news of an undergraduate student of Ibadan polytechnic who died during marathon sex with his lover.
It was reported that the young man lost his life while his female partner was rendered unconscious after the two reportedly had a long duration of sexual intercourse.
The deceased, a National Diploma 2 student identified only as Oromidayo, was from the Civil Engineering Department, while his lover, Aramide, is also in ND 2 level in the Department of Business Administration.
According to media reports, the two love birds had engaged in a sex romp after they came back from the campus. They were also suspected to have used drugs to enhance their sexual performance.
The deceased neighbour who spoke to the newsmen revealed that the lovers took sexual enhancement drug and began the ‘pleasure’ that landed the young man in the early grave and his lover in a coma.
On Sunday May 1, the residents of Jakande Estate, Isolo, Lagos, also witnessed the unfortunate death of Koyejo who engaged in a car sex romp with her unnamed lover.
The neighbors discovered that the pair had died on Sunday May 1, after noticing that the car had been on all through Saturday night, April 30.
Koyejo, a married man, according to the media reports, had picked his ‘lover’ at Isolo while heading to his family house at Jakande Estate.
The IT engineer who lives with his wife at Surulere, reportedly called his friends to tell them he was around and subsequently bought suya before parking at Double Star Junction to have some fun inside the car.
A source said they became curious after discovering that his vehicle with registration number EPE666GE, had been on from Saturday night to Sunday night and in the same spot.
“By the time they put on their touch light, they saw it was Koyejo, our former guy. But we do not know who the girl was.
“It was this evening that we were told he went to pick the girl at Isolo. They bought suya at Moshalashi bus stop. One thing led to another and they started making love in the car.
“Nobody knows what killed them. Koyejo was naked while the girl only pulled her tight.
“One of the men in our zone called Koyejo”s wife who lives at Surulere. She said she had been unable to reach her husband since Saturday that his phone had been switched off.
“We had to contact policemen at Ejigbo who came to take them away with the car. Koyejo’s body had started peeling. The girl’s nose was bringing out blood.
“There was no injury on them. Only the Police can tell what happened. They took them to Isolo General Hospital,” the source revealed.
The students and host community of Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, capital of Imo State Nigeria, will also not forget in a hurry when, Cynthia Obieshi and Samuel Osuji that also started a journey of sexual pleasure on June 14, 2020, never returned alive.
The then police spokesperson in the state, Orlando Okeokwu, said, “On Sunday, June 14, 2020, acting on a report received at the police station, operatives of the Divisional Police Headquarters, Nekede/Ihiagwa Division, moved to Room 19, Vic-Mic Lodge, situated around the JMJ bus stop, broke into the room and found the lifeless bodies of one Cynthia Obieshi and one Samuel Osuji.
“It was gathered that the said Cynthia visited her boyfriend, Samuel on June 13, 2020, and passed the night with him, but unfortunately, both of them could not wake up the next morning.
Also in Adamawa State, North-Eastern Nigeria, where Lugas, a 37-year-old mother of two children also died during sexual intercourse with his lover, Lekan Agboola.
Agboola, a telecommunication engineer whose wife and children are in Lagos, said Lugas had been his girlfriend for more than three years, before the unfortunate incident occurred.
Recounting the circumstances surrounding the death of his partner, Agboola said he called the late Lugas to meet him at home and it was while they were having sex that he noticed she suddenly became stiff.
Medical experts’ perspective
Two medical practitioners spoken to, confirmed it in separate interviews, the possibility of death to occur during consensual sex for a number of reasons, generally because of the physical strain of the activity, or because of unusual extenuating circumstances.
Speaking on factors that can lead to death during sex, a medical doctor at Eket General Hospital, Akwai-Ibom State, Dr Sylvanus Edet described sex as an energy sapping activity that could lead to death if there is underlying health challenges or either of the partners is not in a stable health condition.
He blamed some recorded incidents of death on sexual enhancers, which their users hardly bother about their negative consequences.
As an African, he believes thunderbolt which Yoruba extraction called Magun, but he argued that thunderbolt does not take the life of its victim until when such victim eat, drink or do the forbidden.
“Sex is an energy sapping activity. Some die as a result of engaging in the act despite their unstable health condition, to satisfy their lust and some take sexual enhancements to go extra miles to satisfy their partners without minding the danger attached to it,” he stressed.
Also speaking, Dr Olugbenga Alabi of General Hospital, Abeokuta, Ogun State, who was in the same page with Dr. Edet, stressed that as much as sex is a pleasurable activity, it is also an activity that consumes a lot of energy.
Alabi described the general belief that sex is a mere pleasurable event that requires no energy, as being far from the truth.
He explained that Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) otherwise known as the energy currency of the body, consumed during sexual intercourse, especially during orgasm is very high.
According to him, “Death during sex is more common with patients that have background of certain illnesses, and the commonest in this part of the world is cardiovascular diseases; hypertension and diabetes.
“They can be predisposed to death during sexual intercourse. It’s commoner with men than women because, according to the orgasm ladder, men reach orgasm faster than women. A woman may just be in stage 2 during sex while a man may have reached stage 5 and come back to zero.
“The commonest cause of death during sexual intercourse is patient having subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). It’s a form of stroke and also a form of blood vessel taking blood to brain bursting during sex,” he stated.
Stressed further, Dr. Alabi said, “We have cases like that of people who were rushed to the hospital. If they are rushed to the hospital on time, they may still survive but if not, it’s something very lethal.
The medical expert also noted that the life of a patient suffering from Myocardial infarction (MI), which is commonly known as heart attack, could be cut short while having marathon sex.
“During sex, all the body parts and soul are involved. It’s not only the body; the soul must also be ready to do it. So when all those things come to play, there is increased consumption of energy.”
He said inadequate supply of nutrients, energy and oxygen to the heart to compensate for what it’s doing, can make it suffer an attack, which may be very lethal.
According to him, Myocardial Infarction (MI) patients are restrained from having sex for at least two weeks in some developed countries like United Kingdom, UK, saying such may not be easily recommended in Nigeria because of government’s poor policy on health conditions.
Physical fitness helps
The duo of Dr. Edet and Dr. Alabi recommend regular exercise to both male and female to stay fit and avoid complications that may arise during sexual intercourse.
According to the medical experts, having sex uses a lot of muscles that one doesn’t normally use during the course of the day, especially during ejaculation which is the peak of sex.
“When you are having sex, the exercise you do is greater than running a 400-metre race, so if you don’t engage in a regular exercise, that may pose a danger,” Dr. Edet affirmed.
The medical doctors encouraged all to avoid living a life devoid of physical activity.
“It’s important to engage in enough physical exercise; not necessarily jumping or going to the gym every day, but taking at least 10-20minutes walk daily,” Alabi said.
He added: “Sex and death, the commonest problem still remain with the heart or its vessels. Other things may not even give you enough energy to do it. A patient that has obtrusive airwaves problem will not have enough strength to engage in aggressive sexual intercourse.
“It also depends on the sex position they engage in. There are some sex positions that won’t consume much energy and there are other sex positions that require much energy.”
Age also matters in sex
Dr Alabi also says age remain a non modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
According to him, “When we say risk factor, in some non communicable diseases, there are no definite causes for it. Majority of people with hypertension don’t have a major cause, we only know that there are risk factors like, obesity, smoking, taking excessive alcohol, excessive cholesterol; being a black is also a risk factor for hypertension. There are other factors like genetic diseases, family history of hypertension, family history of diabetes that is risk factors for the cardiovascular diseases.
“Of all the above factors, some are modifiable and some are non-modifiable. So anyone with family history of diabetes or hypertension, from age 55 has three risk factors combined because he can’t change his family, can’t change his race as black and can’t also reduce his age. These are non-modifiable risk factors.”
He explained further, “As we grow older, we are like vehicle, our body parts wear and tear but unfortunately we can’t replace them. As far as cardiovascular diseases are concerned, the older one gets, the more the risk factors.
“When some older women come to the hospital and complain that they are having irregular menstruation, I welcome them to the male club. Being a man is a factor for hypertension, so by the time women attain menopause, they are also prone to hypertension.”
Sexual enhancement a fatal decision
The dangers lurking for users of sexual enhancement pills, according to Doctor Alabi, are more fatal than beneficial.
Rather than taking enhancement to boost sexual performance, Alabi advised that the one who suffers erectile dysfunction could take proper stalk of history to pick a cause of the problem.
He warned that people should desist from taking sexual enhancement, especially the unorthodox ones that have no regulated dosage, as they could be rendered permanently impotent.
“There are two types of erectile dysfunction (ED): psychogenic and neurogenic. Psychogenic is just like psychy. A man who fought with his wife at home may not have sexual urge for that woman until they resolve the fight. That is psychogenic. Some may be caused by systemic disease like diabetes and by the time you’re treating them and controlling sugar in them, their penile erection too will start improving.”
“I won’t mention those things people are taking; however, though it may give them some aphrodisiac effect, the side effect is not usually too good. For instance, if someone has persistent penile erection that lasts for more than four hours and there is no medical intervention, it can render the victim permanently impotent.
"In the pathogenesis of penile erection, the major thing is the blood vessel in the penis will dilate, it will enlarge so that the blood will flow. When blood flows in and it does not flow out, that penis remain turgid. But God has made that system a form of ying yang, such that when you need to have sex, it rises and when you finish the operation, the verve opens and the blood moves out. But in all those enhancement, especially the unorthodox ones, they don’t have that check verves.”
“Even with our orthodox drugs that we give patients, there is improvement everyday as to reducing other side effect that can arise from it. Some years back, there was a drug called Viagra, but today there is another brand that has some advantages over the first brand,” he cautioned.
Traditionalists’ corner
Corroborating the above views of medical experts, a roots and herbs seller, Morufat Ojo said, if anybody slumps and dies during sex, such person may have a history of sickness such as hypertension or diabetes; or as a result of sexual enhancement many are fond of taking.
Ojo claimed that if anyone comes for erectile dysfunction solution or roots and herbs for sexual enhancement, she always tries to find out the cause of such problem before giving the patient herbs for sexual performance.
“Some people are suffering from erectile dysfunction ED as a result of pile; some are going through both physical and emotional stress, so we ask all that.”
“Like in the hospital where the doctor will carry out tests on a patient to ascertain the causes of sickness in the body, we ask them all that too. Some are diabetic and some are hypertensive and if we confirm any of these, we first treat them on those sicknesses before giving them sexual enhancers,” she submitted.
Erubami Ifayemi, an Ifa priest, however, has a divergent opinion on death during sex. To him it’s not enough for anyone to die during sexual intercourse on account of health challenge.
Ifayemi believed that those that died during the actions are either victims of thunderbolt or the women they have sex with failed to bear certain sacrifice to appease the spirit world.
But thunderbolt does not kill its victim immediately until the man eats, drinks or does the forbidden, Primerosenews inquired.
Ifayemi however thundered that, “There are many types of thunderbolt; some kill only when you do the forbidden and some kill immediately. There are some that the victim would be getting lean and doctor would not be able to discover the problem in him.
“So in a nutshell, there is nothing that can make a man that has erection to start a journey of sexual pleasure and die on the way, there must be something somewhere, hidden in the woman’s body,” he believed.
