Spit, swallow, or...

January 18, 2012 9:49 AM

Swallowing almost made me vomit. Why, and how can I not? [NSFW]

Right, so recently when swallowing (after fill-in-the-blank) I almost immediately almost vomited. It took great effort to not vomit. My mouth got dry, my saliva got very thin feeling, and I was gagging. The only other time I've had this reaction is when I was taking strong antibiotics that I had to take on an empty stomach -- every time I took them my mouth would get really dry and would get super nauseous. The reaction for both of these things is seconds, not minutes, so I'm really unsure if this is a physical or psychological reaction.

When taking the antibiotics, the only way I could keep them down by the end of the month was to have a bite or two of something like a muffin with them. Is there something that could be causing my body to immediately reject cum like its enzyme content?

Physically, I have a slightly sensitive stomach -- I don't eat meat because it gives me a stomach ache. But that is usually a while-digesting issue, not a while-eating issue.

Has anyone experienced this? What could be the reason? Some Googling led to inconclusive answers. What can I do so I don't start gagging when I swallow?

posted by DoubleLune to grab bag (15 answers total)

I had an ex who would stick her finger down her throat before giving oral. It would apparently get the gag reflex out of the way and keep her from nearly vomiting later.

But really, why swallow? I've met a lot of women who focus on this, but never met a guy who cared either way.
posted by coolguymichael at 10:02 AM on January 18

Have you done this on other occasions without any issues? With the same partner?

Had your partner consumed anything unusual recently? The taste of semen can be affected by food, smoking, and other factors. Texture and volume can be affected by hydration and the time elapsed since his last ejaculation. If any of these were unusual then it might have triggered a different response on your part.

One approach would be to simply perform an experiment to determine what, exactly, is triggering the nausea (i.e. testing the smell, taste, and consumption separately, with and without accompanying oral sex).
posted by Sockenpuppe at 10:09 AM on January 18

Do you have any idea whether it could be a flavor or viscosity thing? The pill connection and your description make it sound like your difficulty is simply with the act of swallowing, which seems like a physiological problem. Once the gag reflex gets going, any swallowing can be much harder.

Adding that you can skip it. I figured out that it was giving me wicked heartburn (I, too wondered if it was proteins or enzymes or something) and finally decided it didn't matter why, I should just skip the swallowing.
posted by ldthomps at 10:12 AM on January 18 [1 favorite]

As a guy, I could really care less whether or not the girl swallowed after (generally my mindset is still, that was awesome at that point). The only downside to not doing so from my perspective is the whole running out of the room to spit it in the sink or wherever, which isn't very romantic.

If you don't want to do it, don't do it. Guys are not going to complain after a bj.
posted by BobbyDigital at 10:13 AM on January 18 [1 favorite]

why swallow?
Well, because I was asked to... So I'd like to because he likes it.

The act of swallowing is what triggered the gag reflex, and it hasn't happened when there's less... quantity. But I don't have a large personal data sample to go off of here so I don't know if it was a one-time thing or not.
posted by DoubleLune at 10:20 AM on January 18

Could be a texture thing. I know that viscous foods can make me gag. The dry mouth and thin saliva sounds like symptoms of nausea. You could eat some crackers or something before hand, as you said taking the tablets on an empty stomach made you nauseous.

You might have been feeling off anyway because of something else and this was like the straw that broke the camels back. Maybe keep a tissue handy next time or 2 for a quick spit it out when he's not looking (if you are worried) until you get your grove back.
posted by wwax at 10:35 AM on January 18

Almost sounds like a mild vasovagal response, not a gag reflex.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:42 AM on January 18

As others have said, if you don't want to swallow, don't swallow.

>As a guy, I could really care less whether or not the girl swallowed...

As a guy, I'll just say that having my wife swallow after a BJ is a major fantasy of mine. She's done it, she doesn't like it, and we've found other ways to conclude a BJ that are almost as nice, but...yeah, for some of us, swallowing is a pretty big deal. That said, the OP should stay within her comfort zone, and if swallowing puts her outside of that, moving down the shaft just prior to ejaculation and licking the frenulum during ejaculation is also a very nice thing to do for your guy.
posted by plowhand at 11:09 AM on January 18 [4 favorites]

Eh, sometimes this just happens. Like, maybe your gag reflex had been uncomfortably jostled more than usual, or, maybe you were in a position that tilted the contents of your stomach in the wrong direction, or maybe the angle or quantity of ejaculation happened to catch you off guard. It's not that uncommon to get momentarily grossed out by the mental or physical residue of a sexual experience.
posted by hermitosis at 11:58 AM on January 18 [2 favorites]

yeah, what hermitosis said. I wouldn't over think it. In fact I'd avoid thinking about it very much so as to not further associate the two.
posted by the young rope-rider at 12:26 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]

People gag and get nauseated unexpectedly a lot, especially people with sensitive gag reflexes. Don't try to overthink this; see if it goes better next time. (And have a towel or something within reach to spit into in case it doesn't.)

My guess is that this was probably just a passing blip on your body's radar. But just in case it wasn't:

For many people with sensitive gag reflexes, the thing coolmichaelguy's friend chose to do would be EXACTLY the wrong thing. It's far more common that purposefully triggering a gag reflex will result in gagging the next time rather than that it will "reboot" the gag reflex, as it seems to have for coolmichaelguy's friend. So I honestly wouldn't recommend experimenting with that.

Something I have heard from sex workers and porn performers, but haven't tried so can't vouch for personally, is that gargling with a solution of three or four aspirin in a glass of warm water can help suppress the gag reflex.

You might think about rethinking your technique until you see if your gagging/nausea issues have died down. Instead of deep-throating, what many professional sex workers do (per interviews with some very successful Nevada professionals) is a fake-deep-throating technique where you spit generously on your hand, hold it to your mouth and then use hand and mouth as a unit to work the shaft.

(I say the above as someone whose esophageal peristalsis and gag reflex are all messed up, and who has had to think of a lot of anti-nausea strategies in lots of situations, though I've been fortunate that it hasn't happened to affect me with oral sex.)
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:40 PM on January 18

I can open cans of cat food with no problem most of the time, but one day I was feeling a little off and I vomited immediately upon opening the can and smelling the food. It could be just a once off.
posted by Joe Chip at 1:15 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]

I'd recommend trying squeezing your left thumb and see if it works for you.
It recently helped me during the part before the swallowing ;-) YMMV
posted by FreezBoy at 4:24 PM on January 18 [2 favorites]

and check for pregnancy if reasonable
posted by the young rope-rider at 7:15 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]

Are you able to chug drinks (e.g. beer, or even just water)? The anatomy of my esophagus/surrounding structures is kind of weird, so it's really painful and uncomfortable for me to swallow a lot of anything quickly, or even to swallow repeatedly/rapidly. If I force myself to, I get nauseous. Any truth to that for you?
posted by telegraph at 8:02 PM on January 18