Ever Wondered How Often People Visit The ER For A Sex Toy Mishap? Well, We Did!

There is a beautiful place on the internet called the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). This magical wonderland has been around for over 45 years and its purpose is to collect data on consumer product-related injuries that occur in the United States. This includes the glorious product code 1610, which is for Massage Devices or Vibrators. You can even narrow down the body part section to Lower Trunk.

Of course, we did some deep diving. Not all Emergency Room submissions in the United States are entered, but there is a lovely, large sample size and from this, an estimated number is worked out.

IFLScience took the data (product code 1610 and lower trunk location) from 2013-2023, ages 18+, and omitted any non-sex-toy-related entries. We then categorized every single entry by the type of toy used (butt plug, cock ring, dildo, vibrator, other, and finally descriptionless – which is when the medical practitioner used a generic “sex toy” description) and the location where the sex toy was found (penis, rectum, urethra, and vagina). Using some statistical analysis we were able to draw some interesting conclusions.

But, oh boy, did this resource give us some juicy details of what happened to different individuals.  

According to this data, a lot of people like to point the blame at other people when things go “wrong” in the bedroom. Like one 39-year-old male whose “girlfriend put a sex toy up there” up there, in this case, meaning his rectum. Or a 45-year-old man who “just got married”, and also got a sex toy stuck inside his rectum. Or one 28-year-old female whose “husband inserted a sex toy in vagina unable to retrieve it”.

There were a lot of leg-crossing accounts. One 72-year-old male “got a metal urethral sounding [inserting objects in the urethra] rod stuck in his penis with only the very end visible at the meatus”. Meatus means an opening in the body, especially one that leads to the outside – ouch!

Thankfully, there were no scary animal-related incidents that you sometimes hear about in urban legends, just a 24-year-old male who “has maggots in penis from using sex toy”. So, wash your toys!

The cases are rising every year

Looking at the data from the last 10 years, there seems to have been a gradual increase in sex toy mishaps.

“Why is there an increase in cases each year?” you may ask.

“Sex toys have become more high-profile in the last decade-plus,” Dr Carol Queen, Good Vibes Staff Sexologist and author of The Sex & Pleasure Book, told IFLScience. According to Queen, there are a few reasons for this. 

The normalization of sex and eliminating taboos 

In recent years, there has been a trend from influencers and celebrities who are openly promoting and marketing sex toys as “health and wellbeing” items. This has, as a consequence, led to a shift in views, where these objects are now being framed as part of a healthy and affluent lifestyle. 

This new level of acceptance in society marks a significant contrast to the past, even to the decades within living memory. As Queen explained, “when I started working at Good Vibes in 1990, women’s magazines wanted to write about vibrators – but editors wouldn’t allow toys to be shown! In Cosmo, can you imagine?”

Better technology 

The sex toy industry has been growing in leaps and bounds, with more and more tech-inspired or women-designed toys landing on the market. This has helped make them more appealing to the general public. Innovations in material science (like medical grade silicone) have created a safer and more comfortable feel for the person. Smart designs have meant that orgasm data is easier to track and can produce better toys. These designs also allow different types of stimulation and create a bigger battery size for a longer-lasting experience.  

Accessibility to products

Upscale toys are no longer sold just in sex shops. In the old days, many consumers knew little about the brands they chose – now those brands are so high-profile that they have their own websites. The boom of the internet has opened up the world even further. With a quick click of a button, you are able to search hundreds if not thousands of products and easily filter depending on if you want a buzz, bang, or a wallop!

When they were largely underground items they were not only harder to find, they were harder to work up the nerve to buy and try. For many people […], those days are gone.

Dr Carol Queen

“This higher profile means that more people might want to explore toys and what they can do to support pleasure, orgasm, etc,” Queen suggested. “When they were largely underground items they were not only harder to find, they were harder to work up the nerve to buy and try. For many people […], those days are gone.” 

Which gender goes to the ER the most?

In the database we investigated, there were three classes of gender: male, female, and non-binary. When you combine all of the data over the last 10 years, it shows that the percentage of males going to the Emergency Room was higher than females, which was similar from 1995 to 2006.  

This data combined the people aged 18 and over (we discounted under 18’s in this data set) across all years. When we separated this data even further, we saw an interesting story.

It seems like females peaked at younger ages, actually beating the males in being admitted to the ER room aged between ages 18-37, after which there was a rapid decline. In the males, there seems to be more of a steady number of incidents throughout the ages, although they seemed to decrease after 67.  

There is much to unpack here. So, we spoke to Dr Sarah Johns, a reader in evolutionary anthropology at the University of Kent, who is the first author of a scientific paper about what drives sex toy popularity.

Men are more likely to engage in paraphilic sexual behaviours of all types and take more sexual risks (or at least express an interest in doing so).

Dr Sarah Johns

“Men are more likely to engage in paraphilic sexual behaviours of all types and take more sexual risks (or at least express an interest in doing so),” Johns told IFLScience. “Therefore, I’m unsurprised that men of all ages engage in dangerous or risky activities, including using unsafe objects for sexual stimulation.”

“Yes, they could buy a safe sex toy, but the novelty or taboo of using a ‘risky’ object might be part of the arousal. This type of behaviour declines in older men due to health issues or age-related declines in sexual interest. For women, I’d suggest that lack of openness and shame around female masturbation may lead some younger women to use unsafe objects for stimulation, and that this experimentation declines with age as women become more comfortable with their bodies and can access the sex toy market online.”

What is the sex toy that is “stuck” the most?

We trawled through all the data entries and determined that there were a few categories that kept popping up: butt plugs, cock rings, dildos, vibrators, descriptionless sex toys (when the entry only said sex toy), and “other” (which were toys that were mentioned once or twice).

The overall winner of the most “stuckable” sex toy is the vibrator. Typically, these toys do not have a flared base, and therein lies the issue.

Sex toy type	Count
Vibrator	282
Descriptionless sex toy	158
Dildo	139
Cock ring	105
Butt plug	95
Other	62

What is the most common hole to lose items in?

With a whopping 69.5 percent over the 10-year sample cases (really no comment on this), the majority of the mishaps were a pain in the arse, literally – as rectums came up on top. Coming up second, were vaginas at 16.5 percent, followed by penis injuries at 12.1 percent. 

This data has been repeated many times throughout the years and what we have found concurs with those results.   

It’s like people run around the house to find objects to use! NOT safe!

Dr Carol Queen

“First let me say that this isn’t about the toy. If you do that search again and don’t specify that it’s a sex toy that gets stuck, you’ll see that there are LOTS of things that Emergency Room personnel are removing from rectums. (It’s like people run around the house to find objects to use! NOT safe!),” said Queen. 

There are a few reasons as to why people may be having a hard time with losing things up their rectums and it is mainly the lack of education.

“Practically no sex ed covers anal penetration, so people don’t know how to do it correctly. I’ve been teaching workshops on this topic for nearly 30 years but only those ‘in the know’ learn about them,” said Queen. “Anal play is pretty high-profile culturally, compared to the past when it was more or less unspeakable, so people get curious about it – and frequently, as I said, do it wrong.”

One of the reasons why this part of the body comes out on top compared to the vagina is due to the anatomy. It is much easier to get things caught in the anus because of the sphincter. Also, vaginas are more shallow (like a cul de sac) and don’t extend as far as the rectum does. 

What is the killer combination?

The simple answer is vibrators and rectums, with a whopping 157 people over the 10-year period (18.6 percent) getting this winning combination in the data set.

“[In terms of vibrators] People assume there’s no real difference between using them anally and vaginally (in fact, we don’t even recommend vibes as primarily vaginal toys! They are by far more effective on the clitoris and head of the penis. But there’s hardly a mention of the clitoris in sex ed either),” Queen explained. 

“The sensation of vibration is pleasurable AND relaxing. So it’s an ideal type of toy for anal play, helping to relax the tight sphincter. But there are vibes designed for safe anal insertion, and the rest are not safe. If someone shops at a store like Good Vibes, they’ll be told about this. But in many cases, people just don’t know and have never been taught anal safety info. (Which, needless to say, is not the same as ’Don’t do it’).” 

How can people use sex toys safely?

When partaking in sexy times, it is understandable that no one would want to end up sitting very awkwardly in the Emergency Room. There are ways to make your bedroom fun and safe, and it all starts with education.

“I suppose it’s too much to ask to wish that anal play and toy safety in general was part of sex education. That would really be the solution – that, or that people would understand that they need to educate themselves for optimal pleasure and safety not only when using toys, but during sex in general. There IS good information out there,” Queen added.  

It is not just a personal educational discovery that people need to be on, there are ways that society, in general, can take up the slack. Such as making safe sexual activities less taboo, which will allow people to encounter even more safety information. 

If there is one thing that this article has impounded onto you, it should be to have a fun and consensual (if with a partner) sexual discovery, but make sure you learn about how to be safe. You do not want to be an anonymous statistic next year that makes people wince.