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By now no one should be surprised that the male urethra has a microbiome - the community of microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi) that live there. After all, we have millions of microbes living all over and in us.

There is the core microbiome generally found in all adult male urethras and then also microbes that vary from person to person. The urethra is the tube through which both urine and semen leave the male body.

A recent study found that having sex with a woman (vaginal sex) influences what lives in the male urethral microbiome. The researchers found that some of the men had microbes in the male urethra that are normally found in the female reproductive tract, specifically women with vaginal dysbiosis (yeast infections). This means the women transmitted the microbes to the men during sex. These microbes are not part of the male core urethral microbiome.

Interestingly, even if the men have microbes associated with bacterial vaginosis in the microbiome of the urethra, the men (unlike the women) didn't have any symptoms of an infection.

From Futurity: Vaginal infections can be sexually transmitted to men 

New research finds that the bacteria that causes a common vaginal infection can also have a major presence in men and can be sexually transmitted. ...continue reading "The Microbiome of the Male Urethra"