These shops usually stock a wide range of items including lubricants, sex DVDs, vibrators (artificial male organs), massage oils, costumes, flesh lights (artificial female organs) and many other products believed to be highly patronised by women, especially the single women, divorcees and women whose husbands were out of the country.
Interestingly, it is the men who these days buy these toys for their women.
“Items that move fast in the shops are those for females, especially the vibrators.One would be amazed to find that it is mostly men who buy them for their women,” an attendant at a sex shop on the Spintex Road told The Mirror.
“We used to have a large number of women clientele who came in to buy for themselves but the trend h has changed now as more men come to the shop not to buy toys for themselves but for their wives and girlfriends.”
She said though they have a variety of toys designed for men as well, those items do not sell as fast as those for women.
The men, she added, do not only buy vibrators but also delay creams and pills which delay orgasm.
Reasons for using sex toys
According to the shop attendant who has been working at the shop for over six years, most of her clients, especially the ladies, resorted to the use of sex toys as their men were not able to fully satisfy them.
‘I was working at a sex shop at Osu before I moved here and the information I gathered from most of the women was either their husbands or boyfriends were not around or if they were they could not satisfy them fully.” she stated.
For other users, the fear of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) from unfaithful partners left them with no option than to rely on the toys.
A regular user of the toys who buys them from an online shop in Accra confirmed that she used the toys because they are safer and she doesn’t stand the chance of contracting STDs.
Effects of sex toys
A General Medical Practitioner with special interest in stress, sleep and sexual disorder therapy, Dr Maxwell Onassis-Fiadjoe, in an interview, said the increase in demand for sex toys by women as a result of underperformance from their men could be from the excessive intake of aphrodisiacs.
He said these drugs when taken for a long time, reduce the body’s ability to function by itself and with time could lead to erectile dysfunction.
According to him, the sex toys could lead to urinary tract infections if they are not well cleaned.
“Since the toys come in contact with fluids after orgasm, they need to be properly cleaned for reuse. Failure to clean them well could lead to other infections. The fluids from the body during sex can easily breed bacteria which can develop into infections if they are not handled properly,” he added.
Dr Onassis-Fiadjoe explained that the act of sex which has many benefits, was not only about ejaculation or ‘cumming’ but was a gradual process that the body needed to go through fully. Over reliance on these toys, therefore, did not allow the users to benefit from sex.
He said the vibrators which are usually regulated by some controls could also injure a user if she gets over excited and forgets to regulate them properly.
He, however, said there are some rare cases when medical doctors prescribed the toys or medications for a short period to correct some malfunctions.
‘We live in a society where people do not feel comfortable talking about sex and its related problems, so they hide in their corners and do anything they think appropriate. There are instances that we can prescribe a particular toy for a patient depending on the problem. This, however, needs monitoring and regular feedback from the user for the necessary steps to be taken,” he stated.
He, therefore, advised that anyone with any sexually related problem should see a specialist for proper treatment and advice as self-medication could result in a lot of complications.
(Selorm) | 
(Nana Kwesi)