1 year ago
72 Health
The penis plays big to a postulation of bacteria known arsenic the penile microbiome, and an investigation of urethral swabs has recovered that men who person vaginal enactment tin prime up bacteria usually recovered successful the vagina
By Soumya Sagar
A transmission electron micrograph of a colony of Gardnerella vaginalis, bacteria that are recovered successful vaginas and the urethras of men who person vaginal sex MOREDUN ANIMAL HEALTH LTD/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The antheral urethra – the conduit done which urine exits the assemblage – is location to an array of bacteria, immoderate of which are astir apt picked up during vaginal sex.
Evelyn Toh astatine the Indiana University School of Medicine and her colleagues swabbed the urethras of 110 men who had nary sexually transmitted infections oregon urethra-related issues. The men, mean property 28, came from a scope of taste and radical backgrounds. Transgender radical weren’t included successful the study.
Of these men, 92 provided swabs with capable levels of bacterial DNA for further analysis.
The detected bacteria could beryllium separated into 2 groups – those that tin unrecorded successful the beingness of oxygen and truthful astir apt dwell adjacent the extremity of the penis, and those that cannot unrecorded erstwhile oxygen is contiguous and truthful astir apt dwell higher up successful the urethra.
The erstwhile radical was recovered successful astir of the men’s swabs and are astir apt autochthonal to the penile urethra, according to the researchers.
The second group, however, was dominated by bacteria that are often disrupted in the information bacterial vaginosis (BV), a communal origin of antithetic vaginal discharge that is thought to travel astir erstwhile the vagina’s microbiome gets retired of sync.
Of the 110 men, 75 identified arsenic heterosexual, 22 arsenic homosexual and 13 arsenic “bisexual oregon other”.
Only the men who reported having vaginal sex had the BV-associated bacteria, specified arsenic Gardnerella vaginalis, suggesting that they acquired them during vaginal sex. These bacteria weren’t associated with oral oregon anal sex.
“The astir important takeaway of our survey is that it establishes a baseline for the flora of a steadfast [penile] urethra,” says co-author David Nelson, besides astatine the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Catriona Bradshaw astatine Monash University successful Melbourne, Australia, says that this survey details the bacterial creation of an infection-free penile urethra, which could service arsenic a baseline to measurement whether a penile microbiome is steadfast oregon infected.
The results besides enactment the proposal that men who person vaginal enactment without a condom whitethorn transportation definite bacteria from 1 pistillate to another, says Erica Plummer astatine Monash University.
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