D.VICE Sex Q & A. My partner seems to be allergic to every type of lube, help.

My partner doesn’t produce much of her own natural lubrication but gets very turned on, do many women experience this?

Question;

My partner is very sensitive and seems to get an allergic reaction to every type of lubricant available and some vibrators. What would you recommend for us to try? Also, she doesn’t produce much of her own natural lubrication but gets very turned on, do many women experience this?

D.VICE Sexpert Replies;

A lot of women do not have a lot of natural lubrication and I think it is important to be aware that lubrication isn’t the only physical thing that happens when a woman is aroused. A lot of things can affect how much natural lubrication a woman produces.
Some of the those things are things she can change, such a hydrating more or drinking more water, and some of them are affected by hormonal levels and even stress, even being a little bit unwell. Contraceptive pills can really affect natural lubrication too.

Many women actually take a while to actually start producing natural lubrication, so she may not fully lubricate until after her first orgasm, most women (even if they haven't discovered it yet, can have multiple orgasms, many, more than one.

Using lube is a good idea, have lube there at any time so that you can just reach for it, it takes the pressure off as her and as well and makes all kinds of sex, including penetrative play, much more pleasurable, so then if you do find that you’re allergic to lubricants then well, what a pain.
Having a fantastic sexual experience and then developing a thrush type reaction which is really irritating.

One of the reasons for this is that a lot of lubricants contain chemicals, parabens and sugars, some of them are natural sugars that upset the pH balance of the vagina which is quite sensitive.
Diet can affect the pH as well, so your partner may need to kind of look at whether she is eating too many acidic fruits or too much sugar.

Changing the lube to something that’s totally natural is really important. We have many lubes that are hypo- allergenic. One brand is Probe which is a lube  we’ve been stocking for a long time. Probe does still contain some glycerine which some women do have allergic reactions to, so if you’ve tried that you could also try Astroglide paraben glycerine free or the sensitive skin. I do not recommend the organic lubes if she is super sensitive as some people react to the natural plant based elements as well!

The other thing to look at is if you are using condoms is if you are allergic to latex because a lot of people are allergic to latex too. And there are non-latex condoms available.

 With vibrators is that there is no regulation about what vibrators are made from and it is a totally self regulated industry and what that means is that there are mass produced vibrators made from quite cheap materials, so it’s really important to get a really good quality vibrator and if you are prone to allergies, using a medical grade silicone vibrator is basically your only option and luckily there’s a fantastic range of these vibrators available.
The Fun Factory range of vibrators, which we have a good selection of, would definitely be a good choice of  vibrator, most of these are rechargeable, waterproof, low noise and powerful they are made from medical grade silicone, are super hygienic and easy to clean and great for sensitive skin.

Other good brands for sensitive skin are We-Vibe, Lelo and Swan.