You Know You Want to Know: Is It Safe to Have Sex in a Pool?

There's something incredibly sensual and natural about the feeling of water on your skin. If you're swimming in a pool with someone special, wearing next to nothing, and maybe sipping down a few cold cocktails to help cool you off, your inhibitions may wash away, increasing the desire to slip off your bathing suit and get hot and heavy. So is it safe to have sex in the pool? Or should you save your naked nookie time for dry land?

Pool sex is not as sexy as it sounds because — sorry to kill the mood — it brings up three not-so-sexy issues. First, can we say ouch?! Pool water (and water in general), washes away a woman's natural lubrication, so while you may be surrounded by wetness, you'll feel completely dry on the inside, which causes the second issue: chemical irritation. Aside from friction making sex painful and causing redness and swelling, keep in mind that while there may be less instance of bacteria because of the use of chlorine or other pool chemicals, those are no good for your sensitive lady parts. Have you ever swam in a chlorinated pool and had the worst red, burning eyes afterward? You don't want any part of that in your vagina.

Then the third and worst issue of all is infection. What if the pool isn't properly treated? Who knows what kind of harmful bacteria (or even fecal matter!) is swimming in the pool with you? Having sex will only push that up where you definitely don't want it. It could lead to painful UTIs, not to mention disrupting the natural pH balance in your vagina can increase the risk for yeast infections, which is the opposite of sexy.

And just to set the facts straight, getting busy underwater will not prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or pregnancy. Since semen and other bodily fluids can still pass from one partner to another, it makes conception or contraction of STDs a very real possibility. You're using a condom, you say? Although in the bedroom condoms are very effective at preventing both pregnancy and the spread of infection, in the water, the lack of natural lubrication can make the condom more likely to break or slip off without realizing it.

Water and sex just don't mix, so the best advice is to save pool time for swimming and foreplay, and step out of the pool if you want to take things to the next level.