Sex may put men’s eyes at risk, according to a case report published in the BMJ in 2017.
A 29-year-old man temporarily lost his sight after sex — the theory is that men hold their breath to try to delay orgasm, causing a build-up of pressure in the eye.
This can cause the blood vessels in the eye to burst, triggering a small haemorrhage, and temporary vision loss or blurred vision. Fortunately, as Venki Sundaram, consultant ophthalmologist at Luton and Dunstable NHS University Hospital and Spire Bushey Hospital, explains: ‘This is rare, with the bleeding clearing up and no long-term effect on vision.’
Better known is the fact that when we’re attracted to someone, the pupils get bigger. ‘Pupil dilation can happen because it stimulates our sympathetic nervous system,’ says Sundaram. ‘This sets off a series of impulses from the brain to the eye muscles that control pupil size.’