In the following video, Arena summarized the study:Īs you can see from the video, it is postulated that TGA results when the pressure within your chest increases and thus temporarily impairs the return of blood through your veins from the temporal lobe of your brain back to your heart.Īlthough TGA itself is benign, it can be quite disconcerting when your partner starts saying, “what am I doing here” or “how did we get here,” right after sex. Rabinstein, MD, from the Mayo Clinic found no link between transient global amnesia and epilepsy, cognitive impairment, or cerebrovascular events like stroke. Brown, MD, MPH, Jay Mandrekar, PhD, and Alejandro A. TGA is more likely to occur in either those age 50 years and older or those with a history of migraines.Ī study published in the March 2017 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings and authored by Julieta E. In other words, if you happen to be having sex while being immersed in cold water and arguing at the same time, you may not necessarily be at higher risk for TGA. It’s not clear whether going through multiple triggers simultaneously would bring additive risk. So can other things such as other types of strenuous physical activity, sudden immersion in cold or hot water, invasive medical procedures, mild injuries to the head, and emotional stress, according to the Mayo Clinic website. After suffering TGA, a person may have a 6% to 10% rate of having it again each subsequent year.Īs seen by this case, sex can trigger TGA. This was actually the second time the man had experienced such an event, having suffered a similar loss of memory seven years earlier after having had sex as well. While TGA tends to be a one-off event, it may recur. With TGA, memory also should return eventually, albeit often gradually. Moreover, TGA is a diagnosis by exclusion, meaning that all other possible causes such as epilepsy, bleeding, stroke, head injury, or any other clear damage to the brain have been excluded already. While a person affected with TGA can’t form new memories or recall the recent past for a period of time, there is no loss of more distant memory, ability to identify oneself, or to think and reason.

In the case of TGA, memory loss shouldn’t last longer than 24 hours, typically persisting for only six to eight hours. Global refers to affecting your overall short-term memory versus a very specific part of it. With all other more serious possibilities effectively ruled out, the doctors diagnosed the man as having transient global amnesia (TGA).

The two temporal lobes are located on the right and left sides of the brain.

Memory transient global amnesia