Orgasm from general anaesthetic?

Back when I was at university a girlfriend had thyroid surgery, and reported having the strongest orgasm she'd ever had while going under. So much so that when she had follow-up cosmetic surgery she opted for another general anaesthetic rather than local/sedation hoping to get the same experience - but I can't remember if she did.

Is this a real thing? I've tried researching but not seen similar reports, and it's not a reported side effect. What would be the mechanism, increased blood flow? I always wondered if she was making it up but... 😃

Sarahhh while i cannot attest to anesthetic causing an orgasm , I do know that drugs like propofol , fentanyl , droperidol can cause an spontaneous erection in men undergoing induction of general anesthesia or being sedated for procedures. I have seen it on the ITU when sedating men with propofol, thought its occurrence is rare . Yes the general consensus is the drugs causes vasodilation and so increases the blood supply to the tissue .

I think it may depend on your friend and her experiences. For example, my wife has a Pavlovian response to laying back on our "table" in a gown then having the mask placed on her. Her body has learned - and her nipples get hard and she gets wet. If your friend has similar experiences, she may very well have had the same type of reaction. And, if she's a sleepy-fetish person, the going under may have tipped her over the top!

Related research I turned up: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2044.2003.03147.x/full

Thats a bummer an erection and your out for the count

Sarahhh thanks for posting that link, was quite interesting to read as it quite relevant to my clinical environment . Although I have not seen it occur myself . I did had a male colleague who had some unwanted attention from a female patient, Thankfully there were no accusations and we resolved the situation,by simply ensured that only female nurses were assigned to her care .

We were not sure of the cause at the time , so it could have been as a result of the sedation as we did use both propofol and midazolam. When the person was fully conscious and orientated , she was very surprised and shock by her behaviour when it was related to her.

Sexual excitement both real and imagined are functions of the effect of General Anaesthesic components. Nitrous Oxide is very well documented (I have seen it in a couple of females) and male erections are not that uncommon. Not surprising thinking about catheterisation. Midazolam also well documented and is dose dependent in the main.

Https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2941615/

While priapism is the focus of the article, it also discusses sexual hallucinations. There have been cases of accusations against medical staff based on those hallucinations.

The last time I went under the knife I didn't have any arousal issues that I remember. The anesthesiologist pumped some kind of cocktail into my arm before they wheeled me into the OR, and he forewarned me it would be like a Martini going up my arm. He was right. I started singing aloud Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" which was kind of cool I thought at the time but probably embarrassed everyone around...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJZYG5qwHHI