I’ve never had sex with a man who wasn’t circumcised. I’ve had great sexual experiences, especially with my husband over the last 22 years, but now I am hearing people say that it’s common for sex with circumcised men to require extra lubrication. That has never been true in my experience ... or anything I’ve ever heard to be true. They are saying the corona “scrapes” out the lube from the vagina. Is this true and how common is it?
Good question. Like many countries around the world, the United States has a challenging history with male genital circumcision, with rates of infant circumcision being particularly high in the 1980s and 1990s — in some years, data show rates of more than 90 percent of males being ?circumcised.
Fortunately, the tide began to change some years ago, when many people began to question the practice. Male genital circumcision wasn’t necessary for good hygiene — and making bathing “easier” isn’t a good enough excuse to surgically alter a baby’s genitals — and, as such, many families who weren’t doing it for religious or cultural reasons began to think more critically about the practice.
These days in the U.S., far fewer people choose infant circumcision, though in other countries circumcision is again increasing due to evidence suggesting circumcised men are at lower risk for some sexually transmitted infections, ?including HIV.
I realize your question is about being an adult woman having sex with adult men, but the background on this difficult history is important. It has led to many adult men wondering what, if anything, they may have “lost” when their foreskin was removed as part of circumcision.
Some men believe that their sex lives would be measurably different if they still had their foreskin, and it is difficult to say how true that may be. There have been a few studies on sexual practices that have compared men with foreskin and men without, but these are difficult comparisons given the many conflating factors that may have influenced why these men were circumcised in the first place, factors such as culture, religion and family economic status that are linked to both sex and to circumcision.
One interesting study surveyed adult women whose partner had been circumcised as an adult, and these women reported somewhat less (but not much less) lubrication during sex after their partner was circumcised. This is difficult to make sense of. It’s been proposed by some that perhaps foreskin bunches around the vaginal entrance in a way that keeps vaginal lubrication inside the ?vagina.
That idea needs more research and evidence, especially considering that many people have sex in ways that thrust the entire penis in and out of the vagina, in which case foreskin wouldn’t bunch in the same way. It’s also possible that women felt less arousal during sex after their male partner’s circumcision, and that sexual arousal contributed to less lubrication.
Why might a woman feel less sexually aroused? In part, it may have been an adjustment from pre-surgery to post-surgery, or it could have been affected by how the man felt about his genitals. If he wasn’t happy about having to be circumcised as an adult, or if he ?experienced side effects from surgery, or if as a couple they had to be more careful as he healed or adjusted to his new sensations — any of that could have affected how they had sex, her overall arousal and her lubrication. All that said, I think most women would agree with you, though there isn’t particularly good data on ?something so specific.
Most women who have sex with men don’t experience lubrication difficulties and report high levels of arousal, pleasure, satisfaction and orgasm. Many factors contribute to a woman’s arousal and lubrication, including how connected or excited she feels by her partner.
That doesn’t mean that male circumcision is right or recommended; it just means that the lubrication issue is more complex than I think is currently understood. I’m glad you find sex to be pleasurable and well-lubricated, but if you ever have any issues, a good course of action is to spend more time doing arousing things prior to penetration and, if you’d like, to use lubricant during sex.
Kinsey Confidential is a service of the Kinsey Institute. For more good sex information, podcasts or to submit a question, visit us online at ?kinseyconfidential.org.
Debby Herbenick, Ph.D., MPH is an Associate Professor at Indiana University and a Research Fellow and sexual health educator at the Kinsey Institute. She’s the author of six books about sex; her newest is “The Coregasm Workout.” Follow Kinsey Confidential on Twitter @KinseyCon & visit us online at www.KinseyConfidential.org
