Florida woman who lived with a rare condition that left her sexually aroused to the point that she couldn\u2019t function normally committed suicide a day after her story went public.<\/p>\n
Gretchen Molannen, 39, was found dead around midnight Saturday, just as her story was published online on the Tampa Bay Times\u2019 website, the newspaper first reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It was a tragic end to a woman who lived with what she thought for years was a secret shame \u2014 known medically as persistent genital arousal disorder. First documented in 2001 by American psychologist Sandra Leiblum, the disorder makes women feel sexually but not psychologically stimulated.<\/p>\n
The feeling is uncontrollable, and some women find temporary relief by masturbating for extended periods of time. The cause, doctors say, could be a nerve dysfunction. There has been no cure-all treatment, but some women have used drugs to find temporary relief.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how many women suffer from persistent genital arousal disorder.<\/p>\n
For Molannen, she called the affliction a \u201cbeast\u201d \u2014 one that left her with thoughts of suicide in the past, according to the Tampa Bay Times.<\/p>\n
The newspaper described her attempt to breathe in carbon monoxide last March, and how she slit her wrist in her Spring Hill bathroom three weeks later.<\/p>\n
She seemed to be conflicted about her future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t living. I think about suicide all the time. It doesn\u2019t mean I want to do it,\u201d Molannen told the Tampa Bay Times. \u201cI don\u2019t want to do that. I want to enjoy life. I used to love life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a great life and I could have a wonderful life, but this has destroyed it,\u201d she added of the raging disorder. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n
Molannen said she couldn\u2019t hold a regular job. She depended on a boyfriend to help pay her property tax bill on a house she inherited from her parents when they died.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t sure what brought on the sexual disorder 16 years earlier, and felt like she had no one to talk to about it. She first realized what she had while watching an episode of \u201c20\/20\u201d in 2007 about a woman tortured by the same affliction.<\/p>\n
Later, doctors prescribed ice packs and cold compresses to Molannen, but nothing seemed to work, according to the Tampa Bay Times. She once had 50 orgasms in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t even stop to get a drink of water. And you\u2019re in so much pain. You\u2019re soaking in sweat. Every inch of your body hurts,\u201d she told the newspaper.<\/p>\n
Having physical relationships with boyfriends were difficult, she added, and she often didn\u2019t want to be intimate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I describe it to men, I tell them, \u2018Imagine having an erection that does not go down, that feeling of just before it comes out, all day, all night, no matter how many times, no matter how much you\u2019ve destroyed the skin on your penis,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Times said it had received an email from Molannen after the story ran online thanking them for getting her message out and hoping it would help other women afflicted with the disorder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf men have suffered with the shame of impotence or even priapism, now it\u2019s time for women to get help as well,\u201d she wrote, according to the newspaper. \u201cThank you for your patience with me and for devoting so much time to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The newspaper said that other women who saw Molannen\u2019s initial story had come forward asking to talk with her about their own struggles.<\/p>\n
Mothertessie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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