UROPHILIA: SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, DO YOU NEED TREATMENT? - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The urophilia is a type of sexual practice in which urine is used as a component of erotic play. In general, it is considered a paraphilia, that is, a problem of psychological origin. However, today there is a lot of debate about whether it really is a mental disorder or not.

Urophilia is closely related to other unusual sexual behaviors, such as sadomasochism, domination and humiliation. In addition, it can take different forms. Among them, the most famous is the so-called "golden shower."

In this practice, one of the partners urinates on the other, who takes pleasure in being treated in this way. This fetish can also receive other names, such as urophagia or undinism.

These refer to other practices related to urine. Despite the fact that all of them are far from the usual in sex, they are not always problematic. Therefore, to determine whether these filias can be considered a disorder or not, it is necessary to observe each particular case.

Symptoms

The main symptom of urophilia is sexual attraction to urine or to sexual practices that include it. These can take very different forms depending on the person. Here we will look at some of the most common forms of urophilia.

Golden shower

The "golden shower" is a practice of a person urinating on their sexual partner. In the case of the person receiving the urine, this philia is known as undinism.

The pleasure of this action can be derived from several elements: the feeling of humiliation (which would make it a masochistic practice), the domination by another (extracting the pleasure from submission), or simply the sexual attraction by urination.

In the case of the person who urinates on his partner, in general the pleasure arises from the feeling of power over another individual. Therefore, it is usually related to practices of domination and sadism.

Urophagia

Urophagia is the sexual arousal produced by ingesting the urine of another person. Again, the elements that are usually involved in this practice are humiliation, submission, sadism and domination.

Urolangia

Urolangia would be a broader version of urophilia. It's about getting sexual pleasure from urinating in public, watching someone else do it, or even peeing on yourself.

This version of urophilia can be especially troublesome. This is because it usually involves actions that violate the privacy of other people, or that lead the affected person to break certain rules and laws by urinating in an exhibitionistic manner.

However, having this fantasy does not have to imply that the person is going to carry it out.

Causes

Today, there is no universally accepted explanation for the occurrence of urophilia. However, various disciplines such as psychoanalysis, behaviorism and neuroscience have tried to find the causes.

As a consequence, today there are several theories about what exactly causes urophilia. Next we will see the most important ones.

Psychoanalytic theory

For psychoanalysis, people go through various stages in their psychosexual development in childhood. One of them has to do, precisely, with the control of sphincters and urine.

According to psychoanalysts, a person with urophilia would have been stuck at this stage of childhood development. Thus, instead of advancing to full sexual maturation, she would derive pleasure from urine-related practices alone.

In general, from this explanation, it is considered that urophilia is usually accompanied by coprophilia (sexual arousal by stool). This would occur because both practices have to do with this stage of development.

Behavioral explanation

Cognitive-behavioral psychology considers that most behaviors are learned due to the association of pleasure with them.

Thus, for behaviorists, a urophilic would have had many sexual relations in which urine was involved. Finally, an association between peeing and this type of practice would have formed in his brain.

This association would be formed, according to this branch of psychology, during adult life. Thus, the belief of psychoanalysis is contradicted, which believes that filias arise throughout childhood.

Neurological explanation

Sex is one of the most powerful reinforcements out there. Therefore, it is capable of modifying the neural connections of our brain.

For some people, excess dopamine (the neurotransmitter related to pleasure) can cause more and more extreme behaviors to be needed to feel arousal.

According to this theory, a paraphilic person would have started enjoying traditional sex, but due to an excess of it or the repetition of extreme situations, a kind of addiction would have been generated in his brain.

This addiction would cause the affected person to seek more and more deviant situations than normal. The filia would appear when, due to the tolerance to dopamine in the brain, these extreme practices were the only ones capable of causing pleasure.

Do you need treatment?

Paraphilias, despite being included in diagnostic manuals for mental disorders, generate much controversy among psychological health professionals.

In general, sexual practices should only be considered as diseases if they meet a series of requirements.

The most important of these requirements are two: the cause of some kind of harm to oneself or others, and the inability to enjoy other forms of sex that do not involve filia.

In the case of urophilia, therefore, the only one of the two criteria that could be met in most cases is the second. In general, these practices do not lead to harm to others or to yourself.

However, they can cause an inability to find pleasure in more traditional sexual relationships.

If so, the person affected by urophilia should seek the help of a mental health professional. This may help you redirect your desires so that you can enjoy a fuller and more satisfying sex life.

References

1. "Urophilia and coprophilia" in: Doctissimo. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from Doctissimo: doctissimo.com.
2. "Everything you've always wanted to know about the golden shower" in: Vice. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from Vice: vice.com.
3. "What is urophilia?" in: Current Medicine. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from Current Medicine: actual-medicina.blogspot.com.
4. "Psychoanalytic therapy vs Urophilia" in: Salud 180. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from Salud 180: salud180.com.
5. "Paraphilias: What is urofilia, coprophilia, and salomania?" in: Silvia Olmedo. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from Silvia Olmedo: silviaolmedo.com.