The following letter was received from Shreveport, Louisiana:
QUESTION: How can a male determine whether or not he is circumcised? I am not sure about myself.
ANSWER: Buy the John Lennon-Yoko Ono album. Neither John nor Yoko is circumcised.
QUESTION: First, my current female companion thoroughly enjoys my uncircumcised penis (it’s the first she encountered, she said) which has prompted me to abandon plans to have the foreskin lopped off. We both find it pretty groovy for her to play with, which she does for long periods.
Therefore, we both disagree with the observations of your “assistant” that the shot of John Lennon’s uncircumcised penis is ugly, thereby implying that all uncircumcised peni are ugly.
Now the problem: We both engage in oral stimulation in our frequent sexual relations, and as much as I hate to admit it, my chick complains sometimes about the “smell” caused by the presence of my foreskin. I think the medical term for the substance formed under the foreskin is smegma, right? (right) I wash under there as carefully and as often as I can to combat this, but it’s a real drag for me to jump up from our play and rush to the bathroom to rinse off my penis to kill the smell and then run back. You can imagine how this would cool off things.
What can I do? If I wash ahead of time, everything is OK, but I don’t always know when we are going to swing together and can’t plan so far ahead. I’ve suggested going ahead with the circumcision, but my chick is against it. Besides, I’ve been told by my doctor that a circumcision takes about 10 days to two weeks to heal and can be pretty painful during the first 5 days, especially if one gets an erection.
ANSWER: Maybe you’ve discovered one of the original causes for circumcision. Smegma is also suspected as a cause for cancer of the cervix, a disease seldom found in Jewish women (at least those married to Jewish men.)
QUESTION: I was very worried by your article about the girl who died as the result of receiving a literal blow job.
Since the age of 14 I have been an expert at vaginal farting. By pulling in with my vaginal muscles, air is sucked up then by pushing out, the air is emitted in nicely controlled farts.
It is especially enjoyable during a playful bout of cunnilingus. I blow out while my partner tries to blow in—we both win half the time.
But now I don’t dare suck air in, although it is often uncontrollable during intercourse. Please let me know how safe it would be to continue these activities. They are very tension relieving…
ANSWER: If your partner wins, you may lose. Forcing air into the vagina or other body parts might cause an air embolism with fatal results.
QUESTION: I’ve been told all the sperm is ejected after the first ejaculation. After that, the story goes, one may have another orgasm, or several, but for 36 hours or so, he won’t be able to father a child.
If I could do it with a rubber at night and without it in the morning, I’d be happy.
ANSWER: I hope you read this soon. The amount of sperm does decrease with each subsequent orgasm during a fixed period of time (say 48 hours) but you can certainly impregnate your friend(s) each and every time. The average emission of semen may contain 500 million spermatozoa and each one could conceivably cause a girl to conceive.
QUESTION: I have a question that is very important for me to learn the answer. When a boy is eating me what should I do?
ANSWER: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you…
QUESTION: Would you please discuss in your column the possibility of contracting VD by oral-genital contact cunnilingus or fellatio? What are the symptoms?
Can a sore throat indicate oral VD? I had a slightly sore throat (not painful) for several days and am uncertain if this was the sign of a slight cold (or flu) or the fact that I had oral-genital contact a week or so previously. I had no other symptoms.
ANSWER: The most commonly encountered venereal disease is gonorrhea which is usually transmitted through vaginal or anal intercourse. Gonorrhea of the mouth is theoretically possible but I have never yet met a physician who has ever confirmed such a case. I called all the VD clinics in San Francisco to check this.
The first stage of syphilis is a chancre or small, usually painless ulcer appearing anywhere sexual contact has been made. If the- chancre is on the penis or vulva, oral-genital contact could transmit syphilis and this does seem to be well confirmed by medical experience.
DEAR DR. HIPPOCRATES is a collection of letters and answers published by Grove Press. $5.00.
Dr. Schoenfeld welcomes your questions. Write to him c/o P.O. Box 9002, Berkeley Calif. 94719.