Mother is left wheelchair-bound after an ORGASM led to a stroke that caused her paralysis (but she's not been put off having an active sex life)

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A mother has revealed how an orgasm caused her to have a stroke and eventually become paralysed.

Lucinda Allen, 38, from Stourbridge in the West Midlands had been intimate with her husband Tony and after climaxing twice, experienced a sharp pain just above her right eye. 

The headache was the cause of a brain haemorrhage and Lucinda has now been left paralysed down her left side and is a full time wheelchair user.

Lucinda Allen (pictured pregnant with her daughter) regularly experienced sharp headaches after climaxing and five years ago the pain turned out to be a brain haemmorrhage 

Lucinda had been six months pregnant, when she found herself on the brink of death.

Describing the fateful day she said: 'It was the August Bank Holiday weekend 2012 and I had taken a couple of days leave either side of the weekend due to the exhaustion of being 26 weeks pregnant. 

'My pregnancy had been overshadowed by gestational diabetes, which I was managing through diet and exercise. I checked my blood pressure most days. 

Lucinda (pictured in hospital) was put into an induced coma to let her brain rest awaking after six days to find she was paralysed from the waist down 

After a further three months in hospital, Lucinda was allowed home for two days, then after that she was straight back in for a planned C-section. Pictured with her daughter Marri-Alice

'On this particular Saturday morning, I checked my blood pressure - which was low - so decided to get back into bed with my husband.'

After having sex Lucinda experienced the painful headache but thought nothing of it as she regularly had a short burst of head-pain immediately after she'd climaxing. 

She continued: 'I've experienced what's known as post-orgasm 'thunderclap' head-pain all through my adult life.

'I really wasn't worried. The pain I usually have after orgasm is a bit like brain-freeze – quite painful but never lasts long.'

But, on that fateful day, the pain wasn't the same. 'It started the same,' Lucinda recalls, 'but after a while, I realized it just wasn't going away.'

Lucinda (pictured with husband Tony on their wedding day) said that she had never thought anything of her post-sex headaches which she describes as similar to brain freeze

As the pain radiated through her head, Lucinda thought that perhaps it was the start of a really fierce migraine, so decided to try to sleep it off. But there was no way she could sleep - the pain was too severe. 

'I was writhing on the bed in agony and crying when Tony phoned my mum,' she says.

Lucinda's mother insisted they call an ambulance immediately.

'That's when I started to panic,' remembers Lucinda. 'That's when I thought I might be having a brain haemorrhage. After that, it was a blur. All I remember is confusion, dreams and reality mixed together, fear.'

At Queen Elizabeth's Hospital in Birmingham, Lucinda - unable to speak at this point - frantically gestured to nurses for a pen and paper. 

As she was being wheeled into the Critical Care, she scrawled 'cerebral haemorrhage???' onto the piece of paper she'd been given. 

As an occupational therapist with a 20-year career behind her, she had some medical knowledge.

Lucinda says that despite her experience she feels lucky to be alive and wants to raise awareness among other women

It turned out Lucinda had diagnosed her problem correctly. Scans showed that she had, indeed, suffered a brain haemorrhage.

She was put into an induced coma to let her brain rest: during that time, she had brain surgery – a craniotomy to release the pressure on her brain where the blood had leaked out. 

The doctors were worried that the baby was going to need to be delivered and there was an emergency delivery team on standby. 

Fortunately, further scans revealed that, despite the dramatic turn of events, the baby was fine. The family was told that the unborn child was a girl.

After six days, Lucinda finally emerged from the coma.

'Waking after a coma is nothing like it is in the movies,' says Lucinda. 'It's a slow and confusing process. 

'I was to believe that it was still August right until the winter. I was extremely distressed – suicidal at times – and I refused to acknowledge that I'd survived a stroke.'

But it wasn't just a single stroke Lucinda had survived – she found out later it was actually a series of strokes she'd suffered: one initial stroke, followed by four more while scans were being performed.

After a further three months in hospital, Lucinda was allowed home for two days, then after that she was straight back in for a planned C-section.   

Baby daughter Marri-Alice was born healthy on 19th November 2012 and is now an energetic four-year-old.

Lucinda said: 'Marri-Alice is an amazing little girl She's incredibly bright, has hit all her milestones early, could recite the alphabet at the age of three and has a naughty but sophisticated sense of humour. 

'She's such good fun. It's clear that what happened to me hasn't affected her at all.'

Lucinda would love to run around the park with her daughter, but because she's now wheelchair-bound, that's just not possible.

She added: 'I am totally paralysed down my left side. I'm a full-time wheelchair-user.' 

'The only bit of me that's spontaneously recovered is my 'wonk-face'!' she adds, referring to the way her face had collapsed after the stroke.

It is now almost five years later and Lucinda often wonder whether what happened to her could have been prevented. 

She said: 'My neurosurgeon believes I have a congenital abnormality in a blood vessel in my brain and that's what causes the lifelong intermittent head-pain after orgasm. I just thought it was normal.'

She's speaking out about now as she reckons other people could be suffering from the same condition and, instead of taking it as the warning sign it is, are just presuming, as she did, that's it's nothing to worry about.

'Nobody talks about post-orgasm head-pain,' she says, 'and that's understandable. I mean, it's not one of those subjects you discuss over dinner, is it? 

'But, because of what's happened to me, I am now on a mission to raise awareness of how this pain can be a warning sign of impending brain haemorrhage. 

'Because of it, I have lost a huge part of 'me' - my career, any siblings my daughter may have had, my plans for the future.'

Lucinda's neurosurgeon Mr. Alessandro Palazzo assured her that there was no need to worry about it happening again in the future and that, scary though it was, they shouldn't give up on their love-life.

Despite the reassurances, however, it's not been easy.

'At first, it was a bit distracting getting jiggy in the room where the 'brain explosion' had occurred, but that's no longer a problem as we've now moved into a gorgeous new bungalow and have made a fresh start.'

Life is no longer as it was for Lucinda and her family and is certainly not how she expected it to be, yet she still feels fortunate. 

She adds: 'I'm lucky to be here at all. And what happened has changed me for the better. 

'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.

'All I want now is to make other people aware of this terrifying condition. I think if people are aware, they'll know to deal with it quickly when it strikes. 

'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.'