Urophilia: symptoms, causes and treatment

Human sexuality is very varied, being multiple the stimuli that different people may find sexually appetizing. From the most traditional sexual relations through the use of specific clothing, fantasies and role plays or BDSM practices, all of them are practicable and can produce different degrees of pleasure for those who practice them. perform.

However, there are also practices that cause pain or discomfort to the person or that can become compulsive, limiting the functionality of the person who carries them out, and even in some cases it could lead to a crime such as when they are carried out non-consensual practices (not necessarily including intercourse) or with people or entities without the capacity to consent (such as children, animals and corpses).

We are talking about paraphilias. Among them there are some really dangerous, illegal and criminal, while others, although they do not cause suffering to others and do not commit crimes They can cause discomfort to those who suffer from it due to the consideration that what attracts them sexually or the extreme fixation with said stimulation.

One of the latter is urophilia, which we are going to talk about throughout this article.

• Related article: "Affiliates and paraphilias: definition, types and characteristics"

Urophilia as paraphilia

Urophilia is one of the many paraphilic disorders that exist, disorders formerly called disorders of sexual inclination or the choice of the object of desire that are characterized by the presence of sexual fantasies and/or sexual behaviors that have as protagonists unusual objects of desire, generally non-consenting living beings or incapable of consenting or the giving or receiving of pain and humiliation.

For it to be considered as such these fantasies must be continuous and existing for at least six months and generate suffering, discomfort or functional limitations to the people who suffer from them or to their sexual partners. Likewise, the object of desire is usually very restricted, sometimes being the only thing that generates some kind of sexual stimulation for the subject or a requirement to achieve orgasm or sexual arousal.

In the case at hand, that of urophilia, we are dealing with a paraphilia in which the object of desire or the motivator of fantasy and sexual activation is urine or urination. Touching, seeing, hearing or smelling someone urinating or the liquid itself is gratifying for these subjects (urolangia). Generally, subjects with hemophilia are attracted to the idea of ​​urinating on their partner or in that the partner urinates on him (being able to have the own subject a passive or active role in the urination). The idea of ​​swallowing the fluid (urophagia) may also be exciting.

Although socially little accepted, sexual practices linked to urophilia do not usually generate great danger for the people who make them. However, it must be taken into account, however, the existence of a certain danger in this type of practice in regard to the spread of bacterial infections.

Although urophilia is not very common as a paraphilia, it is taken into account as an alteration or disorder. Specifically, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders includes urophilia within the classification of "other specific paraphilic disorders".

Differentiation with eschatological practices

Given this definition of urophilia, it is likely that many people may consider that the fact of maintaining sexual practices in which urinating on top of another or playing with urine therefore implies an alteration or psychopathology. But it is necessary to clarify that this is not the case.

This clarification is very necessary, since there are sexual practices such as scatological ones that although they are not socially well seen or accepted, they do not imply pathology. As with other unusual sexual practices, what is known as golden showers is no more that a way of obtaining sexual gratification through a specific experience or simply to experience.

In other words, the fact of being aroused in a context in which urine participates does not imply the presence of urophilia as paraphilia. We will only consider that we are dealing with a pathology when this practice is the only way to obtain sexual gratification, limit the life of the subject and/or cause discomfort and suffering.

Causes

The causes that generate urophilia are unknown, although There are various interpretations about it.. As with other paraphilias, it is considered that urophilia may have its origin in learning by conditioning, having casually associated sexual arousal with urination and later having strengthened this association with practices such as masturbation.

This explanation may make some sense, especially if we take into account that the genital tract and urinary tracts are very close in women while in men both semen and urine pass through the urethra, sexual arousal can be associated with the sensations produced when urinating.

Another possible explanation has to do with the association made of urine as an element of power. In nature, urine is used in a large number of animals as an element that allows to indicate the ownership of a territory. The sexual arousal before practices of a urophilic type could be linked to this fact, being a game of power or submission. In this sense, there are authors who link urophilia with sadomasochism.

• You may be interested in: "Differences between Love, Sadism, Masochism and Sadomasochism"

Treatment of this paraphilia

When we are talking about urophilia properly speaking, that is, the situation in which sexual arousal is restricted to these practices and its performance generates discomfort, suffering or limitations to oneself or others, psychological intervention may be necessary.

The first thing would be to find out the level of affectation that it supposes for the person involved, what aspects it limits and what thoughts or feelings the object of desire generates. It is necessary to assess where its origin may be and what meaning urine has for the subject in sexual intercourse.

In addition to this, it will be necessary to work as much as possible on possible relationship problems and that may exist comorbidly or may be related to the genesis of the paraphilia. The development of positive links will be worked on and the analysis and modification of fantasies can be sought: recovering the subject's fantasies and assessing what part of them they find exciting, as well as the reason for it. Once said aspect is located, the subject is instructed to introduce alterations in said fantasies at the moment of masturbating.

Another technique that can be used is masturbatory reconditioning, in which the patient is instructed to masturbate in multiple occasions and after that (especially in the refractory period) describe the elements that generate desire sexual. It would be searched in this case make urine not associated with sexual arousal.

But these two examples are techniques that would only make sense if urophilia causes suffering in the patient or limits him or her partner. In this last sense, it may also be more than advisable to go to couples and sexual therapy in order to find a solution. It is also possible that a person discovers that practices such as the golden shower simply like them and for some reason or by social pressure is blocked or inhibited, and cognitive restructuring can be worked on so as not to see oneself as upset or strange.