Playing Doctors and Nurses: Medical Fetish and How to Do it

Read about the author Alice Hunter

Medical fetishism varies from the extreme fringes of the kink world to the simple enjoyment of your sexual partner dressing up in uniform. Where does this niche sexual interest come from, and how can one come to feel comfortable with it?

As with so much of our sexuality, experiences in our past with power, powerlessness, fear and trust intermingle with figures of authority, aid and comfort. There are few people who have never experienced the medical profession in one way or another. Often, this stays as an unerotic memory, but for others, it filters into the subconscious and becomes inexorably linked with sex and arousal.

Image credit Instagram profiles: Models: @official.belleohara @misueevee @effiediazx Photography: @sbglamourphotos – used with permission

For the novice, how can one enter into this fantasy world?

Perhaps your partner has expressed an interest in medical play. Perhaps you, yourself, have an inkling that certain costume, scenarios or procedures are stimulating. What is safe to do, and how can we replicate experiences that we aren’t skilled to perform safely?

1. Make sure you are familiar with the real medical history of your play partner. Do they have an allergy to latex? Any underlying conditions? Are they diabetic? Do you know what you need to do if anything starts to go wrong?
2. Set the scene – perhaps you are the doctor or nurse visiting your patient at home in their sick bed, to care for them. Perhaps a more surgical, clinical environment is needed? Finding genuine medical venues that such play can take place is nearly impossible, but there are some niche venues which cater for ‘medfet’ and are already decked out, perhaps with a hospital bed, examination stirrups or a dentist chair. You’ll need to book in advance, and it is certainly not something that everywhere caters to. Alternatively, you can buy some props and supplies online, to embellish what you have at home. Medical privacy screens, a surgical bench, white linen sheets and food on trays should get you halfway there.
3. Look the part- from the latex nurse costume to real surgical scrubs, there are a huge number of options available online to help you dress up. These looks are often all about a few key accessories, and it can be easy to spice up a very normal looking uniform with some touches like fishnet stockings, heels, surgical gloves or a face-covering surgical mask. These items are easy enough to buy online, though for more elaborate costume there are niche medical fetish companies who can deliver discretely to your door.
4. Having already established with your play partner what the scene is going to involve, consider what equipment you will need. Some is very expensive and hard to source, some is quite cheap. Most items are designed to be single use.
5. Consider what aspects of the scene can be performed safely without the need for special skills or equipment – things like performing a bed bath, inspecting your ‘patient’s’ skin, asking them personal questions and writing down notes, checking their pulse and looking in their eyes and down their throat can be done without any accessories. You can ask them to strip naked and thoroughly examine their genitals and anus. You can use a pinwheel to test their skin sensation. Perhaps you need to test their arousal response?
6. Consider what items you can use safely. A pulse oximeter (it goes on the finger) is inexpensive, as is a manual sphygmomanometer (blood pressure machine). You might not be able to read it properly or make sense of it, but you are unlikely to do your play partner much damage. There are thermometers that go in the ear, under the tongue, in the rectum or on the forehead. These accessories can be utilised many times and can form the bulk of your time during your medical fetish scene. You can use a stethoscope to listen to their chest and breathing, purchase urine dipsticks and ask them to give you a sample in a cup to test. You can check their reflexes with a small reflex hammer. Use a light to look into their ears. Perform a prostate exam. Comment, make notes, ask them to cough or yawn and look at them with a serious, concerned care.
7. If you are doing anything invasive (using an item that enters your partner’s body, whether through an orifice or otherwise) you run the risk of causing them an infection. If you are not trained in how to carry out aseptic technique, you can reduce the risks by doing the following:

• Use single use pre-packaged sterile items and dispose of them safely afterwards
• Use sterile gloves and don’t touch anything else with them before or during use of the item
• Ensure you have thoroughly washed your hands just before use
• Use alcohol gel immediately before and make sure you and your partner have showered first and that all the surroundings are clean
• Have a sanitised place to put items down (a clean baking tray cooked in the oven with tin foil wrapped around it on the highest heat for two hours should present a reasonably sanitised surface – not medically clean, but better than nothing).
• Clean the area you are going to ‘perform’ your activity with an alcohol swab, unless it is a sensitive area like the mouth or genitals, in which case clean it with sterile saline pods and sterile gauze first.
• Change your gloves again after!

Always Safety First

Consider how you can replicate things that present more risk, if they are crucial to the scene. An injection can be simulated by showing them a syringe and simply pinching the skin hard, provided they can’t see you do it. A ventilation mask can be purchased but not connected up to anything (just room air).

Mitigate risk of components that are vital for the scene by learning how to use them correctly, as well as the risks and potential side effects. Medical fetish is not an area in which one should be capricious. There are a few common fetishes which do have some risks:

Enemas: These can be purchased from a pharmacy and create an explosive bowel movement. They can also be done with warm water and a kit, bag or douche. Though generally suited for home use, they can have risks so read up well on the item you’ve chosen to use well before you begin. Use lubricant to insert the end, go slowly and carefully. From a practical perspective, ensure you’ve put down a towel and that the toilet is free.
Entox/gas: You are extremely unlikely to be able to source the gas needed for this legally, and if you could it is not suitable to use without proper medical supervision. As an alternative, you could buy special breath play devices and learn about their safe use, which will give a different but not entirely dissimilar effect.
Castration: This is a recurring fantasy for many, who will usually have no idea how it got started. Obviously, you are not going to slice your partner’s testicles off. Instead, this can be replicated theatrically with a little forethought. Use a surgical drape and ensure they can’t see the exact area. Use ice all around the area until it is completely numb. Wave a scalpel around in the air, talk them through the imaginary procedure as you pretend to do it, and present them with a carefully crafted substitute to see (perhaps two pickled onions?)
Restraints: From straight jackets to bed restraints, this is a popular element. Ensure the circulation remains good to the extremities and that your play partner can signal somehow if they need to be released.

These all require medical training and should be avoided

• Injections
• Cervical Penetration
• Catherisation
• Sutures

What if something goes wrong?

If in doubt, don’t do it. Lots of fun can be had talking about it, saying you are going to do it, looking at the equipment, pretending to do it, and actually doing nothing. If something does still go wrong, have a plan. It will definitely not be the first time the emergency room has seen something similar. For bleeding or bruising, apply continuous firm pressure to the area and have something cold to hand to put on it. Have some dressings to hand (it also matches the scene, right?) and monitor any areas where you’ve played for signs of infection, such as redness, heat or excessive pain. At the first sign of trouble, seek real medical assistance. If you have given your ‘patient’ a tough session, they may feel light-headed, faint or dizzy afterwards. This can be from pain, adrenaline or just too much excitement. Make sure they are lying down safely on their side, get them a glass of water and stay with them. Sometimes a 15 minute cuddle works wonders.

Why should I try it?

If you have a lingering wish to explore medical fetishism, you want to enable your partner’s fantasies, or you want to add a new string to your bow of sexual or kink prowess, then experimenting with this role play in a way that feels safe, fun and comfortable to both of you is a completely natural expansion of your repertoire. Though this is a ‘kink’ that can run into the realms of the very extreme, there is no need to pursue it to that degree unless you wish to. Simply exploring the dynamics and aesthetics of the situation is 90% of the game. From the naughty nursey to the heroic fireman, uniforms and professional roles have always held a wide appeal for our sexual subconscious. Being cared for?

Well – that’s just always had universal appeal.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended as medical or professional guidance on any of the acts described, and is designed only to serve as a brief introduction to some of the possibilities, risks and considerations. You are advised to seek additional appropriate information and training in any and all of the acts suggested herein before attempting them yourself . Neither the author of this article nor Jo Divine or its affiliates accept any liability for harm caused by attempted enactments of scenarios suggested.