Harry's retrograde ejaculation on 'And Just Like That...' is a real condition — but his doctor's advice won't help
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On "And Just Like That..." season two, episode four, Charlotte's husband Harry has a dry orgasm, also called retrograde ejaculation.
A urologist said the condition isn't life-threatening, but is a cause of infertility in men.
Unlike "And Just Like That..." suggests, kegels do not treat retrograde ejaculation. Medications do.
On the latest episode of "Sex and the City" spinoff "And Just Like That..." titled "ALIVE!" Harry Goldenblatt has a cum-free orgasm that leaves his wife Charlotte and her friends perplexed.
During a sex scene, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) asks Harry (Evan Handler) if he wants to ejaculate on her breasts. He does, and appears to orgasm. But when Charlotte reaches for a tissue to clean up, she discovers that her breasts are completely dry. The lack of physical evidence for Harry's orgasm makes Charlotte later wonder, out loud to her friends, if Harry faked it.
In a later scene at a doctor's office, it's revealed that Harry experienced retrograde ejaculation, a real medical condition where a man's semen enters his bladder, instead of exiting through the tip of his penis, when he ejaculates.
The condition, which is related to nerve damage, can affect a man at any age, urologist Dr. Fenwa Milhouse told Insider. She said that retrograde ejaculation, though not life-threatening, can make it impossible for a man to conceive a baby if left untreated.
Retrograde ejaculation isn't dangerous, but it can cause infertility
Certain medications, like those for type 1 diabetes, and injuries in the pelvic area are the main causes of retrograde ejaculation, Milhouse said. They can impact the functioning of nerves in a person's urethra, the tube inside of the penis where semen and urine exit. If someone has retrograde ejaculation, their nerves mess up the signal when it's time to ejaculate, so their muscles send the semen backwards into the bladder, instead of propelling it out of the body.
She said that the condition can impact men at any age. And if someone makes poor choices when it comes to their diet or exercise, it could make them more likely to develop the conditions that increase the risk for retrograde ejaculation, according to Milhouse.
If someone has retrograde ejaculation, they naturally expel the semen that enters their their bladder when they pee, Milhouse said.
"It's not dangerous. It's not detrimental to the person's body, but it can interfere with fertility because the semen isn't getting where it needs to be, which is being deposited into the partner's vagina," Milhouse told Insider. She said that less than 5% of all infertility cases are due to retrograde ejaculation.
Treatment involves stopping certain medications, or taking a new one
To treat Harry's retrograde ejaculation, the fictional doctor on "And Just Like That..." tells him to do kegels, an exercise where someone repeatedly contracts then relaxes their pelvic floor muscles, saying they would help redirect the flow of Harry's semen.
So, in a later scene, Charlotte tries to help Harry with the doctor's treatment plan, telling Harry to envision his penis "like an elephant's trunk slurping from the river." That advice wouldn't cure someone in real life, Milhouse said.
Since retrograde ejaculation is a nerve-related condition, someone would need to stop taking medications that impact their nerves, or take medications that help previously damaged nerves, Milhouse said.
She said that a doctor can prescribe those after they confirm a patient has retrograde ejaculation, which involves collecting a sample of their urine and testing it for semen.
New episodes of "And Just Like That..." stream Thursdays on Max.
Read the original article on Insider
