In this particular topic of Cecil’s I couldn’t help but be intrigued by his saying that yes blowing into a vagina during oral sex can trap in air and cause an air embolism. At first I completely agreed cause I had heard this sort of thing before from girlfreinds. Now, however, I am beginning to wonder if Cecil did get the straight dope on this or not.
It has been my experience that many times in the course of just routine sex and not so routine that air tends to get trapped in the vagina just from that. I am sure I am not the only person who has noticed this when perhaps after sex or during or something you are not in her and a press to the stomach or whatever triggles a small release of trapped air from the vagina. Seems to me there might be more than meets the eye here.
Cecil’s information relates to pregnant women and there might be some actual physical changes that increase the air embolism dangers in pregnant women particularly.
People have been having sex for such a long time that normal air trapped in the vagina during intercourse must not be dangerous or we would have known about it by now.
This last statement of Cecil’s: “How likely such things are if the woman is not pregnant is not clear, but if I were you I wouldn’t try it under any circumstances.” is simply IMHO a “when-in-doubt-don’t” which I think is a good idea when we aren’t sure of cause and effect.
I’d like a lot more certainty before putting someone else at risk of her life for such a non-essential.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
I would think that the main cause of risk in a pregnant female would be the presence of the placenta, a large highly vascular organ specifically designed to exchange gas and fluids. In th absense of a placenta, I think the risk pretty much non-existent.
Additionally, all venous blood returning from the placenta will go through the lungs, in the absense of a right to left shunt cardiac defect, it won’t be an embolus to the brain that kills the mother. The fetus, on the other hand, would be at risk for a brain embolus
Ivick, Shouldn’t the cervical plug prevent air from the vagina from going into the uterus/uterine wall? Or was the plug not doing its job in the case of those pregnant women who died?
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
I don’t think the air does go into the uterus. I think the danger is that the walls of the vagina also become more susceptible to letting in an air bubble. Total blood volume increases by about 20 or 30 percent when you are pregnant.
Guys I understand what Cecil is saying here about the fact that they are at a greater risk when they are pregnant then when not. What I am saying here is that the air trapped is the same thing as a bit of air that you would blow in cept for maybe a bit less CO2 which may or may not have anything to do with it. However, these pregnant women out there don’t stop having sex when they get pregnant right??? And I would assume, even though I have never slept with a pregnant woman, that the air could still get trapped in there during normal sex with a woman that is pregnant right??? So why is one so dangerous and the other so common as to not even be thought of as a risk factor to my knowledge.
???Come on Guys???
Hey, Q,
Might need more than a doc in the house here.
Re-reading Cecil’s comments - check this out:
“Ten fatalities and one near-miss had been reported in the medical literature as of 1983.” That’s too out of date to be trusted one way or the other.
Need an ob-gyn!
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
Well, forget the old school of thought on air emoli, in the absence of a right to left cardiac defect, small air bubbles are filtered out by the lungs (that’s their job). It takes a pretty big air bubble to put a pt at risk, and I doubt if that much could get in easily,
Larry
I don't know one way or the other about this one, but there is one factor that could be relevant--pressure. Air that naturally gets trapped will be at a lower pressure than air induced by blowing.
Long ago in shop class there was a lecture about safety with compressed air--that it could kill if aimed into a body opening at close range. The case mentioned was some guys horsing around, one aimed an air hose at the anus of another at close range, it caused a rupture of part of the digestive system and a lethal infection resulted. (Note: This must have been more than 30 years ago.) Air as such in the intestine is obviously harmless, but at that pressure...
Whoa! Now THERE’S a blast from the past (so to speak)…
This whole discussion takes me right back to 1974, when as a newlywed I was (we were) investigating our wedding-present copy of Dr. Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex. We saw the above anecdote, also the bit about not blowing into a vagina because it might cause an air embolism, and were inclined to dismiss both stories as what we would have called Urban Myths, if we had known what those were in those days. Like when your mother tells you not to run with scissors…
Anyway, the rest of the book was authoritative-sounding enough that we didn’t actually try it, but I always did wonder. Nice to have both things confirmed independently.
In the 1972 edition, it’s on page 241, under “Hazards”. (I ran upstairs and checked–no, we haven’t worn it out yet! )
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen
)