health

A mum-to-be was left paralysed after an orgasm caused her to have a stroke.

Lucinda Allen was six months pregnant when an orgasm led to an excruciating headache that left her in a coma—and permanently paralysed on the entire left side of her body.

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Lucinda said she often experienced intermittent head pain after an orgasm—an experience she described as like “a bit like brain-freeze” but she soon realised that this one was different.

“After I had a second orgasm that old familiar sharp pain started in my head, above my right eye,” she said.

“It normally…never lasts long but this time it didn’t go away and soon I was writhing in agony.”

Lucinda was six months pregnant when she suffered multiple strokes that left her paralysed. Image via Facebook.

Lucinda rang her mum, who urged her to go to the emergency room at her local hospital.

That's when the 43-year-old started to panic.

"That's when I thought I might be having a brain haemorrhage," she said. "After that, it was a blur. All I remember is confusion—dreams and reality mixed together."

Lucinda was put into a coma and part of her skull was cut open to release the pressure on her brain.

Lucinda and her husband, Tony, after her stroke. Image via Facebook.

Worried for the safety of Lucinda's unborn daughter, doctors were prepared to deliver her via emergency surgery; however, scans revealed the baby was fine.

After six days, Lucinda emerged from her coma but was paralysed.

She'd had five strokes in total—an initial one, followed by four smaller strokes throughout her hospitalisation. She slowly had come to terms with the fact she could no longer use one side of her body.

"Waking after a coma is a slow, confusing process," she said. "I didn't realise how much damage had been done until the nurse told me. I couldn't believe what she was saying. I felt suicidal."

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Lucinda was kept in hospital for three months before she was released.

But two days later, she was back, this time to welcome her daughter, Marri-Alice, into the world on November 19, 2012, a moment Lucinda described as "bittersweet."

Lucinda was unable to hold her own daughter after she was born. Image via Facebook.

"I couldn’t hold her. She had to be placed in my right arm, which was full of drips," she said.

"When we came home, I felt grief at the loss of my old self. I wasn't the mother I'd dreamed of being. I couldn't just go and pick [my daughter] up."

Lucinda is sharing her story to raise awareness of post-orgasm head pain, which she says can be a warning sign of impending brain haemorrhage.

Lucinda has been left paralysed by the incident. Image via Facebook.

"I have lost a huge part of me—my career, any siblings my daughter may have had."

But, she added, "I'm lucky to be here at all. All I want now is to make other people aware of this terrifying condition.

"Although I'm happy, I wouldn't wish what I've been through on anyone. I don't want what's happened to me to happen to anyone else.

"I appreciate every moment and after the birth of my daughter and the amazing support my family and friends have given me, I now have a better understanding of what real love is."