Human sexuality is very varied , being multiple the stimuli that different people may find sexually appealing. From the most traditional sexual relations to the use of specific clothing, fantasies and role-playing or BDSM practices, all of them are practicable and can produce different degrees of pleasure for those who engage in them.

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 could become a crime such as when nonconsensual practices are carried out (not necessarily including intercourse) or with persons or entities without the capacity to consent (such as children, animals, and corpses).

We’re talking about paraphilias. Among them there are some really dangerous, illegal and criminal, while others, although they do not generate suffering to others and do not incur in crime, can generate discomfort to those who suffer from it due to the consideration of what is sexually attractive to them or to the extreme fixation with such stimulation. One of the latter is urophilia , which we will talk about throughout this article.

Urophilia as a paraphilia

Urophilia is one of the many paraphilic disorders that exist, alterations formerly called disorders of sexual inclination or of the choice of the object of desire that are characterized by the presence of sexual fantasies and/or sexual behaviors that have as their protagonists unusual objects of desire, generally living beings that do not consent or do not have the capacity to consent or the fact of providing or receiving pain and humiliation.

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 person who suffers them or their sexual partners. Likewise, the object of desire is usually very restricted, sometimes being the only thing that generates some type of sexual stimulation for the subject or a requirement to achieve orgasm or sexual excitement.

In this case, urophilia, we are dealing with a paraphilia in which the object of desire or the motivating factor of fantasy and sexual activation is urine or the fact of urinating . Touching, seeing, hearing or smelling someone urinating or the liquid itself is rewarding for these subjects (urolangia). Subjects with hemophilia are usually attracted to the idea of urinating on top of their partner or having their partner urinate on top of them (the subject himself may play a passive or active role in urination). The idea of ingesting the fluid (urophagia) may also be arousing.

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

Although urophilia is not very common as a paraphilia, it is considered 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 scatological practices

Given this definition of urophilia, it is likely that many people may consider that having sexual practices in which they urinate on top of each other or play 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, given that there are sexual practices such as scatological practices that although not socially well seen or accepted do not imply pathology . As with other unusual sexual practices, the so-called golden shower is nothing more than a way of obtaining sexual gratification through a specific experience or simply by experimenting.

In other words, getting aroused in a context involving urine does not imply the presence of urophilia as a paraphilia. We will only consider that we are before a pathology when this practice supposes the only means to obtain sexual gratification , limits the life of the subject and/or generates discomfort and suffering.

Causes

The causes that generate urophilia are unknown, although there are various interpretations of this . As with other paraphilias, it is considered that urophilia may have its origin in learning by conditioning, sexual arousal having been casually associated with the act of urinating and subsequently having strengthened this association with practices such as masturbation.

This explanation may make some sense, especially if we take into account that the genital and urinary tracts are very close in women, while in men both semen and urine pass through the urethra, and sexual excitement may 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 to signal ownership of a territory. Sexual arousal in the face of urophilic-type practices could be linked to this fact, being a game of power or submission. In this sense, there are authors who link urophilia with sadomasochism.

Treatment of this paraphilia

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

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

In addition, it will be necessary to work as much as possible on possible couple and sexual problems that may exist in a comorbid way or that may be related to the genesis of 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 are exciting for him/her, as well as the reason for it. Once this aspect is located, the subject is instructed to introduce changes in these fantasies at the time of masturbation.

Another technique that can be used is masturbatory reconditioning, in which the patient is instructed to masturbate on multiple occasions and then (especially during the refractory period) describe the elements that generate sexual desire. In this case the aim is to ensure that urine is not associated with sexual excitement .

But these two examples are techniques that would only make sense if urophilia causes suffering in the patient or limits him or his partner. In the latter case, it may also be more than advisable to go to couples and sexual therapy in order to find a solution. It is also possible for a person to discover that practices such as golden rain simply please him and for some reason or due to social pressure he blocks or inhibits himself, and may work on cognitive restructuring so as not to see himself as disturbed or strange.