Many kinksters (and a lot of vanilla folks, too!) started their sensual explorations with the very simple game of “playing doctor” as kids. When you’re an adult, playing doctor becomes much more complicated. Medical play is a sophisticated, advanced form of BDSM, but along with its pleasures, it has unique risks. Mistress Morgan Sterling has loved doing medical play as both sub and domme for over twenty years; this weekend, she’s coming to Stockroom University to share her love and her skills with interested students. We talked with her about why she enjoys medical play herself, and what newcomers have to keep in mind to do it safely and pleasurably.
So, this Saturday, Stockroom University students get a course in playing doctor. Can you tell me a little bit about the curriculum and the format of the class is?
Sure. The first thing I’m going to talk about is what medical play is all about. Medical play is really all about fantasy and about roleplay: nurse stations, asylums, dentist and patient, things like that. That’s how most medical play starts out. So I’m going to talk about the different type of roleplay; I’m also going to go over the different kinds of roleplay that’s usually done as part of those scenes. So exams, enemas, dental play, cupping, casting, needle play, urethral play, scalpels, suture play, saline infusion and electric stimulation. All of those can be used as part of a medical scene.
We’re also gonna talk about negotiations of a medical scene and the psychology of a medical scene. The next thing we will discuss is the setup of a medical play scenario: What the room should look like, what kind of equipment you need to have ready. All of that will work into the roleplay and also into the headspace of your play partner.
We’re also going to talk about safe and unsafe practices, first aid if something goes wrong, and also at the end, we will talk about aftercare following a medical scene. During the demo, we will talk about the different medical instruments used in roleplay, we will look at medical restraints and how those can be used.
You mentioned negotiation. What do you need to be especially aware of when negotiating a medical play scene?
Well, the first thing I want to know is whether the person that I’m going to be playing with is actually experienced in medical play. And if they are, what kind of medical play they’re experienced in. Because for a lot of people, medical play is mostly fantasy and they have not done a lot of enema play or needle play or urethral play or anything like that. I need to know their experience level so I can structure the play to what they’re going to be able to handle. They need to have realistic expectations about what we’re going to do together.
A lot of men have the fantasy of either a mock castration or a real castration. It is not something I’m going to do with them, and they need to understand that.
You won’t do a mock castration, you said?
No I will not, not unless we have played together several times and they really understand what they’re getting into. Mock castration usually involves either gluing the genitals or suturing. Suturing is a very edgy, extreme kind of medical play that most people are not prepared for.
How long have you been doing medical play and what got you first into it?
I’ve been doing medical play as a top for about ten years. I have had medical play done on me for over twenty years.
For a lot of people, medical play is a play of fantasy. I am a true medical fetishist. It started because as a child, I was hospitalized. So a lot of the procedures that were done on me in the hospital, I’ve been able to fetishize and repeat in play. A lot of that has been cathartic for me, because basically that kind of play was a place of fear. When it was finally done on me, I was able to overcome that fear and sexualize that kind of play.
What kind of scenarios do you personally enjoy?
The scenarios I love now as a top are nurse station play — that can always be a lot of fun. It can be taken in a lot of different directions. It can be as simple as costuming for an examination and maybe a little prostate massage and things like that. Or it can be taken to an extreme such as suturing, sounds, urethral play, enemas, whatever the heart desires.
Administering enemas is one of my favorite activities, as well as sounding, so I really enjoy incorporating that into nurse-patient play.
My other favorite scenario is asylum: Capturing the victim and playing out the role of their tormentor — someone who is going to perform experiments on them. Basically consensual non-consent play. They will be bound and restrained to some kind of a bed, possibly have a straitjacket put on them. And then I will take over and do suction, or cupping, or any number of things. Electro-play works well in those scenarios.
I also enjoy mommy-little boy roleplay, in which the little boy decides to stay home because he’s not feeling well, and mommy realizes that he’s really faking it. So what she does is she punishes him with an enema. It can be a lot of fun.
As you said, this can be a really edgy kind of play that has a lot of differences between what people fantasize and what’s really going to happen. When someone’s first trying out medical play, what are the first things you would tell them about safety?
They truly need to understand their limits. I don’t like to push limits in the very beginning. One of the safest things to do is temperature-taking and enema play. So they can experience that without too many safety concerns. Other kinds of play can be a lot edgier, such as needles, which require sterilization or a clean environment. Also, sterile gloves and sharps containers. Basically what they need to know before they engage in that kind of play as a bottom they need to be able to communicate to the top if they are on any kind of blood thinners so if there is going to be blood, that the top is aware that there may be excessive bleeding. Just keeping things sterile is very important.
How do you go about sterilizing equipment and the playspace?
Well, I use MadaCide to clean the playspace. I’ll show that in the class. It kills most bacteria, including hepatitis bacteria, which is very very important. So that would sterilize the space. Sterilizing equipment: enema nozzles, enema bags, and those kind of things can be washed with soap and water. If that is not sufficient, they can be soaked in bleach, which is more than sufficient to kill most viruses.
For metal toys — things like sounds, anything that’s going to be inserted — need to be put in a sterilizer before they can be used. Just boiling them or just wiping them down with alcohol is not sufficient. If someone does not have a sterilizer, they can soak them in bleach or use MadaCide. MadaCide has to be wiped off or washed off after use because it has a carcinogenic agent in it that has be removed before the item can come in contact with the body.
So what is a sterilizer? Like an autoclave?
It’s an autoclave, yes.
So when you’re first getting into medical play, what kind of gear would you recommend that someone have on hand? What’s your basic kit for medical play?
I think in the very beginning, what they will need is gloves — and the gloves do not to be sterile. They will also need some kind of water-based lubricant and I recommend they start with enema equipment only. So they will need an enema bag and nozzles. I would say that will be sufficient for someone just starting out with medical play. As they get more familiar, if they want to progress, they will need to find a mentor who can introduce them to sounding, urethral play, and those kinds of things. Sounds can be purchased from The Stockroom. They need to be good quality, they need to be surgical-grade stainless steel.
What’s the difference between surgical-grade stainless steel and any other kind?
They are smoother than all other kinds. They’re not porous and they’re not abrasive. Since sounds are going to enter the urethra, they need to be as smooth as possible, so there are no abrasions on the inside of the urethra.
You’ve mentioned catheter and urethra play a few times. How do you start out with that kind of play?
Sounding can be incredibly pleasurable to the bottom. That is really the goal: to make sounding absolutely not painful and very, very pleasurable. How you start out sounding someone is you need to have someone experienced do it. You never push sounds; you always allow sounds to drop. There is always ample amounts of lube on the sound and inside the urethra so that the sound can glide.
What kind of lube would you use for that?
It’s called Steri-Lube. It is sterile, so it’s not regular toy lube that we normally use for insertable toys. This lube can be purchased from The Stockroom or other sources online. [Note: The Stockroom currently carries Surgilube sterile lubricant.]
What do you look for — or watch out for to avoid — when you’re trying to buy quality medical play gear?
I would say that anything like an enema nozzle, sounds, anything else, they need to be completely smooth. So usually on enema nozzles, there will be a seam because they’re molded. That seam needs to be filed down so that when the toy is inserted, it does not cause any abrasions. I look for the smoothest possible toys; I look for toys of high quality which are non-porous and non-reactive to the body.
Medical Play With Mistress Morgan Sterling
April 2, 2016
2-5 PM, $20
Stockroom Hall
2811 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles
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