Examination How common is a sudden cardiac death during sex?

Study examines cardiac death during sex
Many men, especially older men, are worried that they might experience sudden cardiac death in sexual intercourse. According to a recent study, the risk should be very low. This should provide for the all-clear, even if a myth about this type of dying exists.

Secondary death due to cardiac arrest
The term "second heart death" (or even second death or sudden cardiac death) describes the sudden onset of fatal cardiac arrhythmia, often in people who were actually healthy after own and foreign perception. It has long been known that sudden cardiac death occurs more frequently in athletes than in non-athletes. Even in children, sudden cardiac death is known in sports. While sudden cardiac death in sports has rarely been well studied, there has been little scientific evidence to date about how high the risk of sex is.

Usually comes a sudden cardiac death without warning. But some patients announce the event. For example, chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath or dizziness may indicate an impending second-death. Such symptoms can occur several hours before the event, sometimes days to weeks before. The direct trigger of sudden cardiac death is usually ventricular fibrillation.

Sex and the connected excitement can also put the heart under stress. However, there is a consensus in medicine that even patients who have survived a heart attack should remain sexually active. Because the likelihood that the sexual desire the heart so clogged that it comes to cardiac arrest, is very low.

But if in rare cases such an event occurs, then men clearly have the worse cards. This is shown by the results of the Oregon SUDS (Sudden Unexpected Death Study) study, which was presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) 2017 convention in Anaheim and simultaneously published as a research letter in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles Sumeet Chugh reviewed a total of 4,557 cases of sudden cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2015 in this study. Among them were only 34 cardiac arrests (0.7%), which occurred in temporal connection with sexual activity. The absolute risk was therefore extremely low. Of the 34 cardiac arrests, 18 occurred during sexual activity and 15 in the first minutes after sex; in one case the time allocation could not be determined exactly.

In 32 of the 34 cases (94%) men were affected. Of the 34 patients, 29% had CHD and 26% had a history of symptomatic heart failure, and most had cardiovascular medications.

However, the scientists around Chughn och refer to another aspect of their study. It showed that resuscitation measures were only taken in a third of all cases - even when other people were present at the time of cardiac arrest. The study authors recall that it is important to continue their efforts to educate the public about the importance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in sudden cardiac arrest, regardless of the circumstances in which it occurs.