Women around the world are carrying out a practice which not only leaves them in pain but at increased risk of HIV.
‘Dry sex’ involves women reducing moisture in their vaginas in order to make intercourse more pleasurable for men.
This can can lead to cuts, sores and inflammation in the vagina, and increases the chance of a condom breaking, journalist Wendy Syfret reports for VICE.com.
These factors in turn increase the chance of the women contracting sexually transmitted diseases including HIV.
Women in developing countries are putting their health at risk by carrying out a practice known as ‘dry sex’. This involves drying out the vagina using substances from sand to pulverized rock to bleach, in order to make sex more pleasurable for men
Dry sex is known to be carried out in South and Central Africa, and Indonesia.
It is borne out of a cultural belief that men find sex more pleasurable if a woman’s vagina is dry, and that men will reject women whose vaginas have been ‘stretched out’ by sex.
To achieve dryness, women insert, chalk, sand, pulverized rock, herbs, paper or sponges before sex, according to journalist Ms Syfret, who has reported on the practice in South Africa.
They also douse their vaginas in detergents, antiseptics, alcohol and bleach.
Women in Java, Indonesia, even ‘smoke out’ their vaginas by standing over burning herbs, LoveMatters reports.
