A 22-year-old Mumbai man was successfully treated by doctors at Bhabha Hospital after he was admitted with a jet spray stuck in his rectum. According to a mid-day report, the youth was taken to the hospital in the early hours of Wednesday after complaining of pain around his rectal region. The youth, on being questioned, confessed to accidentally inserting the jet spray into his anus. Upon examination, the doctors found out that the object was lodged 10 inches deep in the patient’s body.

Dr Vinod Khade, the on-duty medical officer at Bhabha Hospital told mid-day that it took the doctors around 30 minutes to remove the spray out of his rectum. His sphincter was so dilated that the doctors didn’t find it necessary to use anaesthesia or surgery to dislodge the jet spray.

The doctor said that it was a sexual practice where people insert objects into bodily orifices for pleasure. Dr Khade added that the youth was counselled extensively after the object was extricated and warned against the hazards of inserting things into the anus. “Had it not been removed in time, it could have led to major complications like blockage due to inflamed muscles and infection,” says the doctor.

It was the third such case to be reported this week. Earlier, a woman was wheeled into the hospital after her rectum was ruptured on her wedding night itself, requiring stitches. And in another case, the extent of a man’s rectal damage was so severe that the doctors had to create another opening for him to void himself till he heals.

Why Do People Insert Things Into Their Anus?

As puzzling as it may sound, inserting things into the anus or other bodily orifices is not as uncommon as one would think it is. The practice is called polyembolokoilamania. Some people do so due to conditions such as paraphilic disorders, nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviour, mental retardation, borderline personality disorder, dementia, etc. A Chinese man had once shoved a rather large eggplant into his anus to relieve constipation and almost damaged his internal organs. But primarily, it’s done for sexual pleasure or out of sexual curiosity.

Clinicians list sexual gratification as the commonest causes for inserting objects into bodily orifices. Apart from the anus, some people also insert foreign objects inside the vagina and urethra. A curious Chinese boy made news for shoving a USB cord into his urethra.

Psychoanalysts believe that such behaviours may also have an emotional connection where sexual pleasure may be secondary. When a person recurrently exhibits this habit and if it causes physical impairment or distress, the problem is then diagnosed as a paraphilic disorder called masochism.

Most men who insert objects into their rectum do so because of the sexual pleasure associated with it. The prostate, also called the male-G spot, which is adjacent to the rectum gets stimulated when the anus is penetrated.

Why Is It Risky?

The rectum, unlike the vagina, isn’t built for expansion and doesn’t have the same elasticity. Dr Khade told mid-day that anal muscles only dilate enough to flush out bodily waste, after which they retain their firmness. Jamming something up the anus can cause an internal muscle tear or a tissue, causing acute pain and bleeding. He also urges patients to seek out medical treatment if they experience such injuries, even though there is a taboo associated with the practice. Read how a man developed a megarectum after days of constipation caused poop to explode in his stomach. 

(References: Insertion of Foreign Bodies (polyembolokoilamania): Underpinnings and Management Strategies)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 24, 2018 11:27 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).