The world is chock-full of urban legends. They can be scary, mysterious, or even hilarious. However, they’re just legends, so they can’t possibly be true, right?
As it turns out, these urban legends are actually 100% true. Interestingly, a lot of them are about sex—if this doesn’t make you uneasy about sleeping with somebody, we don’t know what will.
#10. People Have Actually Gotten Stuck During Sex.
While this nightmarish scenario might be the last thing any couple wants to experience, it unfortunately has happened multiple times in the past. According to medical journals, penis captivus (yes, it’s as painful as it sounds) involves intense spasms that can cause a woman’s vagina to clamp down on her partner’s penis during intercourse. As the man’s penis is usually engorged at this point, withdrawing becomes painful and nearly impossible. Luckily (kind of), penis captivus usually only lasts for a few seconds.
As of this writing, there is no legitimate scientific explanation for what causes the spasms behind penis captivus, though some blame witchcraft or consider it a punishment for the couple engaging in an illicit affair. Both of these are pure superstitions, however.
It’s an incredibly rare condition—only a handful of alleged incidents have ever been recorded. However, it might simply be massively underreported—as we can see from the video above, which details an alleged case of penis captivus from Nairobi in 2012, any such incident is bound to trigger an uproar and waves of sensationalism.
#9. A Girl Became Pregnant After Performing Oral Sex.
A story about a girl getting pregnant after performing oral sex on her boyfriend initially sounds like the stuff that urban legends are made of. In the case of a 15-year-old girl from Zimbabwe, however, it actually happened.
Recorded in the 1988 edition of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the incident occurred after the girl had been stabbed in the stomach by a former lover who caught her in the oral act with another man. Doctors at the hospital discovered that the wound opened up a hole her stomach near the rest of her abdominal cavity. They stitched both holes up and discharged her.
After 278 days, however, she returned to the hospital complaining of abdominal pain. Upon evaluating her, the doctors were surprised to discover two things: She had no vagina (merely a dimple instead), and she was carrying a full-term infant. A cesarean operation had to be performed to deliver the baby.
Since no vagina obviously means no traditional pregnancy, doctors concluded that the child had to have been formed by the sperm escaping from her stomach via stab wound and settling down in her reproductive area. Coupled with the absence of gastric acid during the initial operation, doctors believe that is what could have allowed this extraordinary pregnancy to occur.
#8. There Is A Pill That Can Cause An Orgasm.
Most side effects of drugs are dangerous, deadly, and just plain not fun. However, drugs like clomipramine prove that not all side effects are bad. The drug, which is supposed to be used as an antidepressant, has been shown to cause orgasms among patients who yawn after taking it. One woman even testified that she continued taking the drug long after it cured her of her depression.
As of this writing, scientists are still unsure how yawning could cause a drug—one proven to decrease libido, no less—to trigger an orgasm. In addition, not everyone experiences clomipramine’s orgasmic effects. In fact, it is estimated that only 5 percent of total patients can get an orgasm this way.
Besides the huge odds, people still have to contend with the myriad side effects commonly found in antidepressants, such as nausea, erectile dysfunction, and even hallucinations. In addition, not all patients who experience drug-induced orgasms have enjoyed the experience. One man even reported that he had to wear a condom everyday just to avoid smearing his pants.
#7. A Woman Used A Deer Tongue For Sexual Stimulation.
Although humans have been using bizarre objects as sex toys for thousands of years, this incident takes the cake. Recorded in the 1990 edition of the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, the scientifically-titled “Xenolingual Autoeroticism” detailed how a dead deer tongue became stuck inside the vagina of a 29-year-old woman after she used it as a sex toy. During a trip to an abortion clinic, the woman had complained of missing her period, and also mentioned an unpleasant smell in her genital area. Tests revealed that a foreign object had become lodged in her vagina. Only after it was extracted and examined further did the attending physician discover that the foreign object was actually the tongue of a dead deer.
#6. Women Can Become Pregnant While Already Pregnant.
It sounds impossible for a woman to get pregnant while already pregnant. However, while this is extremely rare, it actually has happened before.
“Superfetation” occurs when a woman still experiences ovulation even after becoming pregnant. Subsequent sexual intercourse results in the fertilization of that second egg, which would then attach itself to the lining of the womb. Although many animals experience superfetation commonly enough, it is a very seldom occurrence among humans—medical literature has recorded fewer than a dozen cases in all of history.
So far, medical experts have not discovered exactly how or why a woman’s body could possibly continue ovulation during a pregnancy. For now, their main concern is that any second fetus is very likely to be born anywhere from several weeks to many months premature.
#5. A Contest To Have The Most Babies Was Real.
Although we’d like to believe that no woman in her right mind would possibly join a contest to give birth to the most offspring, one lawyer succeeded in convincing the ladies of an entire city to do just that for a full decade.
Charles Vance Millar—a wealthy Toronto bachelor and an irrepressible practical joker—stipulated in his will that he would award a large portion of his huge estate to the woman who could give birth to the most number of babies within a 10-year period. His death on October 31, 1926 sparked Toronto’s Great Stork Derby, which lasted until 1936. During this time, several women got extremely busy in an attempt to claim the prize.
In the end, four women received $125,000—a tremendous sum for that time—for making nine babies each. Two women actually produced 10 children, but both were disqualified for legal reasons. One woman suffered two stillborn infants (only live births were counted), while another had several children out of wedlock (unless specifically outlined otherwise by the will’s author, Toronto law only allowed legitimate children to be included in a will). The women received $12,500 each as consolation prizes.
#4. Too Much Sex Can Make You Go Blind.
We’ve all heard the old wives’ tale that masturbation can cause hairy palms or make people go blind. While the former is blatantly untrue, the latter could unnervingly be very real.
A 66-year-old man found that out the hard way when he complained of temporarily going blind whenever he would orgasm. Bizarrely enough, he only experienced this condition during sex, and never while doing other strenuous activities.
Medical experts later found out that his condition was caused by a temporary loss of vision known as “transient monocular blindness.” Initially, doctors blamed embolism for causing the blindness—later on, they discovered the culprit to be vasoconstriction. In other words, the man’s orgasms actually restricted the blood supply to his eyes during sex, causing them to briefly not work.
Fortunately for the man, his condition was not debilitating and could be treated with vasodilating drugs that worked to widen the eyes’ blood vessels.
#3. A Man Stapled His Severed Scrotum Back Together.
Although we have to give credit to this man for having the guts to staple his severed scrotum back onto his body, we have to point out that it was his own fault to begin with.
The 40-year-old machine shop worker had a habit of masturbating near a running canvas drive-belt during his lunch breaks—an activity that we will never recommend to anyone. During one such session, his scrotum got caught in the drive-belt, which tore his left testis to shreds and even sent him flying several feet.
Most men in such a sticky situation would probably scream and assume the fetal position in total agony. This man, however, simply closed his wound with eight heavy-duty staples and went on to finish his shift. He did not even seek medical help, only going to the hospital a week later after developing a fever thanks to the resulting infection. Initially, he blamed his condition on a vague work-related accident. Finally, though, he was forced to confess the real—and utterly humiliating—reason for his wound.
#2. Male Lactation Is Possible.
Contrary to popular belief that lactation is a purely female function, men have also been documented as capable of producing milk and even breastfeeding.
In the late 1890s, Prussian scientist Alexander von Humboldt observed several instances of male lactation. He encountered a man who breast-fed his baby after his wife became sick, and noted missionaries to Brazil who would substitute for their wives who had “shriveled breasts.” Prisoners languishing in German and Japanese camps during World War II were also reported to spontaneously produce milk on their own.
Researchers believe some men can lactate due to a rise in prolactin—the hormone which is also responsible for female lactation. Certain drugs and disorders can affect the male pituitary gland and cause it to release more prolactin than usual. Some scientists have also pointed to manual stimulation as sufficient enough to cause lactation.
Author and scientist Jared Diamond added that male breastfeeding can be very useful in modern times, since many women now have their own careers to worry about aside from simply taking care of the family.
#1. People Are Getting Deliberately Infected With HIV.
This is one story we truly wish was just an urban legend. Unfortunately, the trend of being deliberately infected with HIV is all too real.
Known as “bug chasing,” this practice pertains to a person deliberately attempting to have sex with an HIV-positive individual so they too can be infected with the virus. HIV patients who have sex with “chasers” are known as “gift-givers.”
It is still unclear why people would deliberately infect themselves. Some possible reasons might be a desire to fit in, a sick sense of thrill seeking, or simple gross ignorance of the disease’s horrible realities. One man even claimed that he wanted to acquire HIV so that he could finally enjoy sex without having to worry about whether he’d catch the virus or not.
AIDS activists and experts have denounced the trend as nothing more than glorified self-harm, and they are currently trying to spread the message that there is absolutely no legitimate reason for anybody to intentionally infect themselves with the virus.
