Why some people ‘glue together’ during sex

Recently, the international media were
awash with the story of an Italian couple
whose genitals got stuck together during
sex in the waters of a Porto San Giorgio
beach in Italy. The duo remained locked
until a woman with a towel came and
helped the pair walk to the shore where a
medic, called by beachgoers, brought
them to a local hospital before they could
be separated.
Despite the fact that this incident sounds
like a scene from a trashy pornographic
comedy, stories of couples getting stuck
during sex are real.
Though it seemed logically impossible and
downright outlandish, a handful of
couples have been reported to have gotten
‘glued together’ during sexual intercourse.
Such cases have been recorded in Kenya,
Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Although many couples may experience
problems after sex such as migraines,
heart problems and even memory loss, the
penis getting stuck into the vagina during
intercourse, especially in the missionary
position, is one that has lived with man
for a while. Medically referred to as penis
capitvus, this condition has occurred in a
handful of people over the years.
The Kenyan incident in 2012 supposedly
occurred after the husband paid a visit to
a witch doctor after suspecting that his
wife was having an affair. The media
reported that the man’s wife and her lover
regained their liberty after prayers and
after the lover promised to pay the
husband 20,000 Kenyan shillings.
Last year, the Zimbabwean media reported
that a woman was bringing a law case
against her long-term boyfriend for
putting “runyoka” on her - a fidelity spell
that caused her to get stuck in her lover.
She was said to be demanding
compensation from the jealous boyfriend
“for humiliating her and trying to control
how she should use her private part.”
Among the Yoruba of South-Western
Nigeria, it is a belief that by the powers of
a supernatural potion, magun, an
adulterous woman can be stuck with her
partner during sex after which the man
vomits and dies.
Interestingly, this situation dates as far
back as the 18th century. Dr F. Kräupl
Taylor in a review of medical publications
in the British Medical Journal in 1979,
indicated that two cases were published
by nineteenth-century German
gynaecologists, Scanzoni (1870) and
Hildebrandt (1872). They had personally
dealt with this unusual problem after sex.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, indicated
that Scanzoni’s patient was “a completely
healthy young woman, married for six
months.” She and her husband had to
abstain from sexual intercourse because
her intense vaginal contractions were
“most painful to him and ... did on several
occasions end in a spasm ... which
sometimes lasted more than 10 minutes
and made it impossible for the couple to
separate.”
Hildebrandt’s patient had been married for
about a year. Sexual intercourse with her
husband had always been painless until
one particular evening. Hildebrandt
reported that just at the moment when he
thought intercourse, which had been quite
normal till then, had come to an end, he
suddenly felt that he was held back deep
in the vagina, tightly gripped and
imprisoned, while his whole penis was in
the vagina.
All attempts at withdrawal failed. When he
forced the attempts, he caused severe pain
to himself and his wife. Bathed in
perspiration through agitation, alarm and
his failure to free himself, he was finally
forced to resign himself to waiting in
patience. He could not say how many
minutes this lasted, his imprisonment
seemed endless. Minutes after, the
hindrance vanished and he was free.
In spite of its occasional occurrence, Dr
Augustine Takure, a consultant urologist,
University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan,
Oyo State, stated that penis captivus is
commoner in animals like dogs and
stories of its incidence in humans were
yet to be substantiated.
“In my practice as a medical doctor for 25
years, I have not seen any case of penile
captivus; I don’t know if others have seen
anything like that,” he added.
But Dr Takure, citing a reported case of a
couple that had intercourse but could not
be separated in the United State of
America, said penile captivus usually
might not last up to five minutes.
“The British Medical Journal early in the
1980s reported a couple found stuck after
sexual intercourse. They were both taken
to the hospital and the woman was given
anesthetic drug before the man was freed.
It is a rare condition in men because of
the background of sexual intercourse in
man which is totally different from what is
in animals,” he said.
Dr Tahure said penis captivus should not
be confused with Magun. “Magun simply
means do not mate. The moment the man
makes an attempt to have sex, he
stumbles and then he starts vomiting all
sorts of things. That is the essence of
magun, but they do not get stuck
together. That is not the essence of
magun,” he added.
However, he said manifestations of magun
are dependent on its constitution. “A form
of magun in Ikire, Osun State, will make
the man to suddenly develop a
progressive pot belly that is painful. While
working in the area, I attended to a case
that I thought was due to an abdominal
obstruction. At the operating theatre,
nothing was found. Many of such men end
up dying.”
Dr Takure, however, explained that penis
captivus could have occurred when the
penis is within the vagina and then, the
muscles of the vagina clamp down on the
penis much more firmly than usual.
While psychologically, some men may feel
they are “stuck” with their sexual partner,
experts suggest that both need to relax
and take the focus off the intercourse and
anything sexy. This allows blood to leave
the penis, so that he can withdraw more
easily. Her pelvic floor muscles will also
relax so as not to clench the shaft.