Sex Tech: Using Stem Cells for Sexual Enhancement

The 20th and 21st centuries have shown revolutionary advances in terms of changing views on sex and sexuality. As people opened their minds to different approaches towards pleasure, connection, and all things having to do with sex, technology started to reflect that. This spurred the development of all sorts of innovative sex toys and tools from vibrators to kegel exercisers to butt plugs. We’ve even seen medical advances and treatments that can help increase people’s pleasure. 

The incredible thing about sex tech is that it expands accessibility so that more people can have tools to help them experience sexual pleasure. It also helps to normalize conversations around pleasure and sexual health, which is vital for helping to close the orgasm gap and destigmatize sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

But back to sex tech.  Are there really treatments you can undergo to help you enhance your sex life and feel more pleasure? You bet! Case in point – stem cells. 

What Are Stems Cells

You’ve probably heard of medical professionals using stem cells for healing things like spinal cord injuries, heart disease, cancer, and type 1 diabetes, but what exactly are they? Stem cells are like the base or standard cells in your body. They have the ability to develop into many different types of cells. Stem cells are different from other cells in that they are unspecialized (they don’t have specific functions), they have the potential to become specialized cells like brain or blood cells, and they divide and renew themselves over a long time.

The adaptability of stem cells means that their use has been revolutionary for the treatment of many different diseases and health issues. So what does that have to do with sex tech?

Stem Cell Treatment for Sexual Pleasure

Stem cells aren’t just used for treating diseases, they can also be used to help boost and optimize human function – even in your sex life. This falls in the category of “regenerative medicine”, which is using medical technology to repair, regrow, rejuvenate, or replace diseased or damaged cells, tissues, and organs. 

This technology is starting to be used to help enhance sexual pleasure and treat dysfunctions like low sex drive and energy levels. The goal of stem cell therapy is to encourage the body’s natural healing and regenerative properties. Treatment helps to increase blood flow to the genitals since a lack of blood flow can make sex painful or unenjoyable.

In most genital rejuvenation therapies, the stem cells are collected from the patient’s own blood, through a process called “PRP” or platelet-rich plasma. This is done by isolating and collecting plasma that is rich in specific proteins, then injecting it into the treatment area.

Why do people lose genital blood flow in the first place? All sorts of things can cause scar tissue and/or interfere with blood flow like birth and birth injuries, other injuries, and menopause. 

Risks of Stem Cell Therapy

Since this is still such a new technology, it’s hard to tell just what its potential short and long-term side effects of it might be. That being said, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns against undergoing stem cell therapies that are not regulated or medically necessary.

Some safety concerns are the cells failing to work as expected, reactions at the site of administration, and the growth of tumors. These risks are relatively low for therapies used from the patient’s own stem cells, like genital rejuvenation therapies. 

Other Options for Sexual Enhancement

It’s important to point out that stem cell treatment is used to treat “sexual arousal disorder”, which is when the desire to have sex is present, but physical blocks keep people from doing so. This is compared to “sexual desire disorder”, which is where the desire for sex is absent or complicated. Stem cells might seem like an extreme treatment. It’s great that people have options, but there are quite a few other steps you can take before undergoing a treatment like this, or in addition to it. When it comes to increasing your sexual pleasure you may also want to:

• Increase your communication with your partner.
• Masturbate with or without sex toys.
• See a medical provider that can help with any undiagnosed conditions that can interfere with your sex life like vulvodynia or endometriosis.
• Use self-care tools like meditation and breathwork. 
• Pelvic floor physical therapy.
• Hormone replacement therapy, especially for those who are menopausal.
• See a therapist or counselor who can help you talk through specific blocks you have around pleasure and sex, and give you practical tools to navigate them.
• See a specialist who can provide services like sexological bodywork.

It’s amazing to see how medical and sex tech advancements are helping people who might otherwise be left in the dark when it comes to their sexual pleasure. While stem cell therapy might not be for everyone, it does help you see that there are options out there and that conversations are being had around increasing female sexual pleasure. Yay for sex tech!