Amie Dawson, Ph.D.Safety Tips For Choosing and Using Anal Sex Toys
While there is a wide range of products marketed specifically as anal sex toys it’s important to remember that sex toy manufacturers are not always the most safety-conscious (or ethical, or contactable, or anything else you’d look for in a company making something you put in your body). There is a big difference between a sex toy that is marketed as an anal sex toy, which may just be a gimmick to get you to buy a substandard product and one that is actually designed to be an anal sex toy, which is a toy designed with anal play and safety in mind.
For this reason, even if a toy is marketed as an anal sex toy, or if you’ve seen it used for anal sex in an adult film, you need to make sure the toy you use is absolutely safe for anal sex.
For a toy to be safe for anal penetration it should:
- Be seamless, with no sharp edges, rough pointy bits, or anything that can easily come off.
The tissue in the rectum is much more easily torn, even the smallest tear can cause serious problems. - Have a wide flared base, or ring, or something significantly big enough to prevent it from being drawn up into the rectum.
- When you insert something in the anus, there is a suction-like effect where objects can be drawn up into the rectum.
What should you do if you (or someone you know) gets a sex toy stuck in your/their body?
If you are not able to immediately and easily retrieve the toy, you may need to go to an emergency department to have the toy removed.
If it is a vibrating sex toy, and it has batteries in, even if it wasn’t turned on when you were playing with it, you should go immediately to an emergency department. If the toy is on or turns on while in your body, the motor can overheat and can burn.
If the toy was not a safe anal sex toy and has any sharp edges or is made of anything other than rubber or plastic, you should probably go immediately to an emergency department.
What happens when I go to the emergency room for an anal sex toy problem?
Anal Retentive and Wondering
Embarrassing question: let’s say I got something stuck up my bum. And let’s say it isn’t an officially approved anal sex toy. I’ve been told before that you’re supposed to go an emergency department, but what happens once you’re there? I’m afraid to ask how they get these things out?
Answer: The first thing to know about those now unwanted objects up your or anyone else’s bum is that they’re a common sight in ER departments and something doctors and nurses expect. A night without a misplaced toothbrush or potato is, apparently, not much of a night.
In “Emergency Department Management of Retained Rectal Foreign Bodies”, a paper that lays out some basic standards of practice for the removal of rectal foreign bodies (the medical and slightly sci-fi term for the situation at hand), Dr. Richard Wigle suggests that doctors should keep this possibility in the front of their minds when people present with otherwise unexplainable anal pain.
Knowing how common this is might make people more likely to seek help right away, so let’s consider some anal ER stats:
- According to a review of ER visits where a sex toy was involved in any part of the body, 78% of such visits were for an injury to the anorectal region.
- 78% of all visits to remove any kind of rectal foreign body were reported as the result of sexual activity.
- More men than women present with unexplained anal pain that is revealed to be an object stuck in their rectum or colon.
- Only one-third of people admit the reason for their arrival at the ER.
- Common excuses for the pain is an accident (“I fell on something”) or some sort of therapeutic technique gone wrong.
The longer you take to tell the ER people what’s wrong, the longer it will take for them to help you, so the easiest and the best thing you can do is tell the ER people exactly what’s in there, how long it’s been in there, and whether there is anything else that went in before or after it.
Once you’ve spilled the beans (metaphorically speaking), you’ll be assessed to determine whether or not yours is an emergency that needs to be attended to immediately. Depending on how much pain you are in, if you have a fever, and what exactly is stuck up there, you may have to wait or you might be seen right away.
When you’re finally behind the flimsy paper curtain the first step is to determine where the object is in your body. This can be done either by feeling around (both outside and inside your body) or by X-ray if the doctor isn’t able to “visualize” the object.
How they will try to remove the object depends on a number of things, including how far up the object is, what the object is, and any other factors that are relevant at the time (possibly including your body, your health, etc…).
The first course of action is usually to try and remove the object anally either with instruments or the physician’s fingers. Often they will give you local anesthesia to help dilate the rectum and relax the sphincter muscles.
If this is not possible, removal may require surgery under general anesthetic.
Most recently, there was an incident written up involving a stuck toothbrush case. The doctors were unable to feel the object either through the anus or by external exam. They used laparoscopic assistance to both locate the object and to actually push down on the object while simultaneously pulling it out through the anus.
In most cases, these stories end well (although granted, not as well as the individual might originally have hoped for). The major concern is whether there is any tearing in the rectum or colon. This can happen either when an object went in, or as it’s being removed, and if tearing is observed it is considered a surgical emergency.
Let me quote from the final paragraph of the riveting 2005 paper “Laparoscopic-Assisted Rectal Foreign Body Removal: Report of a Case” where doctors Berghoff and Franklin, who were the first to report on the laparoscopic technique prove that medical journal writing need not be without personality:
“To our knowledge, no such case has been reported and this approach should be considered the next time the frequently amusing, but often difficult, rectal foreign body presents itself.”
If this article makes you think insertable anal sex toys are not the right choice for you, there is some good news for you. You can still stimulate the sphincter and the anal orifice using a good panty vibrator, an intense bullet vibrator, or you can even use a powerful wand massager!
Sources:
- Berghoff, K.R. & Franklin, M.E. “Laparoscopic-Assisted Rectal Foreign Body Removal: Report of a Case” Diseases of the Colon & Rectum Vol. 48, Issue 10 (October 2005): 1975-1977.
- Griffin, R. & McGwin, G. Jr. “Sexual Stimulation Device-Related Injuries” Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy Vol. 35, No. 4, 253-261.
- Wigle, R.L. “Emergency Department Management of Retained Rectal Foreign Bodies” American Journal of Emergency Medicine Vol. 6, Iss. 4 (July 1988): 385-389.
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