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[[Image:Male smegma.jpg|right|thumb|Smegma on a human [[penis]].]][[Image:Female smegma.jpg|right|thumb|Smegma on a human [[vulva]].]]

'''Smegma''' is the name given to a flaky material that accumulates underneath the [[foreskin]] in males, and underneath the [[clitoral hood]] and within the labial folds in females. In males, it is composed of secretions of ectopic sebaceous glands in the [[foreskin]], mixed with secretions of the prostate, seminal vesicles, mucin from the urethral glands, and desquamated epithelial cells.<ref>{{REFjournal

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}}</ref> Smegma is not "filth". It is beneficialnatural, normal, benign, harmless, and harmlessbeneficial.<ref name="vanhowe2006">{{REFjournal

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[[Intact ]] adult males who wash their [[penis ]] and [[glans daily ]] periodically with clean water usually do not have smegma between the inner foreskin and glans. In infants and boys whose [[foreskin ]] cannot yet be pulled back (natural [[phimosis]]), smegma doesn't matter, while the [[foreskin ]] protects the glans. The illustration "Smegma on a human penis" is therefore not typical for [[intact ]] men who wash their genitals regularly. Hardened smegma accumulations may be softened by soaking with vegetable oil.

Excessive washing and the use of soap inside the [[foreskin ]] should be avoided, because soap removes the [[skin ]] oil so it can cause non-specific dermatitis that may be mistaken for [[balanitis]].<refname="birley1933">{{REFjournal

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washing]

|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1195128/

== Smegma was falsely believed to is usually washed away for cosmetic reasons. Excessive washing and use of soap inside the [[foreskin]] should be carcinogenic =avoided.<ref name="birley1933" />

Circumcision advocates of the past who alleged a relationship between "lack of circumcision" and genital cancers formerly implicated smegma or smegma-borne pathogens as the causative agent. Only two histologic studies of human smegma have ever been conducted, both of which found it == Smegma was falsely claimed to be perfectly harmless. carcinogenic ==

Circumcision promoters of the past who alleged a relationship between "lack of circumcision" and genital cancers formerly implicated smegma or smegma-borne pathogens as the causative agent. Only two histologic studies of human smegma have ever been conducted, both of which found it to be perfectly harmless.  The hypothesis that human male smegma is carcinogenic was first formulated in 1932 by circumcision promoter [[Abraham L. Wolbarst]], M.D.{{MD}}<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Wolbarst |first=A.L. |author-link=Abraham L. Wolbarst |title=Circumcision and Penile Cancer |journal=The Lancet |date=1932-01-16 |volume=1 |issue=5655 |pages=150-153 |url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(01)24346-3/fulltext |DOI=10.1016/S0140-6736(01)24346-3 |accessdate=2019-10-16Wolbarst1932}}</ref> Wolbarst also believed that circumcision prevented epilepsy. (In the early part of the 20th Century, the paroxysm of [[masturbation]] in children was often misidentified as an epileptic seizure.) He wrote: "[Circumcision] diminishes the tendency to [[masturbation]], convulsions and other reflex phenomena of local irritation."

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[[Robert S. Van Howe |Van Howe]] & Hodges (2006) concluded: "The purpose of the scientific method is to distinguish between wishful thinking, strongly held opinion, and provable fact. The smegma theory of disease, which began as wishful thinking on the part of circumcision zealots such as[[Abraham L. Wolbarst| Abraham Wolbarst]] and [[Abraham Ravich]], has evolved into irrefutable dogma, but as modern physicians, we need to recognize that, until proved otherwise, smegma is harmless."<ref name="vanhowe2006" /> ==Beneficial aspects of smegma== Smegma contains natural skin oils that are beneficial to the health of the mucosa that covers the [[glans penis]]. The oil also has lubricating advantages.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Wright |first=Joyce |author-link= |title=How smegma serves the penis |journal=Sexology |date=1970-09 |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=50-3 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/wright1/ |accessdate=2020-06-21}}</ref>

* [[Penis]]* [[Cervical cancerPreputial sac]].