Sex Kills
House-sex-kills 480x360
March 7, 2006
Episode Number
2.14 Rating
Guest Star(s)
Final Diagnosis
Brucellosis (Henry); Gonorrhea (Laura)
Zebra Factor
Henry 7/10, Laura 1/10
Wilson: "How long before you get the tests back?"
House: "We’ll know before that. If I’m wrong, he’ll just keep getting worse and slowly die. If I’m right and if we caught it in time he gets better, or if we didn’t he goes into cardiac arrest at any moment."
―Sex Kills

Sex Kills is a Season 2 episode of House which first aired on March 7, 2006. House quickly diagnoses a life threatening illness, but it won't do the patient much good unless he can figure out what was causing an illness in an accident victim whose heart the living patient needs for a transplant. Meanwhile, House suspects Wilson of cheating on his wife.


While playing bridge and talking to his daughter, a 66 year old man (Hesseman) suffers an absence seizure.

The man is taken to Princeton-Plainsboro where he is examined by Foreman. He suffers from acid reflux and headaches, but denies having ever had any other seizures. He otherwise seems healthy. However, after he sends his daughter out of the room, he reveals he also has a swollen testicle.

They do a differential, but House doesn't think it is testicular cancer, because Foreman has probably already ruled it out. House thinks he has a brain infection caused by an STD even though his tests are negative. The only other explanation is lymphoma, which is terminal.

House runs into Wilson and wonders why he’s bought expensive chocolates for his wife.

Foreman confronts the patient about when he last had sex. He claims he hasn't had sex since his divorce a year ago. House still thinks it is an STD, and points out that the patient's daughter was in the room when Foreman asks. House goes to the patient, who admits that he recently had sex with his ex-wife - whom he had incidentally met at a cheese tasting - and he didn't want his daughter to know. House gives him the STD medicines. The patient admits that he has an STD to his daughter. However, at that point, the patient starts vomiting blood. House orders him sedated. He admits to the daughter that an STD wouldn't cause that symptom.

The team starts a new differential once they find out the patient's heart is damaged. House asks the patient what cheese he ate at a cheese tasting. He determines that the patient ate unpasteurized sheep cheese and got a brucellosis infection. Normal stomach acid would kill the brucellosis, but the patient was on antacids for his acid reflux. The bacteria multiplied and attacked his heart, brain and testicle. House starts him on antibiotics.

House knows that if they didn't catch the infection in time, the patient will soon go into cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, this turns out to be the case. House continues to accuse Wilson of having an affair because he is staying late at the hospital. He tells Wilson to go home and have sex with his wife.

The patient requires a heart transplant, but is otherwise healthy. House argues he is a prime candidate, but the hospital's transplant committee refuses on the grounds that he is too old. House implies one of them is a racist due to the fact that African Americans don't live as long. However, the committee turns him down. Foreman breaks the news - the patient will be dead within a week.

Despite the committee's refusal, House has to admit that he was merely acting as the patient's advocate and he actually agrees with the committee's decision. He still appeals the decision to the Board of Directors. He then goes looking for a new heart that won't be suitable for transplant to anyone else. Cameron finds a 40 year old overweight accident victim. However, the patient had a fever and stomach ache. When the woman dies, House tells the grieving husband he needs her heart.

The dead accident victim's organs are declared non-viable and House goes to see the husband again. Foreman points out the dead woman's history shows she had hepatitis C. A diseased heart would kill the patient. However, House does not agree with the diagnosis. House and Cuddy argue with the dead woman’s husband about whether to take her off life support. However, the patient's daughter meets the husband, and he agrees to let House try, but first, in order to release his anger, he knees House in the groin.

However, it's clear the dead woman had an infection. The team has to do a differential on a dead patient. They do an MRI on the dead woman. House refuses to believe it's hepatitis C because that would mean the other patient would die. He orders a massive dose of anti-parasite medication on the theory it can't hurt.

House once again accuses Wilson of having an affair, and he warns him not to tell his wife about it. Wilson intimates he has something he wants to talk about privately. House says that if he is the person Wilson wants to talk to, he's made a poor choice.

The treatment of the dead woman doesn't go well. If the team is right, the medicine they would need to treat her disease would destroy her heart. House is ready to give up, but now the husband doesn't want the team to give up.

The team continues with the differential. They guess it might be a toxin. House orders a more thorough tox screen. He does an environmental scan of the house himself with the husband‘s help. He only finds that the woman dyed her hair and took diet pills.

The patient's heart becomes so weak it can't pump blood to the brain. Cameron comes back from the woman's workplace. House starts to suspect infidelity and gonorrhea. They test the patient and start treating her. She tests positive. However, she's not getting well enough fast enough for the patient, who will die before the gonorrhea is gone. They decide to proceed with the transplant and treat the disease in the patient.

House lies to the patient's husband about what was wrong with her. However, he realizes he has to tell him soon so he can be treated for gonorrhea before he gives it to someone else.

The patient survives the transplant. The husband admits that he had cheated on his late wife and probably gave her the gonorrhea. He didn't want to believe he gave it to her because it probably caused the accident. He also realizes he should have told House about it.

The patient awakes and finds his daughter and ex-wife by his side.

Wilson shows up at House's apartment. He has not been cheating; his wife has just admitted she was. They have separated and Wilson asks to stay with House for a few days.

Major Events Edit

  • House wears his lab coat once again in order to secure a new heart for his current patient who's dying of heart failure.
  • Wilson tells House that his wife has cheated on him and moves into 221B Baker St. temporarily.

Zebra FactorEdit

Luckily, due to pasteurization and proper handling of milk products, brucellosis has become very rare, with only about 100-200 cases appearing in the United States each year. Matters have improved in the last forty years, when there were usually over 6,000 cases a year. Gonorrhoea on the other hand is far more common, and after Chlamydia is the second-most commonly-diagnosed sexually transmitted infection in the United States, and believed to affect around 120 people per 100,000 of the population.


The title, as usual, refers to multiple things:

  • the patient's STD he received from a woman at an Italian cheese tasting at a restaurant.
  • the clinic patient's need for medication to stop the urge he has to have sex with cows. However, this is a fake claim. The patient makes this claim because he feels an attraction to his step-mom.
  • Wilson's relationship with his wife slowly fading and eventually, Wilson's wife's sexual affair 'kills' their relationship.

Trivia & Cultural ReferencesEdit

  • House's 'wrong shoes' analogy is a very good example as bowling shoes and any other shoes differ. Bowling shoes are soft, heeless and treadless soles so they don't scratch or mark the floors.
  • Amy, the patient's daughter, tells her dad that someone 'beat the Lakers.' The Lakers are an NBA basketball team who, despite recent struggles, are historically one of the league's best teams.
  • Byron was a 19th-century poet.

Clinic Patient Edit

The patient asks for depo-provera. House points out that this will chemically castrate him - which it turns out the patient knows. The patient claims it is to deal with his sexual attraction to cows. House figures that the patient is there on a fraternity prank and writes him a prescription for something similar but harmless.

The patient returns claiming he has been kicked by a cow. He still can't convince House he is really in love with a cow, partly because the injury seems to have a splinter in it. To dissuade the patient, House tells him he would need painful and humiliating tests to confirm his condition. Surprisingly the patient agrees.

However, the test results show the patient eats beef. House is clearly not convinced he loves cows. The patient finally admits his hot new stepmother is coming onto him. House finally agrees to prescribe the depo-provera.



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