Urolagnia (also urophilia, and, more colloquially, a golden shower or watersports) is a paraphilia in which sexual excitement is associated with the sight or thought of urine or urination. The term has origins in the Greek language (from, 'urine', and , 'lust'). Golden shower is slang for the practice of urinating on another person for sexual pleasure, while watersports is the more inclusive term. However, Urophilia is not exclusively associated with sexual excitement

Overview

Urolagnia is an inclination to derive sexual satisfaction from the vision or idea of urination. It is a paraphilia. During the activity, urine may be consumed or the person may bathe in it. Other variations include arousal from wetting or seeing someone else urinate in their pants or underclothes, or wetting the bed. Other forms of urolagnia may involve a tendency to be sexually aroused by smelling urine-soaked clothing or body parts. In many cases, a strong correlation or conditioning arises between urine smell or sight, and the sexual act. For some individuals the phenomenon may include a diaper fetish and/or arousal from infantilism. The Japanese practice of omorashi, arousal from having a full bladder or a sexual attraction to someone else experiencing the discomfort or pain of a full bladder, possibly a sadomasochistic inclination, is sometimes considered part of urolagnia.

Common variations

Frequency

A 2007 study counted members of Internet discussion groups with the word fetish in their name; of the groups about body parts or features, 9% belonged to groups about body fluids (including but not limited to urolagnia.) Jennifer Eve Rehor of San Francisco State University points out that such data as exists on what she calls "unconventional" or "kink" sexual behavior is generally problematic because of the way that it has been collected, through criminal and clinical case studies. Behavior that appears neither in criminal trials nor in clinical studies (for example, because the individuals concerned do not commonly seek professional help) is therefore under-reported. Rehor therefore surveyed 1,764 female participants in "kink" behavior (mostly association with BDSM) in 2010–11, receiving 1,580 valid responses. What Rehor calls "urine play" is relatively infrequent, with only 36.52% of her sample reporting having done it or having had it done to them. In contrast, 93.99% of her sample reported having done spanking or having had it done to them, and 61.96% reported having used or been exposed to feathers/fur. It is impossible to extrapolate Rehor's data onto the general population, as the habits of the general population are different than participants in “kink", but her study does give a guide to prevalence in the North American BDSM community. In Channel 4's 2017 nationwide Great British Sex survey, watersports (meaning urolagnia) was ranked ninth in popularity among sexual fetishes in the United Kingdom.

In media

A table in Larry Townsend's The Leatherman's Handbook II (the 1983 second edition; the 1972 first edition did not include this list) which is generally considered authoritative states that a yellow handkerchief is a symbol for urolagnia in the handkerchief code, which is employed usually among gay male casual-sex seekers or BDSM practitioners in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Wearing the handkerchief on the left indicates the top, dominant, or active partner; on the right indicates the bottom, submissive, or passive partner. However, negotiation with a prospective partner remains important because, as Townsend noted, people may wear hankies of any color "only because the idea of the hankie turns them on" or "may not even know what it means". Sex scenes depicted by Bill Schmeling routinely involve BDSM with an emphasis on bodily fluids, including urolagnia. Another notable artist that depicted urolagnia was Touko Laaksonen ("Tom of Finland").

In psychiatry

The DSM-III-R (1987) version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) renamed atypical paraphilia to paraphilia NOS (not otherwise specified), and provided seven nonexhaustive examples of NOS paraphilias, which included urolagnia. Other specified paraphilic disorder is the term currently used by the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to refer to any of the many other paraphilic disorders that are not explicitly named in the manual, including urolagnia. In order to be diagnosable, the interest must be recurrent and intense, present for at least six months, and cause marked distress or impairment in important areas of functioning. When a specific paraphilic disorder cannot be identified or the clinician chooses not to specify it for some other reason, the unspecified paraphilic disorder diagnosis may be used instead. Paraphilias such as urolagnia have been described as fetishes. On 18 June 2018, the WHO (World Health Organization) published ICD-11, in which Fetishism is now removed as a psychiatric diagnosis. Moreover, discrimination against fetish-having (and BDSM) individuals is considered inconsistent with human rights principles endorsed by the United Nations and The World Health Organization.

Physical health

The World Health Organization has found that the pathogens contained in urine rarely pose a health risk. However, it does caution that in areas where Schistosoma haematobium, a parasitic flatworm, is prevalent, it can be transmitted from person to person.

Notable cases