How many enemas during the "Golden Age" ?

I was born just as the golden age was coming to a close, but that does not mean either I nor my sisters did not get enemas. The the contrary. There were three syringes in our home: an infant bulb that I don't ever remember being used on me or anyone else, a red combination bag that was the main source of enemas for everyone, and a red open top that was for mom's hygiene use. I'm not counting the folding syringe that my older sister got when she went away to college. Also given the time frame I will guess that my younger sister also acquired one of these, but I have no recollection of this.

I saw a significant drop in enema use and equipment availability into the mid 80's. I was hospitalized for knee surgery and anticipated 3 nights stay. I had filled out a questionaire as part of registration and checked in the night before an early AM surgery. My orthopedic doctor had ordered a common prep routine that included being NPO, a shave of my leg, and an enema. The Fleet enema wasn't that extraordinary or enjoyable.

After surgery, I was having difficulty urinating. Before I was ready for sleep that night, the nurse suggested that I should try one last time or allow for catheterization. I was unable to pee and was pretty miserable. Being catheterized gave me much needed relief and was quite embarrassing.

The morning of the 3rd day, I had inquired about discharge. I was told it was policy to have a BM before discharge. The nurse said that the doctor wanted to make sure my bowels were functional before letting me go home. She said she had read my answers to questions during registration and noticed that I had checked the box regarding enemas for constipation. She asked if an enema would be my preferred option.

I told her that I had been brought up with enemas and didn't use laxatives. I told her that I would rather take an enema and get immediate results. She asked if I'd prefer the Fleet enema or a water enema. I told her the Fleet prior to surgery wasn't comfortable and would prefer a water enema. She got the order from my doctor and gave me a soapy enema with a disposable bag. During the enema, we discussed my unusual preference and she commented that few patients would accept a traditional cleansing enema anymore. She told me that she didn't mind them herself. She did mention that she saw that I had been catheterized while there as well. I could only acknowledge that I'd had tubes stuck in every orifice during my stay. The breathing tube was by far the worst!

@sse4fun: She got the order from my doctor and gave me a soapy enema with a disposable bag. During the enema, we discussed my unusual preference and she commented that few patients would accept a traditional cleansing enema anymore. She told me that she didn't mind them herself.

Wow! You hit the enema jackpot so to say..

My dom mother gave me countless enemas through the 50's & 60's as i was growing up . Sometimes wearing her nightgown & sheer panties . What a turn on . Not sure if she got off on it as I think it was more of a power thing with her .

@Fitness_Life post 67, bet she did, you lucky boy.

I would suspect thousands enemas a day. I would be counted for one on every Tuesday and Fridays. Think how much water that would be too. LOL

As an engineer I like calculations. For argument sake let's say that the average number of families was 4 people, which means 40 million homes. Assume that 90% of those had between 1 and 2 enema devices (bulbs, bags or cans) and we get 54 million units. If an average family did just 4 enemas a month that equates to 50 per year (rounded) x 36 million homes or 1.8 billion enemas, or 36 billion enemas for the period of the golden age. Just one more calculation, if the average enema was just 1 quart, it comes to 9 billion gallons of warm soapy water. Of course this excludes hospital, clinic and nursing home estimates. We still should estimate the number of vaginal douches, but I need to think about more assumptions.

As an engineer I like calculations. For argument sake let's say that the average number of families was 4 people, which means 40 million homes. Assume that 90% of those had between 1 and 2 enema devices (bulbs, bags or cans)

As a sociologist I like to predicate things based on realistic assumptions.

There were so many different levels of social class, income brackets and ethnic and racial backgrounds, that assuming 90% of all families had an enema device of some sort around sounds wildly overestimated.

Interesting to see how many enemas you got. I'm not from the golden age, not even near it. And I never got an enema in my childhood.

Would be interesting if this had changed.

Growing up in the late 1940's, early 1950's - while I got enemas, the golden age was more about the availability of bags in local stores and in the big mail order catalogs.

Trying to empirically quantify number of enemas during the "Golden Age" is sort of like trying to quantify the probability of the existence of life in the Universe(s) - e.g. the Drake Equation. It's an interesting discussion point, but the number - and accuracy - of the assumptions that go into it are somewhat arbitrary and certainly debatable. But it does provide a starting point for interesting discussions.

The number - and accuracy - of the assumptions that go into it are somewhat arbitrary and certainly debatable. But it does provide a starting point for interesting discussions.

Agreed. This is the problem with any model--it's the assumptions that will get you every time. Even if we say that only half the homes had some form of enema equipment and they used it only half as much as I originally said, that is still one heck of a lot of enemas. By the same token I can't help but wonder how many Fleet and private label disposable enemas are sold each year.

Wouldn't the number, for many, be enough to get their interest and enjoyment from taking enemas started and primed. You are on a forum that has a section for kinky enemas.

If the average enema was just 1 quart, it comes to 9 billion gallons of warm soapy water. Of course this excludes hospital, clinic and nursing home estimates. We still should estimate the number of vaginal douches, but I need to think about more assumptions.

Westy:

I knew that enemas were popular at that time, but the number is amazing. Although I don't think I want to know how many women were douching back then if the number is in the millions.

Good point both that constipation as a cause of routine illness was pretty well de-bunked by the early to mid-60s and about a lot more women entering the workforce so much less time for family matters. Still with all the TV commercials today about constipation, it’s a wonder that more people haven’t re-discovered the quick and effective enema solution rather than the discomfort and unpredictability of oral laxatives.

Many of the young people might suspect we exaggerate the abundance of enemas during the years shortly after WW-2.

I hope this link helps.

Titled: Your Average 50s Family

https://posts-cdn.kueez.net/y753sNyO1pVkFpA4/image-IfZS8xepE2Ti71yT.jpg

When television took over, the family enema time went flat.

But beer and cigarettes expanded. Ever wonder about that one?

For us, mom's enema care was right up there, well above apple pie.

Notice how old it looks, back there on proud display. That is because grandma managed to get a new one.

I remember drugstores and mom and pop pharmacies still carrying enema bags and bulbs into the nineties😁By 2000 it all seem to disappear. IMO the golden age went from 1945 until then. Thank god for the internet😈😍Post COVID the resurgence of the health wave Includes cleanses, coffee enemas and other butt activities like anal sex so maybe we’re seeing the “New Golden Age” of enema play. They feel so good🤪

Nice thread, I remember it like it was yesterday. I worked for quite a few years at MA General in Boston. I was in IT working on the old big iron but had a lot of kinky colleagues. Many RN's (especially younger ones that were not 'out' yet), some techs, and even a couple of doc's. Enemas were common place as the ETC - Enemas Til Clear was a normal prep. For whatever reason that all changed in the 80's as efficiency experts took over micro-managing time and expenses.

However - current day, I see enemas and bowel or gut health making a huge comeback. I belong to a local private gym and on the bulletin board are advertisements for custom tailored juice cleanses, fasts, and even colonics. Many there know my fondness for enemas, I get asked all the time about enemas for health and wellness. Coffee enemas are also a popular topic.

Among some young ladies the AO [Anal Only] movement is catching some traction as a means of natural birth control and strong orgasms. In the past year I've met a few young ladies that are very into practicing AO sex. I't a brave new world out there...

BJ

I don't see anything "golden" in the phrase "Golden Age".

Starting from the age of 5 until about 13 ('58 - '66), the central period of childhood, I was consciously allowed to smell soap and rubber about once a week. That sounds anything but “golden”.

Now I never counted how many enemas I got during that time. I was a little shocked when I thought about it.

Certainly over 400 treatments, each consisting of at least three individual enemas. That means more than 1200 enemas...😱.

Until about 7, the solutions were pressed into my colon using rubber bulbs, with each individual enema consisting of an average of 5 bulb fillings.

This result also leaves me amazed...

A tip of a bulb penetrated my asshole about 2250 times.

From then on, our bathroom's inventory grew in the form of at least one rubber bag, which now did the bulk of the work. But the rubber bulbs were not allowed to retire; Mom liked to resort to these every now and then.

When I consider how many of my friends that I knew also received enemas, these "water treatments" must have been more widespread than they are today.

This could also be seen in the variety of equipment for sale in the shop windows of quite a few medical supply stores and drugstores.

...I now wonder for whom it was a "golden age"...🤔😎😇

...I now wonder for whom it was a "golden age".

People have a tendency to refer to pleasant things they remember from their younger years as being from a 'Golden Age'. It is so typical and can refer to just about any activity, be it getting enemas, to playing baseball at neighborhood sandlots, to supposedly leaving doors unlocked and to myriad other activities.

That is often because young people do not have the same worries in life that older people do. This lack of worry translates into having rosy-tinted memories of the past.

It often raises my hackles when people talk about Golden Ages. Every generation looks back upon their very own Golden Age, even if that period included events like WWII, the Great Depression and all other kinds of unrest and social upheaval. This was so even in Antiquity. The Romans were real pros at remembering or fabricating their own particular Golden Ages, especially after they became an empire and there were no more farmer-dictators like Cincinnatus around.

They even named one of their emperors for creating a supposed Golden Age: Marcus Aurelius.

It was the "Golden Age" for my older sister Tess and me as we both liked enemas, me from 5YO due to a hospital enema when having my tonsils out, and Tess, who was aware of mom giving me enemas with the "red squeeze thing in my butt" before I remember. Even just knowing that one of us or our two younger sisters were getting an enema caused excitement

I was talking with Tess again last night about our life on the farm in the 1950s and how much simpler it was and she brought up an event where I was sick in bed and she kept telling our mother that I sounded terrible. Of course that triggered mom to check on me and even though I wasn’t feeling very bad I faked a stomach ache looking for sympathy.

As the usual cure for almost ANYTHING back then was an enema, I of course put up a token resistance. It didn’t take mom long to call me into the big upstairs bathroom that we all knew was “the enema room”. I vaguely remember this event as I was about 6 or 7 YO but Tess said she remembers it vividly. She saw mom go to the bathroom and open the window seat where the enema bag was kept when not in use, so Tess went to her room, climbed onto the porch roof, went over to near the bathroom window to watch and listen to the entire procedure!

I went in with mom, watched her get the red open top bag out, run water in the sink, use the 16 oz measuring cup and pour two of them into the bag. All this happened while I take my PJ bottoms off and lay them on the clothes hamper, mom hangs the bag on the hook next to the window seat, I lay across her lap, she takes the hose from the top of the bag, rubs Vaseline on the tip, squirts a little water into the sink, in the large mirror on the bathroom door I watch everything as the nozzle is headed for my butt, I feel the insertion, mom reaches for the metal clamp and CLICK I’m getting an enema! I now see Tess’s head in the mirror watching from outside the window, and I’m formulating a way to get her involved. After I was filled, and laid there waiting for the timer to ding, mom removed the nozzle, I jumped to the toilet and about twenty minutes later returned to my bed.

A short while later mom came in asking me if I felt better, I said that I did but Tess was teasing me about getting an enema. That was enough for her to call Tess in and Tess said that as best she could remember mom saying “if you find enemas so interesting while I have it out, maybe you should have one too”.

Tess remembers objecting, denying teasing me and she didn’t get one that day. She told me later that she should have admitted to teasing me, and she thought mom would have given her one as we were all threatened with an enema if we teased or laughed at someone getting an enema.

Reconnecting with my sisters keeps bringing up memories, especially with Tess as we shared our enjoyment of enemas, but both Diane and Robin hated getting them, or they were really good at faking it!

I’m still LostInThe50s

The Golden Age is NOW. Never was such openness about the erotic aspects of the enema and anal stimulation as NOW.

Enemas have been used for centuries. I am a early member of the golden age group from the 50s. When I was growing up enemas were a very common occurrence and it was absolutely impossible not to hear someone talking about them, seeing them hanging in a bathroom, accidentally see one being given or receiving one. One time I was at a private home auction there were three or four used enema bags, hoses and nozzles in a box waiting to be auctioned. It was strange to see that at a auction even then, it got a lot of laughs from people. No one bid on the box and the auctioneer kept adding it to other items for sale and no one would bid on them either until he mixed all the boxes with some very nice house pottery and other expensive items and a lady bid on it, she was the only bidder and made a very good deal. She threw the enema bag box away and sold the boxes of stuff mixed with it that she didn’t want but other people wanted but would not bid on it because of the enema bag box was mixed in with it. It was funny then and still is. I drifted of the subject but I just wanted to share a amusing story that happened. As a guess as to how many people took enemas during the golden age I would say somewhere around 75% of the population did then. As a comparison in my own opinion in today’s world enema use is around 40% of the population. The world has changed, but my enema use has not.

I wouldn't want to guess how many got enemas during the "Golden Age" of the 50's and 60's but I'm pretty sure that most homes had an enema bag, having seen them hanging in the bathroom or stored in a cupboard at friends' and relatives' homes. I know I got many enemas and so did my cousins and most of my friends. Every drugstore and the pharmacy section of department stores had a variety of enema equipment on display. I usually got about a dozen or so enemas a year from the enema bag from age 4 until I left home in my mid 20's. I don't remember how many I got before age 4 with the bulb syringe but I know my mother had several different bulb syringes ranging from 4 ounce infant size to 10 ounce adult size. I got a daily enema when I was sick enough to be kept home from school and also got one when a laxative given at bedtime didn't work first thing the next morning even after being given a suppository to help it work. They were also part of a "Spring Cleaning" given to me and 3 of my boy cousins while visiting our grandparents' home during the Easter holidays every year when we were school age. Some of my cousins got more enemas than I got.

@Silver_Bullet - enemas have been used for millenia. Aristophanes (died 386 BCE) mentions them in a joke.

I think your use estimates are high - consider that most of the world does not have access to safe water, and likely does not have equipment or the funds to buy them. Worldwide I'd say more likely is 10% have had an enema, but I'm just pulling that number out of my ass.

@Westy

#61

As a former engineer, you had a lot to do with statistics and calculations. I was very amused by your comments. I'm just trying to imagine the many filled and hanging rubber bags that flooded all the colons at the same time.😎

My “golden age” lasted about nine years. An average of two enemas per month, which meant 216 treatments. Each treatment, however, included three individual rinses. So during this era my colon was flooded 648 times...😁

Special treatments have not currently been taken into account.😎