After a week of exchanging steamy messages on Tinder, you are finally ready to meet your match in person. You are excited about taking all that virtual chemistry to the next level and looking forward to a romantic rendezvous. So you set the mood by sending suggestive texts, stashing some sexual lubricant and condoms on your nightstand, and head for a steamy shower to relax your body.
While your pre-sex rituals are on point, what about hygiene after sex?
Whether you enjoy oral, penetrative, or anal sex, the presence of sweat, saliva, and bodily fluids makes sex a messy affair. Practicing correct sexual hygiene after any type of sexual activity is essential to minimize the chances of contracting any bacterial infections or sexually transmitted diseases.
Don’t know where to begin? Here are a few things you should do to maintain good sexual hygiene:
1 – Peeing After Sex
Penetrative intercourse increases the risk of contracting urinary tract infections. During such intercourse, bacteria can get deposited in your urethra (the place from where you pee) and even go up to your bladder or kidneys. Moreover, women are at least 10 times more likely to catch a UTI due to the anatomy of the female genital organs.
In order to reduce the chances, a visit to the washroom to pee is one of the best things to do after sex. Even for those with a penis, peeing after anal penetration is ideal for minimizing the chances of UTIs.
Once you pee, you can flush out the bacteria from the urethra before it has a chance to move upwards to your bladder. Moreover, if you have a vagina, peeing will also help you expel all the extra sex juices and lube that tend to get accumulated in the vagina during oral or penetrative sex.
But this doesn’t mean you need to head straight to the bathroom — just make sure to schedule a bathroom visit within 30 minutes of sex so that you can flush out the bacteria while it is still in your urethra.
2 – Wash Your Genitals
All the moving, thrusting, bumping, and the use of mouth, fingers, sex toys, and penis can introduce a lot of bacteria to your genitals. For instance, those who practice anal sex always run the risk of causing tears in their anal opening and depositing feces and bacteria in and around their partner’s genitals. It is also common for semen to dry up on various external genital organs.
But here’s the thing — cleanliness of vagina has always been a highly debated topic since the vagina is known to be a self-cleaning organ. But from a sexual hygiene perspective, keeping the lady bits clean should be part of your post-sex clean-up routine. Yet even today, many are unsure how to maintain vaginal hygiene, and ‘how to clean vagina after sex’ is one of the most commonly Googled questions.
Need some tips on how to clean your vaginal area? Here’s what you can do:
- Start by cleaning the vaginal lips, vaginal opening, and urethra with warm water and intimate care products.
- Use your hands to gently clean between the folds of the labia, space between the inner and outer lip of the vagina, and the skin covering your clitoris.
- Restrict all your cleaning activities to the area outside your vagina. Don’t use water or any specially formulated liquid soap inside the vagina, as that may disrupt the natural pH balance.
- For better women’s hygiene, always wipe front to back to prevent any bacteria from the anus from getting inside your vagina.
For those with a penis, water and mild fragrance-free soap will do the trick. If there’s foreskin, make sure to pull it back gently and clean underneath to get rid of semen buildup, excess lube, saliva, etc.
So what’s the ideal time frame after intercourse to wash your genitals? Try to do it within a reasonable amount of time after the sexual activity is over. The longer you delay, the higher are the chances of the bacteria sitting there, increasing your risk of getting infected. And whether you are cleaning the vaginal area or penis, always pat dry. There’s no need for any vigorous rubbing because the skin down there is very gentle.
Lastly, if you have performed oral sex, don’t forget to also wash your face, mouth, and teeth thoroughly.
3 – Clean Up Accessories
If you like to spice it up with sex toys, make sure to clean them properly after each use for good sexual hygiene. Unwashed toys are a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses.
The cleaning routine always depends on the material. So following the manufacturer’s instructions to clean is a safer bet. Don’t have them handy? Most accessories can be washed using a soapy washcloth or with warm water and an anti-bacterial soap. If you have waterproof accessories, you can directly wash them with warm water and follow it up with a soapy washcloth.
4 – Get Rid Of Used Condoms
Whether you used a male condom or a female one, removing it and disposing of it properly is one of the important things to do after sex. Of course, a used condom looks gross, and touching it is not what you’d want to do right after a mind-blowing session in bed, but you still need to dispose of it as part of your sexual hygiene routine.
Make sure to remove the condom carefully and tie it up like you’d tie a balloon. This will ensure that the semen and other fluids don’t spill. Next, wrap the used condom in a newspaper, similar to how used female hygiene products are, and place it in a biodegradable disposal bag before tossing it in the bin.
Never flush a used condom down your toilet, as that may clog the drain and even end up in your water supply.
5 – Drink Water
After a vigorous and sweaty session, you’re going to get dehydrated.
So it’s time to refuel your body with good old water. Keep a bottle by your bedside before you get started so that you can drink a glass or two after. Apart from hydrating you, it will also help you pee and flush out the UTI-causing bacteria from your urethra.
Final Words
Yes, a good romp should give you pleasure and get those happy hormones going. But taking care of your body is an act of self-care that you shouldn’t ignore.
So follow these quick and easy steps for hygiene after sex and get ready to head back to bed for another session!
