Wearing a butt plug can be an exciting prospect, and sometimes you may find yourself wanting to do it more and more. Or perhaps you’re a complete beginner and have no idea how long you’re supposed to wear one.
In this article we’re going to go through the ins and outs of wearing plugs, for ten minutes or even ten hours!
2-3 Hours: The Typical Guidelines
When trying to find out how long you can wear your new best friend, the most obvious place to start is the advice of the manufacturer. Some people also like to ask medical professionals, for more “scientific” advice.
Both of these parties tend to be quite conservative, as they don’t want you to hurt yourself. They will say something along the lines of:
“You should gradually work up to wearing your butt plug for longer periods. Start with a few minutes, and as you become more comfortable wear it for longer and longer periods. Do not wear a plug for longer than about 2-3 hours.”
In general, our advice here at Loveplugs is the same. This is because the inside of your anus is a very sensitive area.
Applying pressure to your sphincter and the walls of your anus can reduce the blood flow to all of these areas, which can lead to damage or even ulcers. The inside of the rectum is also an area with no pain receptors, so sometimes even if something is wrong, you might not realise.
Of course, both manufacturers and doctors tend to be quite conservative with their advice. They don’t want to be blamed if you hurt yourself after all! A quick online search though will reveal that many users wear their plugs for much, much longer.
We’ll reiterate, we generally don’t advise this. But we do feel that it’s important to discuss what could happen, and when you can or can’t wear your plug.
Can You Wear Your Butt Plug While Sleeping?
The first question that always comes up is whether or not you can wear it while you’re asleep.
Again, you’ll find loads of stories from people who claim to wear their plugs every single night in bed. However, when you are asleep at night, the pain receptors within your body will shut down. This means that if anything does go wrong, you might not even find out about it till morning.
To add to this, while you’re asleep you will be unconscious. You won’t even feel the butt plug, and depending on the size might not even know that it’s there. Why take a risk when you can easily put the plug back in when you wake up?
“We do not recommend wearing your butt plug while you sleep.”
Can You Wear Your Butt Plug While Pregnant?
Another common concern about when you can wear butt plugs is whether or not you can use them while pregnant. Traditional sex itself can be quite uncomfortable, so some women turn to anal instead to satisfy their sexual cravings.
So can you use butt plugs while pregnant?
“If it’s a low-risk pregnancy and there are no health related problems, using butt plugs shouldn’t cause any problems.”
The key here is the “low-risk” part. There are several different things women can experience during pregnancy that may make using butt plugs ill advised.
Most importantly, you should never use butt plugs if you suffer from placenta previa. This is a condition where the placenta sits much lower than normal in the womb. By using a butt plug, you can damage the placenta which can lead to heavy bleeding and damage. Most doctors recommend avoiding sexual activity completely if you suffer from placenta previa.
More commonly though, the main considerations will be things like constipation, hemorrhoids, or simple germs. While some women can use their plugs while suffering these things and have no problems, for others it can make things much worse.
The best advice is always to talk to your doctor. Be open and honest with them, they’ve seen it all before. If they say that you’ll be fine using butt plugs then go right ahead! But if they advise against it then you should always follow their advice.
Can You Keep Your Plug In While You Use The Bathroom?
Yet another common question is whether you can keep your plug in when you use the toilet.
Half of this answer should be fairly obvious. You’re not going to be able to poop while wearing a butt plug, so you should take it out.
When you just need to pee though, you might wonder if you can leave it in.
“Generally, we advise that you remove your butt plugs before using the bathroom. It makes everything much easier.”
While it is possible to pee while you wear your butt plug, doing so is a bit of a contradiction. To hold your plug in, you need to engage the pelvic floor muscles. But when you use the toilet, you need to relax these muscles to let the pee out.
It takes an awful lot of control to do both at the same time, and what’s most likely to happen is you relax too much and the plug just falls out! Most of the time this is no big deal, but fishing something out of your toilet isn’t the most pleasant experience.
If your plug is made of metal or glass, dropping it in this way could also damage both the toilet, and the plug.
Some people really don’t want to take their plug out once they’ve got it in though. If you absolutely have to wear it while peeing, the best thing to do is hold onto the base of the plug to make sure it doesn’t fall out.
Make sure you don’t push or strain to let the pee out though, as this can damage the pelvic floor muscles and lead to problems such as incontinence, or urinary tract infections.
Long Term Butt Plug Wear: Myths and Facts
Even though we still advise you only to use your plugs for 2-3 hours at a time, we know that many people will ignore this advice and want to go ahead and use them for much longer periods. As this is a topic generally avoided by manufacturers, stores, and medical professionals, there is a lot of misinformation out there.
So we’re going to go through many of the different claims you might find online, and figure out which are facts, and which are myths.
“You can only wear a butt plug for 2-3 hours.”
We’ll start with the most common “myth”, which is the one we’ve mentioned a few times already. Despite the advice commonly touted online, you can wear your plugs for much longer than this.
Many enthusiasts around the world even keep theirs in for whole days, weeks, or even attempt to live their lives completely plugged.
If you’re going to try these extended sessions, you need to pay close attention to your own body. We’re all different, and you might find your limit at 3, 6, or even 9 hours. Once your muscles start to feel tired, or you feel a bit sore, it’s best to take a break.
“You should gradually work your way up to sessions of extended use.”
Another claim you’ll see commonly when trying to learn about butt plugs, and this time it’s the truth! The muscles you use to hold a plug inside your body are just like any other, they need training.
You should start with shorter sessions, and then gradually increase the amount of time until you feel happy with how long you can wear your plug. It’s important to also repeat this process if you change plug, as the size may be different, or they may be heavier than your previous one.
“Wearing a butt plug for too long can be fatal.”
At the other end of the scale, we have some of the more outlandish claims of how terrible butt plugs are. We can happily say that there is no evidence that long term wear carries any more danger than most other sexual activities.
You might see stories of “heavy anal bleeding” or “massive incontinence” caused by butt plugs, but these are all wildly blown out of proportion. As long as you keep yours clean, use lube, and take your time when inserting it, you shouldn’t have any problems.
“Wearing a butt plug all day can cause pain, discomfort or muscle soreness.”
When you start trying to wear your butt plugs for longer periods of time, you might notice one or all of the three side effects above. While these aren’t terrible things that will cause permanent damage, they can be more than a little uncomfortable.
As you experiment with long term wear, you need to pay very close attention to your body. These symptoms are signs that something is beginning to cause problems, and should be heeded.
Most of the time though it simply means the pelvic floor muscles have been engaged for too long, and need a good rest. Give plenty of time between extended use sessions, and over time these muscles will become stronger and stronger and the symptoms will usually go away.
“Wearing a butt plug for too long will leave you with a gaping asshole.”
While gaping is a sexual practise enjoyed by many people, it’s not something that just happens. Gaping takes time, practise, and specific techniques. You aren’t going to cause it by simply wearing a butt plug.
What you might notice is a very “slight gape”, where your anus appears more open than it was before you used your plug. This is completely normal, and within a couple of hours your anus will usually return to its original state.
If gaping is something you are interested in, check out our guide here!
“You can use butt plugs to prepare for anal sex.”
As we mentioned above, using a butt plug for a while can produce a “slight gape” which opens the sphincters up a little more than normal. This effect continues into the anal canal, and is great as a warm up before anal sex.
When you notice this, it’s usually a sign that all your anal muscles have begun to relax and get used to having something inside them. You’ll often find that using a plug before anal sex makes it much easier to get a penis inside, and much more comfortable when you do!
“You only need to use lube when you insert your butt plug.”
Lube is an incredibly important part of any kind of anal play, but during extended sessions it plays a much bigger role.
No matter how slippery your chosen lube is, it will, eventually, dry out. Once this happens things can become very uncomfortable down there, so it’s always good advice to keep a bottle of lube close by during extended sessions. Whenever you feel things starting to dry out, you should remove the plug and apply fresh lube.
“Some lubes are better for all day wear.”
Not all lubes are created equal, so which you choose to use can change the experience you have while wearing your plugs all day.
In particular, silicone and oil based lubricants are thicker and tend to last much longer. This means you have to reapply them less often, as they take longer to dry out.
Remember though that if you’re using a silicone plug, you can’t use a silicone lube!
“You can’t wear butt plugs in public”
When it comes to wearing your butt plugs while you’re out and about, there can be a few reasons people say you shouldn’t do it. Most commonly, the claims will be that the plug will fall out, or that they’ll be obvious and everyone will be able to see them.
Both of these things depend entirely on which butt plug you use. If you have trouble holding your butt plug in, you can try a different size, material, or even a harness to help hold it in place.
To make it less obvious that you’re wearing a plug, you can pick up one with a t-bar base. This sits discreetly between your butt cheeks, so no-one will know that it’s there.
“Extended butt plug wear makes you poop more.”
There’s a lot of truth in this one, as many people find that wearing butt plugs can actually help with constipation. Similarly, if you have a healthy bowel, you might find that you need to use the bathroom more often as you wear your plugs for longer and longer.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this. Simply use the bathroom whenever you need to!
Tips for Long Term Butt Plug Wear
If you’re planning on extending your use of butt plugs over longer periods of time, there are a few things to do to make everything a little smoother.
Lubrication
The first and most obvious consideration is to make sure you have enough lube. As we mentioned earlier, you don’t want to just apply lube when you insert your plug, but frequently while you wear it. You should be sure to always have some nearby when wearing plugs for long periods.
It’s also important to consider which lubrication you use. Both oil based and silicone based lubes are much thicker, so they last a much longer period of time. This means you don’t have to reapply it as often!
There are even some specific anal lubes you can buy, such as our very own Lovelube.
Choose An Appropriate Plug
Making sure you have the right kind of butt plug for long term wear is also important. Simply choosing the right one can make all the difference in your experience.
Although you might normally be able to use fairly large plugs, when you’re going to wear one all day you’ll actually want one that is a little bit smaller. Wearing the biggest one you can will put a lot of pressure on your anal muscles, and will quickly tire you out. Using something a bit more comfortable will feel much better over time.
You should also think about which material your plug will be made of. Generally we’d advise silicone for longer periods of time, as it’s the softest non-porous material you can buy.
A final consideration when wearing a plug for a long time is what you're going to be doing while you wear it. Something like a fox or cat tail butt plug might seem like a fun idea at the beginning, but if something comes up and you need to run out to the store or office, then you're going to have to take it out or do a really good job hiding it.
Make Sure Your Plug Has A T-Bar Base
Similarly, making sure your butt plug has a t-bar base can also make things much more comfortable. These plugs have a base that is a t-shape rather than the usual flared shape.
With the traditional kind of base, it’s very likely that after a few hours you’ll start to feel chafing. It also won’t be the most comfortable to sit on!
T-bar bases deal with these problems. You will still eventually feel chafing when your lube dries out though, so make sure to reapply frequently.
Try A Harness Or Comfortable Underwear
Many people will find that as they move around, it’s harder to keep the butt plug inside your body. When wearing a butt plug for a long period of time though, it’s inevitable that you’ll need to move around at some point.
To make it harder for your butt plugs to fall out, you can try a butt plug harness. These are similar to other sex toy harnesses you might find, wrapping around your waist and between your legs. They help hold a butt plug in place inside your body requiring less effort from your anal muscles.
If you don’t want to use a harness though, you can still try to find some nice underwear to do the same thing. Obviously things like thongs or baggy boxers aren’t going to be much good, but tight briefs or panties can do the same job as a harness!
Keep Safe When Using Butt Plugs For A Long Time!
While you can take precautions to make long term butt plug wear a bit safer, you should still take great care. This is not something recommended by Loveplugs and most other sex toy manufacturers or medical professionals.
Everyone’s body is different though, so if you think you can handle wearing one for longer than a few hours, try and remember our simple tips, and pay close attention to your butt!