Mammalian Smegma
In healthy animals, smegma helps clean and lubricate the genitals. In veterinary medicine, analysis of this smegma is sometimes used for detection of urinary infections, such as trichomoniasis. Some have recommended periodic cleaning of male genitals to improve the health of the animal.
Human Smegma
Both males and females produce smegma. In males, smegma is produced and accumulates under the foreskin; in females it collects around the clitoris and in the folds of the labia minora.
Smegma is invisible, noticeable as a smooth or moist texture until it is allowed to accumulate, when it takes on its characteristic texture and appearance described in many texts as "cheesy". Since smegma tends to accumulate under the foreskin in males, its presence is less common and less noticeable in circumcised males.
The subpreputial moisture keeps the glans moist and may lubricate the movement of the foreskin. However, if allowed to accumulate and decay in the foreskin cavity it can provide an ideal medium for potentially pathogenic bacteria to colonise; current medical opinion is that allowing smegma to accumulate freely is unhealthy. Accumulation of smegma can cause or aggravate a variety of irritations known as balanitis. Early medical studies such as those by Plaut (1947), and Heins (1958) claimed that smegma accumulation led to the development of penile cancer, but the American Cancer Society states that more recent studies have disagreed .
Preventing accumulation is best done by rinsing the area with warm water. In females, the hood of the clitoris can be gently pulled back to wash away accumulated smegma. Some argue that soap is best avoided because it depletes natural skin oils and may cause non-specific dermatitis . In addition, vaginal deodorants that are sometimes used to combat unwanted odors can be harmful, as they tend to upset the normal balance of bacteria in the vaginal cavity. This can in turn upset the pH of the vagina . Noticeably unpleasant odours can be an indicator of a potentially serious medical problem, and deodorant sprays or washes may hide this condition.
Smegma has become part of the pro- and anti-circumcision movements, with those in favor of routine infant circumcisions citing improved hygiene by avoiding odorous or harmful buildup, and those opposed citing the usefulness of smegma, which is generally lost to circumcisions. Medical opinion is split on the matter.
Smegma in popular culture
- The word "smegma" is one of the most popular words searched for on the World Wide Web. According to a report of the DICT development group , which runs dictionary servers on the Internet, in a several-month period in which over 3 million requests for definitions of words were submitted to their servers, of 100,000 words requested and found in their dictionaries, "smegma" was number 180 in frequency or popularity, i.e. it was in the upper one-fifth of one percent in popularity.
- "Smegma" is one of relatively few words in the English language that have this "__gma" structure: others are magma, bregma, stigma, zeugma, pragma, sigma, enigma, and dogma. It is also one of the few English words referring to aspects of human genitalia that are ultimately of Greek form and origin, rather than Latin.
- One Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch featured a character called "Mrs. B. J. Smegma".
- On their comedy album How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, The Firesign Theatre referred to immigrants who came "from little towns with strange names like Smegma, Spasmodic, Frog, and the far-flung Isles of Langerhans".
- In Red Dwarf, a popular British sci-fi sitcom, a common insult/adjective used was "smeg", apparently derived from smegma, although the creators Grant Naylor claim this is merely a coincidence. The etymology of the slang term "smeg" (outside of Red Dwarf) has been directly traced back to the scientific term "smegma".
- Richard Cheese of "Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine", a jazz/lounge cover group, also refers in slang to "smegma" in his pseudonym—"Richard Cheese" can be shortened to "dick cheese".
- In The Bad Art Collection by Jhonen Vasquez, an intermediary panel, presumably from the Point of view of the author, reads "Can't you see I'm sick?! Help me!! I'm not really happy!! My mind is turning into smegma!"
- In the book The Goal, written by Eliyahu Goldratt, the model name for the processing machine that causes the major prodution bottleneck that challenges the book's main character, Alex Rogo, was originally named the SMEGMA-NCX10 (the audio version of the book lists the original name). The name was edited down to "NCX-10" as to not raise further controversy.
- In the English language, slang terms for smegma tend to focus on its alleged resemblance (and similar smell) to a dairy product, hence helmet-dale, bell-end brie, organzola, dick cheese, knobcheese, cottage shaft cheese, dick butter, shaft yogurt, bell cheese, bell cheddar, man cheese, helmet cheese, and fumunda(from-under) cheese. This association is echoed in the German slang words Pimmelkäse and Nillekäs (or Nillekehs), whilst in the Philippines, the term kupal is used, and the Japanese say chinko shigoto; the literal translation being dick job.
- In the 1981 film "The Road Warrior"(aka "Mad Max 2"), starring Mel Gibson, the "Smegma Crazies" are one part of the "Humungus's" army. (Another part is called the "Gayboy Berserkers").
- The Progressive rock band Phish also refers to smegma in their song "Stash" found on the Picture of Nectar album.
- Characters appearing in Irvine Welsh novels refer to smegma numerous times, often guessing or assuming that a disliked character has a cheesy dick.
- Smegma is sometimes known in the vernacular as "headcheese."