How do medical experiences become sexualized?

I would like to hear from a real psychologist or psychiatrist on how things like rectal temperatures, enemas etc medical procedures become sexualized/a turn on. Or also other peoples speculations on this.

Dr. D.

I'm not a professional but I am fascinated by the psychology surrounding medical fetish. My interest is mainly in the female response to medical examination but I imagine the psychology will be the same for both sexes. I have my own theories but I would be interested to hear comments from those, professional or otherwise on the subject.

I believe a patient can become aroused quite easily in an exam setting. They are being touched in a most intimate way by someone who's almost a stranger. I think though because the doctor is a professional then the patient knows although they're exposing themselves completely there will be no untoward sexual activity. I'm fairly sure being embarrassed / nervous,plays a big part in the patients mind set. There are of course many different aspects to what various patients find exiting.

A very interesting question Dr.D. Karma for you sir.

I've wondered about this as well. The strange thing is, I can't even tell where my own interest in med fet comes from. I've tried to pin point it, but I honestly don't know. For some its a physical domination thing, just like other forms of S&M, but i think for most its psychological, a power transfer where they enjoy submitting.

I've been taking rectal temperatures on girls since I was 12. Nobody has ever objected to it. I don't know why this fetish is so strong for me. No clue. It just is.

Wein

Easy for me. Being in the room for my mother's medical exams - nothing too out there, basic stuff but enough that clothing was partially removed/moved over. Huge impact on me. Then a sort of cousin (no blood relation - by marriage) suggested we play when I was 6 or so. Pretty basic 'pull down your pants and get a shot' stuff. Only happened that once but I was hooked. Started playing with Lynn - a neighbor of my aunt's when we were about 8 and it continued through puberty on a fairly regular basis. Things went pretty far - while we didn't have instruments per se (kid's doctor's kit) it's amazing how creative you can get.

In my upbringing sex was dirty but the doctor was someone to be looked up to and emulated. My mother wanted me to be one VERY badly - that or a priest LOL (oh Ma, if you only knew). So if sex is wrong but the doctor is right then being a doctor is a way to channel those dirty/wrong desires into something that's acceptable.

It´s a mystery for me too, where the fetish comes from. Though I can point to finding medical books with illustrations in my grandfathers library when I was young. Many of the procedures involved urethral or rectal penetrations by instruments and I remember being extremely aroused by these.

Other that this there is nothing really concrete to point to in my case. Or nothing that I can remember.

I can trace my interest in black rubber anesthesia masks to a tooth extraction under nitrous oxide when I was about eight. Why I found this arousing later on I am not sure but I think the combination of fear, lying in a comfortable chair somewhat restrained and the giddiness from the nitrous may have done it. I have retained enough sanity to never experiment with any anesthetic agents or play with anything that could cause injury. The last thing I want is to snuff myself out and become an anecdote in an EMT's memoirs (as I recall a husband and wife EMT team wound up doing when they illegally administered themselves 100% nitrous and suffocated themselves - made the Darwin Awards IIRC).

After reading some of the posts on "how the magic started" board, many of which link their fetish to a childhood experience, I speculate that its simply classical conditioning. If a child discovers/experiences genital stimulation during a medical procedure, they may associate medical experiences with sexual stimulation.

I believe you have made an interesting point with your speculation regarding childhood medical experiences. A karma point for you.

Most pf us started playing doctor in our single digit years. That would have a lot to do with it.

Its a perversion of care- giving

I, personally dont know that they 'become' sexualized moreso than just finally recognized. I think sexuality and the desires/urges/tendencies it brings are with us at birth and unearthed thru life. There may be a certain instance that we can recall that is a landmark of sorts but I dont think that is what made us like, it just woke the craving. While I have not proven this clinically I know my likes and needs seem to follow this pattern. Why do you like a certain color over another? You may not be able to explain why, you just know that you do. That is the same with a fetish. Why ask why? Just go with it and enjoy all it and all that it encompasses for you. You will most likely never regret it.

For me, medical fetish was alive and well WAY before I ever tread onto the path of puberty or really 'sexualized' things. I have vivid memories of pediatric visits that still do something for me to this day. Was it the visits/procedures themselves that made me have this craving? I dunno. All I know is I remember them well. Stop and think how many other 'vanillas' had the same things done to them but no fetish or craving was ever sustained. So MY conclusion is that we know what we like once it is presented even though it dwells from within already, we just may happen to have a fond identity of reference to it from long ago. Whatever the case/theory, enjoy the kink and let it make you whole. Fighting it off because you feel its 'wrong or weird' will only make the hunger grow..and grow. Sorry, I get off track! Enjoy responsibly!

I think sexuality and the desires/urges/tendencies it brings are with us at birth and unearthed thru life.

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This is the same as saying that gays are born that way and that ultimately there is nothing that can be done about it, it is part of their innate nature and cannot be changed in essence. I suppose as a way of trying to understand fetishes it is workable, but there sure does seem to be a multitude of ways that we come to the realization that certain medical situations can be arousing on a personal level.

'This is the same as saying that gays are born that way and that ultimately there is nothing that can be done about it'

Why should there be 'anything done about it'? The only option is to live a lie. If they enjoy it then let them enjoy it and expore upon it. This is my point to the tee. My fathers brother (my uncle) is gay. They both grew up in the same house with the same parents eating the same foods. My uncle dated women early on only because he was 'supposed to' (said my grandma)not because there was any attraction to them. Repeated exposure doens't always bring fondness...fondness brings repeated exposure.

Well now you boys are getting into the whole nature vs. nurture debate. I am going to swing this thread back around to it's original topic of how medical experiences become sexualized and ixnay the gay issue now, with all due respect. (While I am not a psychic, I was seeing this thread getting spun out of control, becoming very heated, and way off topic, quickly. We don't want that now do we?)

Alfdtuna, you do bring up good points though. It's the whole chicken or egg question. My favorite color is white. I don't know anyone else who's favorite color is white. Strange, but why white? I don't know that, and can't recall a reason for that either. Read further and you will understand what I said that, lol.

I have always argued the difference between a real medical fetish and medical porn. They are two different things. I believe that a person who is only into medical porn does not have a fetish and will never understand it, but a person with a true medical fetish can understand why a person is into medical porn. While most people associate the word fetish with sex, this isn't always the case here. There are a lot of people who have a medical fetish and never ever want sex or anything that deviates from "real" during play, but usually understands why someone could be and does become sexually aroused. However, someone who is only into medical porn and doesn't have a fetish will never understand how some of us can desire medical play and not get turned on or want to have some sort of sexual act during our play. Just because you like looking at a hot chick naked on the exam table does not mean you have a medical fetish by any means, it means you like a hot lady naked, and I'm guessing they would have pretty much the same degree of arousal if that same woman was naked on top of a motercycle, on the hood of a Mustang, or hanging off a stripper pole.

I can link my fetish back to several things from when I was a kid. 1) I had to get a gammagobulin shot when I was 5-ish, 2)At that same time I watched an episode of M*A*S*H where Margaret bent Halkeye over Blakes desk and gave him a shot in his fanny. She was a strong woman, and a nurse taking control over a male doctor. I believe the combination of those two things really did it for me. But you also have to take into consideration that for the majority of people here, we were raised in a time when doctors especially were highly respected people, an authority figure. For a lot of us the doctor also invaded our homes, our bedrooms when we were sick, young, vulnerable, and most importantly, impressionable.

It has been my experience that for most people who do have a real medical fetish that it was "aquired" sometime during their childhood due to similar experiences.

Mashie

Just because you like looking at a hot chick naked on the exam table does not mean you have a medical fetish by any means, it means you like a hot lady naked, and I'm guessing they would have pretty much the same degree of arousal if that same woman was naked on top of a motercycle, on the hood of a Mustang, or hanging off a stripper pole.

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Oddly, naked ladies on a sports car or stripper pole and so on are one of the biggest turn-offs I can think of ... nothing more plain and boring than that kind of situation ...

But on an exam table it does do something for me in the way of arousal ...

So perhaps this is something of a fetish since objects (medical objects like exam tables, speculums, syringes etc) seem to be the determining factor ... not the ladies themselves perse ...

And also I´ve never been a supporter of sex during play exams ... meaning I would never want that to happen should I ever be able to have a true play exam...

So ... does this make things more complicated or more straightforward? I´m at a loss to say ...

When an experience becomes linked to a strong emotional response like fear, arousal, embarrassment or relief, the probability of such experiences becoming part of our sexual imagination is high. Being subject to the procedures of the medical establishment for many of us during the fifties and sixties rang those bells.

Guillaume,

I think for me you just got it spot on. I have been considering this very question since before I even discovered this website, and watching this topic for a few days while considering my response. I hadn't actually intended to post in this topic yet, but I read your post and just had to reply.

Although my own experiences were in the seventies I can relate to much of what you say. For me the embarrassment factor was huge - being seen naked, being touched by strangers in areas of my body where not even my close family would usually touch me. Areas considered dirty, sexual or both. This, combined with the nurses also taking control of bodily functions usually under my control, and my age at the time - 10 to 14 years of age, right through puberty - made it more or less inevitable that I would sexualise my experiences. Fear was also a big factor for me, as I was given little or no explanation as to what was being done or why. My understanding is that fear and sexual arousal are very closely related emotions - adrenaline plays a big part in triggering both.

That's as about far as I have figured it out at the moment. I will almost certainly post more on this as time goes on and things become a little clearer to me.

Guillaume : Amy S.

Karma for both of you! Your posts are interesting, informative and go some way to confirming my own thoughts surrounding the psychology of medfet.

I firmly believe my personal fetish developed from embarrassing genital examinations as a small child conducted in front of my parents. As Amy suggests, being touched in this private place by a stranger has burned some lasting emotion into my memory. As a slightly older child being examined by the school doctor, often in the presence of other kids has definitely had some profound and lasting effect on me. Being under the control of a relative stranger and having to comply with these embarrassing procedures is, what I consider to be another important factor in the overall process.

Well, I said I'd post more, and here it is. As a very young child (around 3) I remember being taught by my parents never to talk to strangers, never to take sweets from them, never to go anywhere or do anything with them that made me feel uncomfortable. At the same time I was being seen regularly - several times a year - by an elderly male consultant, for whom I would be required to strip naked in order to be intimately examined. At the end of every appointment he would give me sweets. He saw me regularly until I was about 12 or 13. All my appointments with him followed the same pattern. Even back then (late 1960's - late 70's) in any other than a medical context, in virtually any jurisdiction in the world, he would have been locked up before you could say 'pervert'!

It is a very short step from sexualising this type of almost overtly sexual experience - I can still remember his scent and the feeling of his hot breath on my cheek as he held his otoscope to my left ear - to sexualising the entire context; the room, the instruments, exam couch, white coat, nurses uniforms etc., all of these, and more, now have sexual connotations for me.

At last I understand myself! My thanks to all who have contributed to this topic. Karma and deep gratitude to Dr. D. for posing the question in the first place.

Amy S

I guess one of the operative words in what you describe would be ´stranger´... a doctor chosen by your parents wouldn´t really qualify for the ´stranger´they warn you about ...

That said, this is a good description why medical experiences can become sexualized. It has to do with the situation or with things in a situation ... not with anything that is innate to a person. It´s not as if there was some hormone or pherenome that is identified with triggering a sexual response to a medical situation ... it seems more likely to be a memory of a remembered event linked to a situation or objects used in a certain situation that then becomes charged with a sexual meaning ...

True Agracier, maybe from an adult perspective a doctor wouldn't count as a stranger, but from a 3-year-old's perspective he wasn't a relative, friend, or neighbour, and he was doing things I definitely didn't feel comfortable with, things my parents would never allow anyone else to do.

As I said, 'in any other than a medical context...', but at that age, that is too subtle a distinction to make. Regardless of the fact that it was a doctor who was involved, what happened just felt wrong.

But at that age, that is too subtle a distinction to make. Regardless of the fact that it was a doctor who was involved, what happened just felt wrong.

________________

... reminds me of being dropped off at school and placed in the hands of black clad nuns for the first time ... that felt ever so wrong as well ... and my goodness, were they ever a bunch of strangers and people with weird ideas about so many things and so quick to anger ...

I think that is a good description of how it feels to be so young - everything is wrong and weird ...

For some, the nature of being 'unclothed' and the related feelings may be enough to have caused internal development of these feelings.

But for me it was the use/abuse of power that the doctor had when he undressed me without any mental preparation on my part. I thought I was going to have my lugs and throat checked...and my regular doctor only had us in underwear for check-ups, not sick visits.

So in short the what AND the when matter.....my previous check-ups, while compromising were "expected"....but at 12 years old, starting to develop....and a stranger doctor essentially stripping me...whoa...that left an impression on a just sexually developing pre-teen.

The how I cannot answer, but in my own situation my medical fetish began around the age of 5 when I was in the hospital for a tonsilectomy and had numerous rectal temps taken and a pre surgery shot in the bottom. At the time I could not remember having these procedures done to me before, although I'm sure they had occured at some point prior especially since we are talking mid 50's here. The rectal temps felt good or somehow exciting, and my med-fet was born at that early age. Of course I was too young to know anything about sex, but later the whole experience now has sexual connections that I cannot explain. So yes, it would be interesting to know how this becomes wired sexually in one person and not another.

I am not an expert on psychology but I think the relevant principle is described in this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misattribution_of_arousal

The gist of it is that a frightening experience arouses our emotions and causes a physical response. But then later we can connect this physical arousal with something other than fear, such as sexual attraction.

Certainly in my case, what triggers my fetish today is what I was afraid of as a child. Some of these fears came secondhand. For example, I don't remember ever getting an injection in the buttocks, but I was very afraid of them, because of the stories other people (especially my mother) told about getting them.

Certainly in my case, what triggers my fetish today is what I was afraid of as a child. Some of these fears came secondhand. For example, I don't remember ever getting an injection in the buttocks, but I was very afraid of them, because of the stories other people (especially my mother) told about getting them.

There are so many things and situations to be afraid of when young. I would guess the list to be virtually endless ... yet still it doesn't seem very likely that all of these things will one day evolve into being a source of arousal.

There must be something more specific in these fears that have a sexual origin.

I remember being told as a child that doctors were good people, it was safe to be with a doctor or a nurse, and anything they did was only to make me better. I also remember being scared of having allergy testing done because they pierced the skin on my back for the test. I was 6 years old. The fear triggered a fight or flight response in me, and I was strapped into a 'papoose' board with the skin on my back exposed. They let me scream and cry as much as I wanted to, but they accomplished what they set out to do. The whole time I was reminded how I was misbehaving, how they were just trying to help me, and I should learn to behave. I held a grudge against all medical professionals and my parents, for that one proceedure, well into my 20s.

Today, I am terrified of doctors, but thrilled by bondage. I am also thrilled by other's stories of MedFet, but I'm terrified to experience it myself. I am very curious about MedFet if I'm doing it TO myself though. I'm not sure how this all comes together, but through other's MedFet stories, I am completely turned on. When it comes to my own possible experiences with MedFet, I again feel the 'fight or flight' survival mechinism take over. With Bondage though, I'm also afraid, but I do it, and the bonds settle my nerves as I feel them tightening around me. Eventually I feel safe and the next natural step (for me, at least) is becoming extrememly horney! LOL!

I know the experience I described above was my trigger, but I'm just not sure why or how it all works together because there was never anything sexual, there was never a good feeling, and the only thing I can associate with being strapped down was the pain of my flesh being torn (not really literally torn, but I was 6, I didn't know that at the time) all across my back. I also think I'd be less terrified of MedFet if I were bound, but that's already stated in a different topic. LOL! (Until that day, I'll just live vicariously through all of you!)

Do you guys think it could have been the adrenaline rush of the fight or flight? Then being strapped to the board and the adrenaline combined to give my brain mixed signals? Anyway, I'm at a loss how I got this way. LOL!

Like others here, my past experiences as a child (negative) with the medical field seem to have contributed to my interest today. Its interesting how knowing the mechanics of medfet doesn't really detract from the experience of it (for me at least.)

I think a lot of my ideas around medical fetish came very honestly - both through media - I was always watching shows like M*A*S*H growing up and had a huge crush on Hawkeye - I always wanted to be "taken care of" by him, and as well as through playing doctor with my friends growing up. All were positive.