# Blowing air through your urethra **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2009, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040 "2009-11-02T12:30:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Livardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/43a26b/32.png) [@Livardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Livardo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/1 "2009-11-02T12:30:52Z")
What would happen to me if I inserted the red straw from a [“compressed gas”](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41X1W80MWHL._SL500_AA280_.jpg) duster into my urethra and pressed the trigger, say, for about 5 seconds or so? I imagine it would be terribly painful, but would I suffer long term consequences from this stunt? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/2 "2009-11-02T12:34:30Z")
[Possible death](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_embolism)? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/3 "2009-11-02T13:16:28Z")
It would certainly damage you internally. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/4 "2009-11-02T15:32:42Z")
Don’t forget that those “canned air” units (if used incautiously) can directly expel hydrocarbon fluid that evaporates causing extreme cooling - and the expelled air is a fluorocarbon anyhow. I would not want that in my bladder. > [@](#): > > If the can is held upside down, then its contents are expelled as a liquid. This liquid evaporates very quickly at standard temperature and pressure, chilling anything in contact with it. This process can produce very cold temperatures, easily sufficient to cause frostbite. Similar cans with dip tubes are marketed as “freeze spray,” and will expel liquid when held right side up. Not a good idea at all. Si ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/5 "2009-11-02T15:39:12Z")
I have to think you could search Youtube and find someone doing it. This is the internet, after all. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/6 "2009-11-02T15:39:40Z")
(wonders if there is a porn site for that) ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/7 "2009-11-02T15:53:18Z")
There certainly is. Rule 34, after all. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/8 "2009-11-02T16:00:44Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I have to think you could search Youtube and find someone doing it. This is the internet, after all. The real trick would be to find someone doing it twice. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/9 "2009-11-02T16:14:15Z")
The air embolism is a very real possibility. Surviving that, the necrosis from frostbite after freezing the very delicate tissue inside the urethra would ruin your day. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/10 "2009-11-02T17:22:22Z")
People seriously underestimate the power of air pressure. Even if we’re talking just 1 psi of overpressure, the pressure inside your bladder would be a few pounds to start with. That would be enough to expand the bladder, which would increase the total pressure even further. It’s like a chain reaction until something ruptures. And you’d better hope the thing that ruptures is just the bladder so that the pressure doesn’t move up the ureters to the kidneys. PS: If you could insert that little red straw at all, I’d be amazed. That would have to hurt like I can’t imagine. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/11 "2009-11-02T20:30:32Z")
> [@Livardo](#): > > What would happen to me if I inserted the red straw from a [“compressed gas”](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41X1W80MWHL._SL500_AA280_.jpg) duster into my urethra and pressed the trigger, say, for about 5 seconds or so? > I imagine it would be terribly painful, but would I suffer long term consequences from this stunt? This would be an awful thing to do. And yet a part of me want you to try it and get back to us on the result. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/12 "2009-11-02T20:42:39Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > PS: If you could insert that little red straw at all, I’d be amazed. That would have to hurt like I can’t imagine. That little red straw is pretty sharp, and would definitely damage the urethra. You’d have a lot of bleeding from a tear, long before it got to the bladder . . . which would never happen anyway, since the straw’s too short. So what would happen is that you’d poke a hole in the side of your urethra, then blow air into the “meat” of your penis, causing serious injury. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/13 "2009-11-02T21:08:09Z")
I just want to say that this thread is making me have to sit in a very awkward position, whimpering softly. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/14 "2009-11-02T21:14:14Z")
“I don’t want you blowing it up my urethra.” -Vaughan, in J.G. Ballard’s _Crash._ ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/15 "2009-11-02T21:20:06Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > PS: If you could insert that little red straw at all, I’d be amazed. That would have to hurt like I can’t imagine. Once I had my bladder scoped and you would not believe the size of the MF that they threaded up mine. That little red straw is nothing, in terms of diameter. (Notwithstanding, it would be a very bad idea to blow air up there.) ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/16 "2009-11-02T22:28:18Z")
And remember kids: don’t do this at home! ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/17 "2009-11-02T22:41:56Z")
I am curious as to why people think it’s likely to get an air embolism and die from this? An air embolism is when an air bubble forms in the VASCULAR system, forming a potential clot and such. But your urethra is not part of your vascular system. It’s part of the renal system and leads up to the bladder. You would basically be blowing air up and either into your bladder (or way less likely) into your spermatic ducts and tubes and such things. I suppose if you followed the ureters then up the bladder, you’d get to the kidney, and THAT’s where the first hints of a vascular system occur, but the idea of air being able to go up the urethra, into the bladder, thru the ureters and then into the kidneys to form an embolism is HIGHLY dubious. More likely is that the bladder would inflate with a possible rupturing inside, causing a possible peritoneal infection. So where’s the Air Emboli logic coming from? Unless you’re saying that instead of sticking it up your urethra, you’re trying to stick the tube into a vein or an artery the chances of the air embolism forming are slim to none, right? I think my interpretation is right, but I’m willing to hear the other side. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/18 "2009-11-02T23:12:52Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > I suppose if you followed the ureters then up the bladder, you’d get to the kidney, and THAT’s where the first hints of a vascular system occur… I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a vascular system _right there in my penis_. Sure, my vascular system is not directly plumbed to my urethra, but that’s under the specific, normal circumstances of _not having a sharp plastic object jammed in there, venting gases_. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/19 "2009-11-02T23:16:14Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > I am curious as to why people think it’s likely to get an air embolism and die from this? No one said it’s likely. However, there have been cases of fatal air emboli after sexual intercourse - I would think that injecting high-pressure gas internally runs at least as great a risk. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040/20 "2009-11-02T23:28:12Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a vascular system _right there in my penis_. > > Sure, my vascular system is not directly plumbed to my urethra, but that’s under the specific, normal circumstances of _not having a sharp plastic object jammed in there, venting gases_. Well dont WE have a schmancy fancy penis… 🙂 We havent even considered the shrinkage factor yet…the life and death stuff is taking precedent for some strange reason. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-through-your-urethra/516040.md?page=2)