Sounding is one of the more advanced methods of urethral stimulation. What was once a largely medical device used to help when people are suffering from some urinary disorders is now a very popular form of sexual pleasure!
It’s not for the faint hearted though, as you can insert sounds all the way into your urethra and reach as far as your bladder.
You need to be completely sure what you’re doing so it’s good to be as informed as possible both when shopping for and using urethral sounds.
What Is A Urethral Sound?
Urethral sounds are a tool designed to be inserted into the urethral tube. They are most often made from stainless steel (like in chastity cages), but some silicone variants are available too.
Not all sounds are created equal, and there can be differences in length, girth, shape, and even the surface of the sound.
Sometimes sounds will even have extra functions such as vibration, or parts you can attach to tens machines for electrical stimulation.
What Do People Use Urethral Sounds For?
Aside from the previously mentioned medical uses for urethral sounds, you might be wondering what brings people to put what is essentially a big metal stick into one of the most sensitive parts of the body.
It’s not an uncommon thought process and getting past it is one of the first things you’ll need to do to enjoy using a sound.
It’s just like anal for a lot of people. At first it might seem intimidating or painful, but once you get past the initial barrier you can find it very enjoyable.
Once you’ve moved past any initial worries or fears, there are a few distinct benefits to using urethral sounds.
One of the largest benefits is simply the intense feelings you can experience. This intensity can amplify many of the feelings you normally have during masturbation.
You can experience harder erections, stronger orgasms, increased stamina, or even multiple orgasms.
Men’s pleasure will be focused around both the penis and the prostate.
In the penis, the feelings will function in a similar way to a cock ring. The sound puts extra pressure on the entire length of the penis, making it much more sensitive than normal. In the prostate, things can get even more intense.
The prostate is a small gland found in the male body between the penis and the bladder.
Due to this unusual placement, it’s quite a hard part of the body to stimulate and most of the time people will say that the most effective way to reach it is by inserting things into the anus.
This isn’t completely true though.
When stimulating the prostate anally, a man is still doing it indirectly as there are parts of the body between your finger or sex toy and the prostate.
Urethral sounds let you get even closer and stimulate the prostate by touching it directly. The feelings you get from this direct touch and stimulation can be some of the most intense you’ll ever experience.
Some lucky men are even able to experience completely hands free prostate orgasms!
Women lack both of these body parts, so you might wonder what they stand to gain from urethral sounding. Much of the women’s pleasure comes from the clitoris.
The clitoris isn’t just the small peanut sized part of the vagina that you can see on the outside of your body.
It extends much deeper into a woman’s body, with the majority of it being inside the body.
A woman’s urethral tube will run alongside the internal part of the clitoris so as you insert a urethral sound you can stimulate much more of the clitoris than you would through traditional methods.
The g-spot is also something that urethral sounds can help you reach, as many people believe it is either connected to, or in the same area as, the internal part of the clitoris.
With a little practise and exploration, you can master your urethral sounding and produce some incredibly strong orgasms which can make your entire body feel fuzzy.
The benefits aren’t solely restricted to which gender you are though. Many couples may enjoy sounding as a joint activity rather than a solo endeavour.
It’s always a good thing to become more intimate with your partner, and women in particular enjoy finding new ways to share things with their partners.
Urethral sounding is one of the most intimate activities you could possibly try together, as it requires and incredible amount of trust and patience with one another.
More kinky couples may enjoy bringing some BDSM elements into the bedroom, or even take on the roles of a submissive and dominant partner.
Sounding can play a very real role in these kinds of relationships.
The more masochistic of you can make use of the sounds to stimulate themselves or their partners in an erotically painful way (although this should be done with great care).
If the transfer of power is more up your street, then surrendering control of your urethra to another person is a sure way to be left at their mercy!
Types Of Urethral Sounds
There are many different types of sound out there, each with slightly differing designs and being suitable for different levels of user, as well as different kinds of stimulation.
Some are more suited to beginners, while others are only recommended for advanced users. Even just choosing a urethral sound to buy can be an in depth decision on its own!
The most common types of sound include:
- Rosebud Sounds: Rosebud sounds are one of the more unique types of sound you can try, due to the presence of a small, bullet shaped tip. Unlike many other types of sound these aren't double ended, but feature a long handle making them quite easy to manipulate. While beginners enjoy them for the ease of use the handle provides, even experienced users love Rosebud sounds thanks to the unique stimulation offered by the bullet shaped tip.
- Dittle Sounds: Like Rosebud sounds, Dittle sounds are only one ended, with the other being taken up by a handle. Dittle handles are flat, making them even easier to hold than the beginner friendly handles of a Rosebud. The other great benefit of their handle is that they are perfect for attaching to e-stim or tens equipment, allowing you to add some shocking stimulation to your urethral play.
- Hank Sounds: Hank sounds are one of the most common types of sound used by beginners. They are double ended, meaning you get twice the amount of sizes within your kit. Their real selling point for beginners though is a ribbed are found part way down the sound. These stop you from inserting the sound too far, giving you a clear stopping point as you get used to the idea of urethral sounding.
- Pratt Sounds: Pratt sounds are one of the types that are more suited to experienced sounders, mainly due to the shape of the rod. They feature a pronounced and long curve on the end, which allow you to specifically target areas of your urethra that you wish to stimulate. They are also some of the longest sounds you can buy, so even thought they carry some additional benefits over other types, you need to take extra care when using them to make sure you don't damage your urethra.
- Hegar Sounds: Like most types of urethral sound, a Hegar sound features a curve along the body of the rod. These curves are much more gentle than some other types, taking the shape of a gentle S bend. Hegar sounds are also double ended, meaning you can experiment with double the amount of diameters while using your sounds. This makes them a popular choice for newer sounders.
- Van Buren Sounds: At first a Van Buren sound might look a little intimidating. Unlike the gentler curves of Pratt or Hegar sounds, Van Buren sounds feature a J-shaped tip. This is designed to match the male anatomy as close as possible. Once inserted, they will match the natural curves of your urethra so they can be one of the most comfortable sounds to wear. You can also use the J-shaped tip for some targetted stimulation of your prostate, making them a favourite amongst men.
- Guyon Sounds: Guyon sounds are the most extreme sounds available. Unlike the gentle curves found on other types of sound, the Guyon sound is almost hook shaped. They are designed to go very deep, and produce targeted (or even sharp) stimulation deep within your body. Only the most experienced sounders will ever dare to try a Guyon sound, and even then great care is needed to make sure that no harm is caused while using them.
With such a range of urethral sounds available, you might not really be sure which you’d like to try.
Aside from Pratt and Van Buren sounds, any type will be suitable for beginner use. Most first timers though will want something very simple, so will end up going for Dittle or Hank sounds.
More advanced users are likely to move onto Hegar, Rosebud, and Pratt sounds. These varieties allow you to experiment with many more diameters, curves, lengths and in the case of rosebuds, even different sensations from the bullet part.
The final sound on any user’s journey will be the Van Buren. These are the longest of the bunch and allow you to directly stimulate the bladder if you choose to. Despite all of these different decisions, the most important part of any sound you use will usually be the diameter.
Diameter tends to be measured in either mm or a French scale which measures slightly differently. To convert a French measurement into mm, simply divide it by three.
As most kits will come with several sizes, you can usually simply move from the smallest of your kit to the largest over time.
Be sure that if your sounds are double ended, you move up the sizes in the correct order or you might end up stretching things a little too far. It’s usually not recommended to increase size by more than 1mm at a time.
Risks When Using Urethral Sounds
At this point, you might be interested in using sounds and may even have a preferred type that you’d like to buy.
There’s probably some burning questions in your mind though. Surely using these can’t be healthy for your body can it?
Well you’re not wrong! Pretty much anything you choose to insert into your body will carry some level or risk, even simple sex toys like dildos.
There may be more risks with something like urethral sounding, but just like everything else you can avoid these dangers with some simple research and preparation.
The single most common thing that will go wrong with any kind of urethral toy is getting a bacterial infection.
A person’s urethra is one of the most sensitive parts of the body and is easily capable of picking up nearly any germ or bacteria that gets inside and transmitting it to other parts of the body.
Most often this will result in urinary tract infections, but it can progress further and infect your bladder or kidneys.
It’s something you’ll definitely want to avoid and luckily, it’s very easy to. You simply need to make sure that your sounds are completely cleaned and sterile when you use them.
To do this, you should be cleaning them both before and after your sessions, as well as making sure you thoroughly wash your hands before starting any sessions. The most recommended material is silicone for urethral sounds, as it's non-porous and easy to keep clean.
Just as these bacteria can come from a dirty sound, they can also come from your lubrication. While most forms of sex allow you to use the lube you find most comfortable, sounding is a little different.
You need to avoid any lubrication which contains any sugars or other ingredients that might infect the urethra. Always buy 100% sterile lube for urethral penetration.
These are the only external dangers present in sounding, and everything else is something that you will have control over in your own sessions.
Most of these dangers are simply caused by inserting your sound in a manner that isn’t good for the urethra. This can be doing it too quickly, using a sound that’s too large, forcing it in, or simply aiming it wrong.
If you find at any point that the sound doesn’t glide in easily (you should usually be using gravity more than pushing) then try giving the sound a little turn to loosen it up. If it still won’t budge, then it might be too big so take it out and try another sound or try again later.
Overall, you’re aiming to slowly stretch the urethra in a careful and controlled manner. Doing things more aggressively is likely to cause pain, abrasions, punctures, or even urethral strictures.
For a more in depth look at insertion check out our article on using urethral sounds. I know sounding can seem intimidating, scary, and even painful at first. If you’ve made it this far into this article though, you must be at least a little interested.
They can be some of the most rewarding experiences to explore, so we’d always encourage you to take the plunge and try it out!
