Woman passed out during ‘erotic asphyxiation’ sex before she died, her boyfriend says

A man reported he and his girlfriend were “engaged in a sex act” when she passed out, according to a Texas sheriff’s office.

Deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office were called to the medical emergency in Channelview at about 2:20 a.m. Tuesday, March 21.

When the deputies arrived, they found a woman “unresponsive from unknown causes,” according to a news release. The woman was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Her 27-year-old boyfriend told deputies that they were engaged in “erotic asphyxiation” before she died, authorities said.

Erotic asphyxiation, more commonly known as breath play, is “the consensual restricting of the airflow of your partner for a brief period of time,” according to a Psychology Today article written by sex researcher and social psychologist David W. Wahl.

“Needless to say, while there are many materials and classes out there instructing how to practice erotic asphyxiation safely, there remains a high level of risk to the practice of cutting off another’s oxygen,” he wrote in May 2021.

Despite the risks, some find the act pleasurable and erotic.

The boyfriend was arrested on a charge of manslaughter, authorities said.

Channelview is about 15 miles east of downtown Houston.