Skin Damage, Personal Lubricant Dangers and STIs – Part Two

Personal lubricants safety

Osmolality and Skin Damage from Personal Lubricants

Osmolality appears to be a key factor in regards to the damaging effects of personal lubricants, with higher osmolalities associated with increased susceptibility to infection. As an example, K-Y Warming Jelly has an osmolality thirty times that of the body’s own lubricant and was found to increase transmission of herpes ninefold in the rodents tested compared to unlubricated controls.

Lubricants Damage Epithelial Cells

The cause of such increases may simply be due to epithelial cell damage resulting from changes in the constituents of cells lining the vagina and rectum. Cells are constantly trying to maintain a balance between water, sugar, salts, and proteins and a high osmolality personal lubricant may cause the cells to release water to try to dilute the concentration outside the cells, triggering dehydration of the cells and even their death and sloughing off of cells.

Over time, repeated applications of such lubricants could significantly affect the cells lining the vagina and rectum, weakening the defense against infection.

Skin Cell Shedding with Lubricants

Many personal lubricants are based originally on skin creams that include glycerin and propylene glycol in order to slow evaporation and prevent skin cooling from more water-based products. The problem is that the cells in the skin on the face or on the arms are very different to those found in the vagina or rectum.

Major shedding of cells from the rectum (in humans) was observed just 60-90 minutes after application of ID Glide, a hyperosmolar lubricant similar to Astro­glide and K-Y Jelly. The ethical constraints of testing STI transmission risks on humans means that the search for safe lubricants is now involving monkeys and other animals, alongside cultured human tissues exposed to these products and their components.

Better Personal Lubricants

Preliminary findings appear to support the use of personal lubricants with an osmolality closer to that of the body’s own sexual fluids, such as Sliquid and Good Clean Love’s personal lubricant range. These types of lubricants are based on agar and do not seem to damage tissue samples tested in the laboratory, nor do they appear to increase HIV transmission rates.

Lubricant Use, Vaginal Dysbiosis and Yeast Infections

Another finding was that spermicidal gels and hyperosmolar lubricants seem to kill microbes commonly found in the vagina. As the vagina is self-cleaning and strives to maintain a complex beneficial bacterial population, killing off Lactobacillus and other beneficial organisms could explain why many women report an increased incidence of yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis with consistent use of such lubricants.

K-Y Jelly was seen to kill of all three species of Lactobacillus it was applied to in the laboratory tests. Extrapolating results from the laboratory to real life is, of course, not without problems but such studies provide significant cause for concern over skin health and rates or infection.

Safer Sex

Some researchers are calling for a reformulation of virtually all personal lubricants whereas others are remaining conservative and advising consumers to choose products that have not been seen to cause epithelial cell damage. Going entirely without lubricant may also increase risk of STIs as condoms are more liable to rip or slip off without adequate lubrication.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are currently conducting tests using monkeys, despite ethical concerns and problems extrapolating animal research to humans. The hope is that such research will, however, result in safer sex through improved personal lubricants. In the meantime, make sure to check out the impressive array of vegan-friendly condoms and lubricants at GoodVibes.com.

References

Edward J. Fuchs, Linda A. Lee, Michael S. Torbenson, Teresa L. Parsons, Rahul P. Bakshi, Anita M. Guidos, Richard L. Wahl, and Craig W. Hendrix, Hyperosmolar Sexual Lubricant Causes Epithelial Damage in the Distal Colon: Potential Implication for HIV Transmission, J Infect Dis. (2007) 195(5): 703-710 doi:10.1086/511279.

Charlene S. Dezzutti, Elizabeth R. Brown, Bernard Moncla, Julie Russo, Marilyn Cost, Lin Wang, Kevin Uranker, Ratiya P. Kunjara Na Ayudhya, Kara Pryke, Jim Pickett, Marc-André LeBlanc, Lisa C. Rohan, Is Wetter Better? An Evaluation of Over-the-Counter Personal Lubricants for Safety and Anti-HIV-1 Activity, PloSOne, Published on November 7, 2012. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048328

Pamina M Gorbach, Robert E Weiss, Ross D Cranston, et al, Use of lubricant products is extremely common during receptive anal intercourse (RAI) yet has not been assessed as a risk for acquisition of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Sex Transm Dis 39(1):59-64 (2012), PMID 22183849. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3244680/

Lut Van Damme, Gita Ramjee, Michel Alary, Bea Vuylsteke, Verapol Chandeying, Helen Rees, Pachara Sirivongrangson, Léonard Mukenge Tshibaka, Virginie Ettiègne-Traoré, Charn Uaheowitchai, Salim S Abdool Karim, Benoît Mâsse, Jos Perriëns, Marie Laga, Effectiveness of COL-1492, a nonoxynol-9 vaginal gel, on HIV-1 transmission in female sex workers: a randomised controlled trial, The Lancet, Volume 360, Issue 9338, 28 September 2002, Pages 971–977. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)11079-8/fulltext

Thomas R Moench Russell J Mumper, Timothy E Hoen, Mianmian Sun and Richard A Cone, Microbicide excipients can greatly increase susceptibility to genital herpes transmission in the mouse, BMC Infectious Diseases 2010, 10:331. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2996397/

Jim A. Turpin, Topical microbicides to prevent the transmission of HIV: formulation gaps and challenges, Drug Deliv Transl Res. 2011 June; 1(3): 194–200. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3102847/

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