My rare allergy makes sex painful, with & without condoms – we stick to ‘early stages,’ I’m not sure I can have a baby

AFTER a rare diagnosis, one woman has recounted the difficulties she experiences in the bedroom due to her semen allergy.

She also expressed fears that she may never be able to get pregnant.

Allison Tennyson, 34, of Minneapolis, Minnesota finds it incredibly painful to have sex due to her semen allergy, forcing her to severely limit intimacy with her partner.

Coming into contact with semen causes her to experience painful burning.

Using condoms is not a possible alternative because she’s allergic to the materials that they’re made from.

Now she feels like time is running out to get pregnant as she is terrified of being in contact with ejaculate.

“It hurts," Tennyson said. "My partner doesn’t want it. It’s not appealing to be hurting your partner during sex.

“We’re not intimate enough because of the allergies.

"I don’t want to burn and he doesn’t want to make me cry — so it’s really hard.

“It’s a struggle. It’s hard to be intimate because it’s not comfortable and I can’t even use condoms.”

Allison has a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is a connective tissue order affecting the skin and organs.

After her diagnosis, she was tested for 160 allergens, with only a few coming back positive, including nickel and penicillin.

A semen allergy is a rare condition in which a reaction to the proteins found in men’s sperm causes the burning-like sensations Allison first experienced over 10 years ago.

Allison is cautious about her ability to have children as touching semen makes her life miserable, while also being wary about any risks involved if she were to get pregnant.

“It’s really upsetting," she said.

"I’ve cried about it quite a bit, to be honest. It makes me upset as I didn’t even know that it was a thing that could happen because I’d never heard about it before.

“I always want to have sex, so we do it, but only in the early stages. Not experiencing the semen is just not the same and so limiting.

“I don’t know how I can even have a baby. I don’t even know how that would work — would my body just reject semen completely?

“I have a blood clotting disorder as well, so pregnancy is really risky for me.

"My partner and I have done our due diligence with my doctor to make sure I would survive pregnancy and all that.

“We’ve considered it, we just don’t know yet.

"I’ve always wanted one but then it’d be fine to not have a baby — we keep going back and forth.

“If having a baby wasn’t an option, it would be pretty heartbreaking. At least If I had the choice, it would make me feel better.

"I’m 34 now, so I’m a little older, but I still have time.”