New Mexico – by way of www.telegraph.co.uk – Joleen Baughman, 39, was hurt in a collision two years ago, which damaged a nerve in her pelvis which controls desire, leaving it permanently switched on.

She now becomes sexually aroused by the slightest movement – while vacuuming, sitting on a bus, bending over, or even simply walking across a room.

The mother-of-two from New Mexico, USA, said: “It’s unbearable. Just my clothes rubbing against me gets me so aroused I can hardly think straight.

“It’s very embarrassing and it’s impossible to concentrate.”

Mrs Baughman, who lives with her husband Brian, 39, and two children, has been diagnosed with a rare condition called Restless Genital Syndrome, also known as Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome.

In the accident in April 2007, Joleen was in a pickup truck with Mr Baughman, a plumber, when a man high on drugs crashed into them head on.

The ophthalmologist, who had just recovered from surgery for a brain condition, suffered severe injuries including a broken spine, and was in hospital for several weeks.

She slowly recovered at home, but six months later, Mrs Baughman began suffering the unexpected side effect.

She said: “I started getting these intense sexual urges. They would come out of nowhere and completely engulf me.

“It would last for most of the day. I was really shocked because normally I have practically no sex drive at all.”

Mrs Baughman said that initially she and her husband of 20 years were pleased about her new-found sex drive but that it now plagues her.

She added: “Brian was ecstatic. He was like, ‘Wow for once in our marriage, she is the one who wants all the sex’.

“I was delighted too. I thought: ‘Finally I’m getting a sex drive and I can give my husband what he wants’.”

But she soon discovered that having sex could not cure her urges and that it started becoming painful.

“We would have sex once and I would feel no release at all,” Mrs Baughman said.

“So we would go again and then it would start really hurting but I would still want sex, even more than before.

“If my husband managed to go for a third time it would be agony but I would still feel no release.”

She sought medical help and was told that her condition was triggered by damage to her pudendal nerve, a nerve in the pelvis, close to the genitalia.

“I was very relieved to find out my condition was not psychological,” she said. “For a while I thought I was going crazy or that it was somehow my fault.

“I think a lot of people go through those thoughts with this condition. Being aroused pretty much 24-hours a day is exhausting.”