Before anal sex, many of us might worry about what’s inside our butts and if we’ll see anything we don’t want to during a sexual encounter.
For some people, simply using the bathroom around an hour before their session is enough to put their fears at rest.
Some go slightly further, having a thorough wash around the anal entrance, or even using a douche to rinse out just inside their body.
If this isn’t enough for you though, you might be thinking of turning to enemas.
While they aren’t the most common thing in the world, some of the people who use enemas don’t know how they ever managed without them.
It doesn’t even have to be for sexual reasons, and many of the biggest advocates for enemas use them for some of their many other benefits.
Whatever your reason for approaching the world of enemas, there’s a lot of information out there.
Sifting through it all can be hard work, so we’ve take care of that for you and produced our guide to safely buying and using enemas.
What Is An Enema?
Before we start getting into the technical details of what liquids you should use, how often you should use them, or whether you should face east or west while using them, we need to go back to the beginning.
Some of you out there might already know this stuff, so feel free to skip ahead, but for anyone completely new to the idea, let’s talk about what exactly enemas are.
At the very basic level, an enema consists of three parts: a bag, a tube, and a nozzle. When connected up, the three of these parts look an awful lot like an IV drip that you’d find in a hospital.
The bag carries all of the liquid for your enema and will be suspended in the air at a greater height than your body.
The nozzle is the part that goes into your anus and lets all of the liquid enter your body. The tube joins it all together!
Once you’ve got your enema set up, it’s a simple matter of putting the nozzle in and relaxing. As you place the bag higher up, gravity does all the work for you and the liquid gradually trickles down the tube into your body.
At first it fills up your rectum, and then as you keep going the liquid moves deeper into your body filling up the colon.
Once done, you simply pass all of the fluids back out along with all of the leftover bacteria and faecal matter that was left inside your body!
Why Do People Use Enemas?
Throughout the sexual world there are many people who use enemas and shower enemas on a regular basis.
Obviously, if you aren’t utilising the back entrance during sex, then nothing an enema can do is going to make much of a difference for you when you take things to the bedroom.
If sex isn’t your primary goal though, there are all kinds of things enemas can help you with.
From constipation, to sleep problems, even as far as cancer treatment, various groups are deeply passionate about their reason for using enemas and will tout their benefits to anyone who will listen.
Now, we aren’t necessarily as interested in the potential health benefits of regular enema usage, but instead want to find out why you’d use one before anal sex. This is pretty simple.
Your rectum is basically a holding area for faeces which is waiting to leave your body.
When you use the bathroom, nearly all of this will be expelled from the body, but often small remnants are left behind.
These remnants are the small bits of faeces you might find on a penis or sex toy after you take it out of your butt, and they aren’t the most pleasant thing in the world.
Using an enema before you start flushes all of these remnants out of your body and mean that whatever anal sex you enjoy should be poop free! A great relief for everyone.
Another benefit to using an enema before sex is one often overlooked. Anal sex isn’t something our bodies are naturally designed to do.
For most people, a little preparation can make the entire experience much easier and in most cases much more enjoyable.
While many of us will prepare for our anuses by using a finger or a small sex toy, the act of taking an enema can serve an almost identical purpose!
The anal lining is incredibly flexible and can stretch to many times its original size.
As an enema enters your body, the fluid fills up every nook and cranny of the rectum, gently stretching it further and further. Your enema can be a great little warm up before the main event!
How to Use An Enema
While the basic premise of an enema is simple, put a tube up your butt and wait, there are many techniques and factors that you need to take into consideration if you want the best from your enema.
Our first and foremost goal is to achieve a state called peristalsis. This is a state where the muscles along the length of your colon begin to spasm involuntarily.
These spasms cause the fluids inside your colon to begin moving in a wavelike motion towards your rectum and out of your body.
The key point here is how we achieve this. When you use a device like an anal douche where you force the water into your body, you will still achieve peristalsis.
Rather than your colon spasming though, it’ll be your rectum! Once this happens, any extra fluid you add to your body isn’t going to travel very far before your body simply pushes it back out.
Rather than forcing the liquid in, when we use an enema we want the liquid to be entering our body slowly and gradually.
As the rectum fills up, the water pressure will gently push the liquid deeper and deeper, eventually filling the entire colon.
The main way we accomplish this with an enema is by elevating the liquid bag. Once we get the initial trickle of liquid flowing down the tube, gravity takes care of the rest of the work for us!
We aren’t completely at the mercy of gravity though.
The height of the bag in relation to your body can change the speed of the liquid, and many enema kits will come with hooks, so you can hang them at your own preferred height.
There’s also usually a tap or valve near the bottom of the tube, that lets you adjust the flow while it’s in your body as well as turning it off when you want to stop.
You can tailor the experience however you like, and there’s no “right” level of liquid flow as long as you don’t cause your rectum to go into peristalsis.
With the theory out of the way, let’s get down to the practise. The first thing you’re going to need to do is get nice and comfortable.
It’s incredibly important, as needing to move around a lot during your enema can make it much more difficult for the liquid to get around your colon, and also be much more uncomfortable.
Put in the time to choose the perfect spot, and you’ll enjoy your experience that much more.
Even if you stick with the traditional bathroom floor, put a couple of blankets down. Those floors are hard and cold!
We want to be relaxed because the muscles from our anus right the way up to our lower intestine can become tense.
Most of the time when we’re trying to do things with our butts, tension usually leads to it closing up. This makes it much more difficult for you to actually get the liquid where it needs to go.
The most common way people choose to take their enemas is by lying on the floor. You don’t have to lie in a specific position, although some tend to work better for some people than others.
Experiment a little and find the spot that works best for you. If you’re lying somewhere not in the bathroom, then be sure to keep some towels within easy reach just in case.
Once you’ve found your ideal position, simply hang the bag up at your chosen height, lay down, and then insert the nozzle into your anus.
You might need a little lubrication to get the tube in properly and painlessly, so feel free to use it as much as you need.
Once the nozzle is properly situated, open the valve or tap and let the solution begin to move into your body. The key here is to take as much time as you need, only adding small amounts of liquid at a time.
It can take a long time for the liquid to completely fill both your rectum and colon, so be patient.
You might also find yourself cramping up a lot while taking in your enema solution.
This is a common part of the process, and when you begin to feel it you should take a short break of around a minute before continuing.
When the cramping passes, reopen the valve and continue to take the liquid into your body.
Eventually you’ll reach the point where the cramping becomes unbearable, and you can’t handle taking in any more of the liquid. This is when you’ll head to the bathroom and let it all back out.
While cramping is common during enemas, they shouldn’t be painful. At times it can be difficult to tell the difference.
You need to make sure that you listen to your own body, and at any point if you feel consistent pain then you should stop and let out the liquid.
Continuing while in pain won’t just be incredibly uncomfortable, but it can cause serious damage to your internal organs!
Making the Most of Your Enemas
Your colon is a massive organ, framing the entirety of your torso, so getting your enema liquid all the way around it can be quite a challenge!
Often people might like to change positions midway through their enemas to ensure the liquid gets to where it needs to be.
Lying on your back is the easiest way to let the liquid flow around as everything is on a roughly even level.
If this doesn’t work for you though, you can try changing position to let the liquid flow better.
The lower part of the colon is on the left-hand side of your body, so raising this by rolling onto your right side can create a natural slope.
Another option is to massage your stomach, pushing the liquid around your frame. This is just like you might do if you were bloated, just in the other direction.
Choosing Your Enema Liquid
You’ll probably have noticed throughout this article that we keep referring to the liquid you use in your enema, rather than saying water.
That’s because there are a wide range of options you have when choosing which liquid you want to do an enema with!
How you choose your liquid will largely depend a lot on what you want to get out of your enemas.
If it’s simply a clean colon, then in most cases good old-fashioned water will do perfectly fine. You won’t want to simply throw plain tap water into your enema bags though!
Before putting any water into your body you’ll need to make sure it’s the right temperature.
Between 98F and 105F is ideal for most people as this is slightly above body temperature.
If you use water that is too cold, then you’re likely to cause extra muscle contractions which make it much harder to actually complete the enema.
Water that is too hot will burn your insides, which really isn’t pleasant!
Now, doing an enema isn’t exactly a quick and easy five-minute job. There’s a lot of set up and a lot of time involved.
While water is just fine, you might not want to invest all this time and effort into something that’s just fine. You might want the best possible enema liquid. So, which should you choose?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a clear answer to this. You might find yourself going through many of the different kinds of liquids before finding exactly what you want.
Each type tends to have its own dedicated fanbase, who are sure that their chosen liquid is the best option.
While this doesn’t really help you with making an easy decision, it does give you tons of opinions and websites to read, so thoroughly research the various liquids before choosing which is for you.
One particular enema liquid you’re going to come across a lot is coffee. It can sound a little odd, but a coffee enema is exactly what it sounds like.
You boil up some regular coffee, let it cool down, then put it in your enema bag and let it fill up your body!
There are two main reasons coffee enemas have so much more traction than other kinds: palmitic acid and caffeine.
Both of these chemicals are intended to be absorbed by your body and assist the liver in producing more bile. The bile is added to your colon, and aids in clearing it all out.
There are even special brands of coffee which are higher than normal in both caffeine and palmitic acid for the sole purpose of being used in enemas!
If a coffee enema doesn’t sound that great to you, then you still have options. Common enema liquids include:
- Acidophilus enemas These enemas make use of probiotic yoghurt in the mixture to allow the good bacteria to directly access your colon.
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Epsom salt enemas Epsom salts are often used to relax muscles and can be taken orally to relax the bowels and help move things along. We suggest against taking it for this purpose.
- Lemon juice enemas Lemon enemas are more effective at cleansing the colon than some other types, but due to the nature of the juice are sometimes much more difficult to hold in your colon. We don't recommend this.
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Milk and molasses enemas These enemas produce a lot of gas in your colon due to their sugary nature.
The gas helps move everything along and the mixture is very good at causing peristalsis. They can end up being quite messy though, so having some towels on hand is a good idea.
- Salt and soda enemas Due to the acidic nature of the stomach, using an enema containing baking soda can help neutralise some of the acid, rebalancing the natural pH of your stomach acid.
- Salt water enemas The salt content in these enemas stimulate your colon to draw more water into it, helping move along harder or more compact stools.
Just like water or coffee enemas, you’ll want to be using these liquids at slightly above body temperature for the ideal experience.
Can Enemas Damage My Health?
So far, we’ve discussed plenty of the positive aspects of an enema, but nothing in life is perfect. Enemas are exactly the same, and there are several risks involved in the process.
Using them incorrectly could cause serious damage throughout your body, so it’s important you know exactly what you’re getting into.
In general, as long as you are careful and take your time, and aren’t having four enemas a day, you shouldn’t experience many problems.
Even so, you should pay close attention to the ingredients found in your enema liquids. Obviously if they contain anything you’re allergic to then that should be a hard pass.
Even when everything is being done perfectly, and the liquid contains nothing inherently harmful to you, things still might not be as they seem.
The most common reason for this is an ingredient called Senna. This is a simple herb, but when used in enemas it can cause dehydration and diarrhea.
As you have more liquid bowel movements, you become even more dehydrated, leading to a vicious cycle. Long term this can cause you kidney problems or even heart failure.
If you notice that you tend to have a lot of liquid bowel movements following an enema then double check that your chosen liquid doesn’t contain Senna, and if it does consider a different liquid.
One of the most important considerations you need to make when performing your enema is getting the correct amount of pressure. Too much pressure being applied directly to your colon is likely to perforate it.
This is a serious problem, that will not only require surgery to repair, but could lead you to needing a colostomy bag for the rest of your life.
Getting the correct amount of pressure from your enema can be a bit of a challenge. Generally, the higher you hang the bag, the greater the pressure will be.
The ideal result is that the liquid should be flowing consistently down the enema tube, but in a slow and steady fashion.
Most of the time getting this balance will require hanging your bag at a height between two and three feet off the ground.
It’s not a precise science though, and some liquids are much thicker than others so will need a greater height. You need to experiment a little and might need to lower or raise the bag to get the ideal flow of water through your tube.
The other major danger that you need to consider is the downside to whichever enema liquid you decide to use. Just like anything in life, using anything in moderation will be fine most of the time.
However, many of us don’t like change, and it’s not uncommon for someone to find a particular kind of enema liquid they like the best and want to use it all the time.
This can bring negative effects along with the positives.
For example, using coffee enemas too often can damage your liver due to toxic chemicals found in some types of coffee grain, as well as removing iron from your body and causing a deficiency.
Overuse of Epsom salt enemas can cause hypermagnesemia due to the high levels of magnesium found in the salt.
Too many soda-based enemas can cause your colon to contain a higher level of alkalinity and unbalance the body’s natural pH.
There are downsides to nearly every liquid, so make sure you’ve thoroughly researched anything you plan on putting inside your body.
A good solution is to alternate, having one enema with the liquid of your choice and then making the next a more traditional water enema.
Should You Bother With Enemas?
There’s a lot for you to think about with enemas. While they definitely can have their place in a thorough anal cleansing routine, there are inherent risks and dangers to them.
While I’d never recommend having them every day, there are many people who enjoy multiple enemas a week and never feel any ill effects.
The most important thing you can do is simply do your research, know exactly what you’re putting inside your body, and always listen to it.
Our bodies are amazing pieces of equipment, and if something isn’t right they’re sure to let you know very quickly!
