Is it normal to sneeze when you get turned on

Here's why some experts believe that spontaneous sneezing could mean you're in the mood Do you find yourself having sneezing fits around a guy at the office or maybe when you're thinking about your ex, who you still really love? Well, you may be one of the rare few whose bodies react to being aroused by sneezing.

British researchers, as reported by the BBC , became interested in the topic after they discovered a patient who had uncontrollable sneezing episodes when he thought about sex now that would be a reliable way to tell if a guy liked you, huh?

They also found people who claimed to sneeze after orgasm. It is thought to be closely linked to the way sunlight can make some people sneeze. Dr Mahmood Bhutta, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, launched the study after seeing a patient who suffered "uncontrollable" sneezing fits every time he had a sexual thought.

Together with colleague Dr Harold Maxwell, a retired consultant psychiatrist, Dr Bhutta scoured internet chatrooms looking for examples of conversations about sneezing and sex. Typing the words "sex, sneeze OR sneezing" into Google produced a surprising number of hits.

Seventeen people of both sexes reported sneezing immediately they thought about sex, and three had the same experience after orgasm. Sneezing usually occurs in response to nasal irritation, triggering a reflex that expels air at speeds of around kilometres an hour. Eyebrow plucking can also provoke sneezing by stimulating the trigeminal nerve, which produces sensations in the face. One was the "photic sneeze reflex" - an apparently inherited sneezing reaction to looking at bright sunlight, which affects almost a quarter of the population.

Sexologist Tracey Cox believes this happens because the more emotion you feel, the more important it is for your eyes to clear out potential tears. You can tolerate gross things.

When you're horny, you become way less easily grossed out. One study found that after watching porn, women were less likely to get disgusted by images of things like corpses, feces, and vomiting—though this effect only worked with women who reported not being easily grossed out in the first place. Another study found that women who had just watched porn were more likely to drink from a cup with a bug on it, eat a cookie next to a worm, or wipe their hands on a used tissue.

This makes evolutionary sense: If we didn't have this reaction, we might find sex itself a little gross. You become braver. The same study that found women could tolerate disgusting images more when they were turned on also found that they could view scary images with greater ease.

Pictures of wolves, sharks, fires, and tornados were rated as less frightening after a good porn-viewing session. You get headaches. A few unfortunate souls just can't enjoy a good romp without a painful side effect: headaches.