# Is coprophagia dangerous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 18, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825 "2005-06-18T18:21:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StewardManscat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@StewardManscat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StewardManscat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/1 "2005-06-18T18:21:37Z")
Re: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050610.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050610.html) > [@](#): > > Combing further through the journals, we find near-unanimous professional belief that virtually all human coprophages are mentally ill, retarded, or otherwise missing a few teeth off the main sprocket Yes. And thirty years ago the same people said homosexuals were mentally ill. In fact, coprophilia occurs naturally among some percentage of humans, same as we have queers, sadists, masochists, transvestities, people of colour, albinos, foot fetishists, and so on, until you reach you reach the set of… men and women. Why it occurs is another question. Historically our first reaction to anything different is to call it crazy. Succumb not to that pat little solution. God or evolutions is not pat. Patties are a human invention. Diseases? Yes, under the right circumstances. All sex is risky, there is no safe sex. It’s a matter of degree. Real scientific statements are impossible to make, since nobody has done the studies. Debates rage among fecophiles over transmission of various sexual diseases via shit. You got the bugs right though. Good for you. Ask any enlightened doctor about eating your own shit. It just came out of you. It may not have much nutritional value, but it cannot have anything that wasn’t already there in the first place. Zero risk. Because of the social taboo (which is precisely the turnon for many), you don’t get a lot of people standing up to shout about about it. But a quick cruise on the internet will reveal it’s at least as common as cross-dressing. All in all a good answer, for the uninitiated! To learn more about shitlovers (well, queer ones anyway), visit [www.manscat.com](http://www.manscat.com) and cruise the forums. And take it from a coprophile… contrary to popular Zen, shit does not just happen. Thanks for a making a little bit happen here. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/2 "2005-06-18T22:09:58Z")
> [@](#): > > But a quick cruise on the internet will reveal it’s at least as common as cross-dressing. Of course, a quick cruise on the internet might well indicate that vore is as common as the missionaty position, but it ain’t necessarily so. I understand the desire to assert that one’s fetish of preference is commonplace, but without some real data backing it up I’ll continue to have a hard time believing your assertion. As to “enlightened” physicians . . . I assume you mean ones who already agree that coprophagia is harmless? Really, I’d like to see some hard research here as well. As with consumption of urine, there’s the fundamental issue of consuming what the body has expelled–it’s expelled for a reason. Apart from being discarded waste material, feces is rife with bacteria which ordinarily live in the intestines, not in the upper GI. Urine in large doses is harmful, and I must assume the same is true of feces. The question, of course, is how much is a large dose. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/3 "2005-06-18T23:21:34Z")
Hey! I’m a bit put out. You post a link, I would assume for the purposes of fighting ignorance. I go there and I find I have to agree to be a male homosexual to get in. Ok I can see the point of some limitations if it’s basically a place for male corprophiles to meet other male corprophiles but, geez…I can’t even come in and look around? Seems rather narrow minded of you 😉 . Secondly, you might note there’s a whole other thread on this column. I’m the one over there arguing that it’s not a mental illness. As far as not being unhealthy, though…even if it’s your own (and isn’t the point in many cases, that it be someone elses? In which case you have a whole new set of bacteria you may not be able to deal with?) I don’t think the “anything that comes out of you can go back in, no problem” idea holds up much. As andros noted, what’s good for the lower intestines is not necessarily good for the stomach, etc. The bacteria in your mouth would not do well in your bloodstream. From what I’ve read in Portnoy’s Complaint, semen in your eye is not pleasent (althought no I don’t know how much damage it might do 😉 ). I think suggesting it’s safe is wishful thinking…buy hey, like drinking or smoking or being beaten with riding crops, if you feel it’s worth it to assume the rish, go with god. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/4 "2005-06-18T23:36:21Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > From what I’ve read in Portnoy’s Complaint, semen in your eye is not pleasent Stings like a sonuvabitch. But I don’t know of any reason it would cause damage in small doses of short-term exposure. (aside: > [@](#): > > if you feel it’s worth it to assume the rish, go with god. That’s a hellaciously funny typo. But only for Larry Niven fans.) ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/5 "2005-06-20T11:24:01Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > Hey! I’m a bit put out. You post a link, I would assume for the purposes of fighting ignorance. I go there and I find I have to agree to be a male homosexual to get in. Ok I can see the point of some limitations if it’s basically a place for male corprophiles to meet other male corprophiles but, geez…I can’t even come in and look around? Seems rather narrow minded of you 😉 . > > Secondly, you might note there’s a whole other thread on this column. I’m the one over there arguing that it’s not a mental illness. > > As far as not being unhealthy, though…even if it’s your own (and isn’t the point in many cases, that it be someone elses? In which case you have a whole new set of bacteria you may not be able to deal with?) I don’t think the “anything that comes out of you can go back in, no problem” idea holds up much. As andros noted, what’s good for the lower intestines is not necessarily good for the stomach, etc. The bacteria in your mouth would not do well in your bloodstream. From what I’ve read in Portnoy’s Complaint, semen in your eye is not pleasent (althought no I don’t know how much damage it might do 😉 ). > > I think suggesting it’s safe is wishful thinking…buy hey, like drinking or smoking or being beaten with riding crops, if you feel it’s worth it to assume the rish, go with god. Hrmm… thats an interesting site. Either coprophagics are overwhelmingly gay or there are so many coprophagics that the gay coprophagics feel marginalised by straight coprophagics and had sufficient numbers to start their own offshoot. Either proposition is intriguing. Does anyone know which it is? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/6 "2005-06-24T05:13:26Z")
If you choke on it, no one will give you CPR. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Fortytwois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Fortytwois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortytwois)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/7 "2005-06-27T04:11:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes. And thirty years ago the same people said homosexuals were mentally ill. There’s a difference between love between two adults and getting off on eating shit. Getting off on eating shit is akin to getting off on being impaled for sexual purposes or getting off being put in an Iron Maiden. I mean ingesting shit does cause stuff like chlorea or hepititus. I doubt that shit eating will ever be removed from the DSMV list of paraphillas. > [@](#): > > In fact, coprophilia occurs naturally among some percentage of humans, same as we have queers, sadists, masochists, transvestities, people of colour, albinos, foot fetishists, and so on, until you reach you reach the set of… men and women. Define “nautrally”…How many people are in to it b/c it’s just so KINKY? How many folks are into it b/c they are extreme partiers? ---
**Author:** ![pessimisticgrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@pessimisticgrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pessimisticgrace)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/8 "2005-06-27T09:49:23Z")
\<\<…or being beaten with riding crops, if you feel it’s worth it to assume the rish, go with god. \>\> Being beaten with riding crops is not inherently dangerous, unless you’re a novice who picked one up at an adult bookstore and decided to go to town on your wife for fun. They can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, but if you have skill (like most professional doms and dommes do, and those’re really the only people I’d trust to do it), there’s very little risk of permanent or debilitating injury. Cropping is done to provide the most sensory pleasure, not to “see who can hit the hardest.” The beating is deliberate and cautious, most marks fading within a day, and the areas of the body focused on are chosen as to NOT cause any internal injury. ---
**Author:** ![pessimisticgrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@pessimisticgrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pessimisticgrace)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/9 "2005-06-27T09:55:48Z")
\<\\> None of the people I’ve encountered who are “into it” care if it’s “KINKY” or are into the party scene. It’s a fetish, not a trend. There is some overlap with BDSM, but not nearly as much as, say, crossdressing or infantilism overlap with BDSM. It’s one of the rarer fetishes, probably because people don’t want to risk the stuff Cecil detailed. I don’t really get this whole “It’s just so kinky” response… I am constantly surrounded by people deeply entrenched in various fetishes and practices, and none of them have such a motivation. They are genuinely aroused by these things, sometimes to the point of obsession. It’s not about being “kinky,” if they’d even CONSIDER it kinky. ---
**Author:** ![Fortytwois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Fortytwois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortytwois)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/10 "2005-06-27T22:33:21Z")
I didn’t mean that people got off on it b/c it was TrEnDy, but simply b/c of the fact that it’s so KINKY!!! There are people who get off on whatever, and they have no idear why they do. But there are people who are really into the alternative sex scene b/c it’s so SEXEE or nonvanilla. :rolleyes: You get what I’m saying now? I just wonder how many people who are into that sort of stuff would get into it, if it wasn’t so out there…know what I mean? ---
**Author:** ![Perderabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Perderabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perderabo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/11 "2005-06-27T23:59:07Z")
I wonder if there is stuff these folks won’t eat. That would be the ultimate insult to a cook… “Yucko!! I like to eat shit, but that tuna casserole? Hey I have some standards!” ---
**Author:** ![Fortytwois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Fortytwois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortytwois)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-coprophagia-dangerous/308825/12 "2005-06-28T01:34:10Z")
Yeah, like HOW many of the shiteaters would with no external influence decide that eating shit was a thing that got their rocks off? I bet none…I mean there are a lot of people who are into deviant/strange sex b/c it’s so KINKY…you know they look down on vanilla sex and are so high and mighty about not being vanilla?