(For anal masturbation with a silicone dildo), how important is lube safety? I’ve read that ingredients like glycerin and propylene glycol etc in lubes are bad for you, and that osmolality and pH are factors one should consider–that these things can cause infections, overgrowths, cell damage, skin irritation and such. My question is, if a lube isn’t causing you any problems, how much care should one realistically take with these things? What’s the likelihood of serious, long term or permanent damage to your health from lube use? Are the possible negative effects only temporary? Are concerns over these things overblown?
Also, health concerns aside, can non-anal lubes be used practically for anal, or are they too thin?
Any help is much appreciated.
3 comments
As with all health information, there is a lot of misinformation. Assuming you live in a country with a reasonable amount of regulation, there is a very high chance that your lube is going to be body safe. Glycerin is perfectly safe (and has been used in suppositories for ages), propylene glycol is safe in the concentrations found in lube.
What I would avoid is flavored, or scented lubes. Just a basic lube is your best bet
If you drank 10 gallons of glycerin, you would die. But if you drank 10 gallons of water you would die. People often spread misinformation without having an actual idea about concentrations, and total exposure.
Anal lubes are not going to cause overgrowths, or cell damage. There is a small chance you can be allergic to them and this would cause irriation, but this is going to become apparent really quick. And if this was the cause you can just switch types/brands
Where you are actually going to cause damage is if you don’t use lube, and you actually feel ripping/tearing/see bleeding. If you cause actual physical trauma to your anus, or rectum is where you should worry. Lube is going to prevent this
Non-anal lubes can be used for anal. If it is safe for a vagina, it is going to be safe for your anus. Any lube will work, it just depends on how often you will need to re-apply before it becomes uncomfortable. A thin water based lube will need to be reapplied more often. A gel water based lube less often. A silicone or oil based lube probably only needs to be applied once. (just don’t use an oil based lube with condoms, it will degrade the condom)
TLDR: Buy lube from a country with some basic regulation. And it is going to be safe.
“thin” seems like too vague a term, and maybe not the most relevant. In the ordinary sense, honey is a “thick” liquid (viscous). That’s not what a lube needs to be. A lube needs to make surfaces slippery. You can google water based versus silicone based. The main thing about silicone based is that they don’t dry out when exposed to the air. Silicone based lubes don’t need to be frequently reapplied.
Who knows, doctors used to recomend smoking.
Anal has definitely become a lot less taboo in my life time. If in 50 years time we see an explosion of ass cancer we’ll know why.