There are a plethora of sex toys designed to bring you to orgasm, but precious few devised to get you pregnant. Until now.
Trying to make a baby should be one of the more enjoyable experiences of a couple’s life. Casual sex is fine and all, but sex with a mission can be exhilarating; yes, having sex to make a baby with the person you love can be incredibly hot. But not all couples can conceive this way. There are some who must go the artificial insemination route, via needleless syringes or the good ol’ turkey baster—turning baby-making into more of a chore than a good time. The Semenette changes all that. Perhaps considered more sex toy than medical device, this product is specifically designed to eject fluid—it's a squirting strap-on dildo that promises sexy procreation by mimicking traditional male ejaculation.
Stephanie Berman, creator of The Semenette, was trying to have a child with her wife when she realized how difficult it was for same-sex couples to create a baby in a romantic, loving environment. “Not only do we not have the ability to have intercourse whenever we want to conceive, we have to seek out a sperm donor or sperm bank and figure out a way to deliver the sperm,” says Berman. “It became quickly evident that there were no viable options my wife and I wanted to use.”
Then, inspiration struck. “I had a syringe loaded with sperm and a headlamp on because I wanted to see what I was doing. Imagine your partner wearing a headlamp and coming at you with a syringe. It kind of makes you chuckle because there is nothing sexy about that.”
Can a squirting strap-on really make a baby? Sure enough, Stephanie and her partner were successful in their goal. “After using it twice we got word that my wife had conceived and was pregnant. It was a huge moment for me, the fact that she was actually pregnant and the fact that—holy crap—my cock worked.”
Studies have supported the notion that orgasmic sex can increase the likelihood of conception. In a study published in the Animal Journal, British biologists R. Robin Baker and Mark A. Bellis found “the occurrence and timing of female orgasm in relations to copulation and male ejaculation influenced the number of sperm retained at both the current and next copulation. Orgasms that climaxed at any time between 1 min before the male ejaculated up to 45 min after led to a high level of sperm retention.” This furthered the belief in upsuck theory, which is the hypothesis that orgasmic contractions create a pressure in the uterus which vacuum up the sperm to increase the chances of conception, and served as proof that the female orgasm is more than a myth, and actually serves a purpose in the world of science.
While The Semenette is not the first ejaculating sex toy, it can be argued it's the first one designed to facilitate the use of real sperm in a sterile environment. With interchangeable inner plastic tubing, users don't have to worry about mold growing in a tube they can't see to clean or change out. The same toy that can be used to conceive can also fulfill those kinky desires to have a chocolate syrup facial. If you're into that sort of thing. Additionally, the tubing lies flat against the base for easy harness use. Similar devices in the past have been primarily aimed at novelty use, with a fair amount of users complaining about the inauthentic feel.
It stands to reason that some people might expect the magical baby-making strap-on to be an all-in-one solution, and for those individuals it’s worth noting: sperm not included. “I get the question a lot, does sperm come with the product?” says creator Stephanie Berman. “I want to make it clear we do not provide the sperm, we just offer the toy.” For lesbian couples, the delivery system is just one of the obstacles. “You still have to find sperm, you can go to a sperm bank or a known donor. Sitting down with someone and saying, ‘Hey, will you give me your sperm’ is an awkward conversation. There are pros and cons to having a known donor."
Lesbian couples aren’t the only demographic interested in exploring simulated ejaculation, so now Berma is hard at work (no pun intended) creating a new version of her product to meet the evolving demands. “The kink community and gay men want to squirt a larger amount of fluid, and the bulb I offer currently is on the smaller side. People are looking for more liquid, so I'm striving to meet customer demands.”
It only makes sense that the sex toy industry would leapfrog the medical world to produce a more natural way for a woman to get knocked up outside of traditional means. In the future, some will credit their entire existence to squirting dildos. Personally, I’d rather be the product of passionate lovemaking with a sex toy over clinical insertion with a turkey baster.