The woman reportedly screamed out in pain as she was being taken out of the machine.
An anonymous medical provider reported the strange incident to the Food and Drug Administration in April 2023, though it’s received renewed media attention this week. The 22-year-old woman reportedly screamed out in pain as she was pulled out of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine following a scan, which then prompted her delayed admission of having had a “butt plug” inserted.
The issue here is that the company that made the sex toy was likely lying about the material. Implant-grade stainless steel is 316LVM ASTM F-138; it’s non-magnetic, and will not be heated up by a strong magnetic field. Cheap grades of stainless, esp. the 440-series, are magnetic. If a company lied about the material–e.g., a hard chrome plating over a cheap, low-carbon steel base–that could cause serious injury. And I’ve seen exactly that with body jewelry before, so I know for certain that it happens. Esp. since there aren’t a lot of health and safety regulations on either sex toys or body jewelry in the US.
Ok, I’m pretty sex-positive, but why risk it at all and wear a buttplug to an MRI? Or at least mention it when asked if you’re wearing anything metal?
This is a wild-ass guess based on my limited involvement in the kink scenes in the past.
Part of the sexual thrill of wearables is that other people don’t know that you’re wearing them. If you’ve been assured that the metal is safe–non-ferritic–then you would reasonably believe that it would be safe. Alternatively, there can be some mild shame involved, where you get a thrill out of having a buttplug, but also don’t feel comfortable revealing it even when it’s medically necessary.
Personally, I’ve been very, very up front with medical personnel with the jewelry I’ve got when it comes to MRIs and surgery. Many years ago I got a lot of pushback because it wasn’t widely understood that non-ferritic metals were safe in MRIs, or that piercings were a very low risk in surgery. These days, there’s much less of that; you now have to sign paperwork acknowledging the risks, and that’s about it most of the time. But even if I was very very sure about the materials in a buttplug, I’d remove it mostly because it can be removed easily, in the same way I can easily remove and replace the jewelry that I wear in my septum and ears.