There's a surge in men getting things stuck up their bum - experts think they know why
In 2025, a staggering 505 people were admitted to hospital in the UK, complaining that a foreign object had gotten trapped in their rectum.
Interestingly, 393 of these patients were men, a third being men over 50.
According to a FOI request, the odd phenomenon cost the NHS a mind-blowing £429,250 over the 12-month period, with extraction procedures totalling £850 per bloke. Apparently, however, these almighty prices aren’t limited to last year, with the health service coughing up an unfathomable £3,172,200 on removal surgeries since 2020.
Dr Lawrence Cunningham, a British GP, has dealt with his fair share of anally adventurous male patients.
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Recalling one case to Metro this week, he recalled a man in his fifties rocking up to his surgical practice, moaning about persistent stomach pain.
"It took nearly an hour of gentle questioning before he admitted the truth," Dr Cunningham explained. "He had a glass jar stuck up his bottom that he couldn’t get out himself.
"Honestly, as a GP, I’ve had this come up more times than you’d think. For [him], at that point, it was straight to A&E."
He continued: "In nearly 40 years of practice, there’s been household items through to purpose-made adult toys. The ones that come up most seem to be bottles, light bulbs, and various bits from the kitchen drawer.
"Colleagues in A&E have told me about mobile phones, remote controls, even small tools. The range is quite something."
Getting into the science behind it, he explained that items can become trapped in a person's bottom because of the involuntary contraction of their internal anal sphincter muscle. It's this muscle's job to hold in the contents of the bowels, and as such, it's innately trained to remain contracted.
If you insert something into this highly sensitive crevice, especially if it has a flared base, like a glass jar, the sphincter can contract, pulling the item up even higher into the rectum.
According to a number of medics and sexperts, there's further evidence to prove that males in this age group have a particular partiality for experimenting anally, despite the damage this practice could do to the body.
By comparison, 111 of those who visited A&E with similar complaints last year were women.
Attempting to explain this pattern, sex educator April Maria told the publication that it comes to men's sexuality maturing over time.
"It’s not about these men being adventurous, but more about them becoming more comfortable with themselves and their bodies over time," she began.
"As people get older, there’s less pressure to perform or fit into a rigid idea of what sex 'should' look like, and more openness to exploring what actually feels good."
Maria added that men might be broadening their interests in this area of the body if they're someone who struggles with erectile dysfunction.
"They start exploring parts of their body that might bring them more pleasure if they are struggling to get it from their penis," she went on.
Whilst these men might be willing to experiment, however, in Dr Cunningham's view, many do not do their proper research before getting into it, which makes sexual mishaps much more likely.
"There’s a real reluctance to go out and buy proper equipment that’s actually designed for this, so they end up improvising with stuff that’s completely unsuitable," he explained.
"Older men are much less likely to talk openly about sexual health or get advice first. That generation didn’t grow up with easy access to this kind of information the way younger people do now."
Apparently, this peculiar practice isn't exclusively performed by British men, with booking himself an appointment in France last year, having inadvertently lodged a WWI bomb up his rear end.
Whatever does it for you, I guess...
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Health, NHS, Life, Real Life, True Life, Advice
Rhianna Benson