Doctors have revealed Americans’ biggest bedroom problems, some of which put thousands of people in the hospital each year.
Experts at telehealth company Hims asked more than 7,000 Americans about their sex lives and preferred bedroom habits.
As three in four said they wanted to explore different trends, respondents revealed which trends they were most interested in trying.
One of the most popular and risky was objectophilia, which involves being sexually attracted to inanimate objects. For many, this means inserting foreign objects into the anus or vagina to achieve orgasm.
Recent research shows that nearly 4,000 Americans are taken to the emergency room each year for having these objects stuck in their rectum, including sex toys like vibrators; others have opted for bottles, drugs and even weapons and live animals.
Depending on how large or sharp the object is, improper insertion can lead to tears in the rectal wall, infections, and intestinal blockages.
Foot fetishes, role-playing, and cuckolding (the act of watching one’s partner have sex with another person) also made the list of habits Americans are most curious about.
The findings come as the United States faces a “sexual recession,” with recent studies suggesting that more than one in three young people have not had a sexual partner in the past year.
A Hims survey revealed the most popular sexual problems in the United States (file image)
Researchers at the University of Rochester, New York, found that men were more likely than women to arrive at the hospital with a foreign object lodged in their rectum. They suggested, however, that this could be due to reporting bias, because women were less likely to put non-sexual objects in their rectum, reducing the chances of their case being recorded.
In Hims’ survey, one in 15 participants expressed interest in objectophilia,
The team wrote: “Oral sex, anal sex, and other types of sexual experience with objects can be a great way to find new sexual pleasure.”
However, the researchers suggested using objects with a widened base, as this prevents them from becoming lodged in the anus.
While placing an object in the rectum may be safe, the practice has caused thousands of injuries each year in the United States.
An analysis by researchers at the University of Rochester in New York, for example, found that nearly 40,000 Americans were hospitalized between 2012 and 2021, the equivalent of nearly 4,000 per year.
Men accounted for nearly eight in 10 cases, with the most common group being men in their 20s and 30s, who accounted for a third of all emergency visits.
They found that bottles, jars or bottle caps were the most common non-sexual devices found stuck in people’s rectums, accounting for 10 percent of cases.
They were followed by drugs, five percent, and a ball or marble, three percent.
Other objects detected were described as “writing implements,” or 2.3 percent, which may include pens, markers and crayons.
In an extreme case from 2022, an 88-year-old man in France shut down his local hospital when he arrived at the emergency room with a World War I artillery shell in his anus.
He claimed he slipped and fell.
An 88-year-old Frenchman shut down a hospital in Toulon in 2022 when he arrived at the emergency department with a twenty-inch World War I artillery shell in his anus.
The researchers also found that one in three participants were interested in role-playing with their partner.
Additionally, the survey revealed that 31 percent of respondents had role-playing on their list of things to try with their partner.
The team said this included situations with power dynamics, such as pretending to be teacher and student.
Another 17 percent were interested in dominant-submissive relationships, in which one person takes control during sex. BDSM may also fit into this category, the researchers said.
Meanwhile, another 17 percent chose sexual voyeurism, or wanting to watch others have sexual exchanges without their knowledge.
At least 12 percent of participants said they wanted to explore digital sex work or use a platform like Onlyfans to sell or pay for content. And one in 10 showed interest in cuckolding, which is when one member of the couple watches the other “cheat” with another person.
Foot fetishes, “sugar” relationships and polyamory were also among the most popular perversions.