This article is about smegma, usually found in the foreskin, a secretion of mammalian genitals. See Vernix caseosa

Vernix caseosa

Vernix caseosa, also known as vernix, is the waxy or cheese-like white substance found coating the skin of newborn human babies.-Composition:...

 for the substance that covers the skin of a baby at birth. See Smegma (band)

Smegma (band)

Smegma is an American experimental noise group formed in Pasadena, California in 1973 and currently based in Portland, Oregon. Originally part of the Los Angeles Free Music Society movement of the 1970s, Smegma is one of the few music collectives of that era still active today. Author Richard...

 for the experimental noise band.

Smegma (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 smēgma, "soap") is a combination of exfoliated

Exfoliation (cosmetology)

Exfoliation involves the removal of the oldest dead skin cells on the skin's outermost surface, and has been used for many years to help maintain skin. Exfoliation is involved in the process of all facials, during microdermabrasion or chemical peels at medical spas...

 (shed) epithelial cells

Epithelium

Epithelium is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, along with connective tissue, muscle tissue and nervous tissue. Epithelial tissues line the cavities and surfaces of structures throughout the body, and also form many glands. Functions of epithelial cells include secretion, selective...

, transudate

Transudate

Transudate is extravascular fluid with low protein content and a low specific gravity .This is in contrast to transudate where the extracellular fluid is an ultrafiltrate of blood plasma and thus larger molecules such as proteins and cell debris are absent....

d skin oils, and moisture. It occurs in both female and male mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

ian genitalia.

Human smegma

Both females and males produce smegma. In females, it collects around the clitoris

Clitoris

The clitoris is a sexual organ that is present only in female mammals. In humans, the visible button-like portion is located near the anterior junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the urethra and vagina. Unlike the penis, which is homologous to the clitoris, the clitoris does not...

 and in the folds of the labia minora

Labia minora

The labia minora , also known as the inner labia, inner lips, or nymphae, are two flaps of skin on either side of the human vaginal opening, situated between the labia majora...

; in males, smegma is produced and can collect under the foreskin

Foreskin

In male human anatomy, the foreskin is a generally retractable double-layered fold of skin and mucous membrane that covers the glans penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect...

.

Females

The accumulation of sebum combined with dead skin cells forms smegma. Smegma clitoridis is defined as the secretion of the apocrine glands of the clitoris, in combination with desquamating

Desquamation

Desquamation , also called skin peeling, is the shedding of the outermost membrane or layer of a tissue, such as the skin.-Skin:Normal, nonpathologic desquamation of the skin occurs when keratinocytes, after moving apically over about 14 days, are individually shed unnoticeably...

 epithelial cells. Glands that are located around the clitoris and the vulva majoris secrete sebum. Contaminated, and retained smegma (smegmaliths) usually disappear when the cause is removed.

Males

In males, smegma helps keep the glans moist and facilitates sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...

 by acting as a lubricant.

Smegma was originally thought to be produced by sebaceous glands near the frenulum

Frenulum

A frenulum is a small fold of tissue that secures or restricts the motion of a mobile organ in the body.-In human anatomy:...

 called Tyson's glands

Preputial gland

Preputial glands are exocrine glands that are located in front of the genitals of some mammals and produce pheromones. The preputial glands of female animals are sometimes called clitoral glands....

; however, subsequent studies have failed to find these glands. Wright states that smegma is produced from minute microscopic protrusions of the mucosal surface of the foreskin and that living cells constantly grow towards the surface, undergo fatty degeneration, separate off, and form smegma. Parkash et al. found that smegma contains 26.6% fats and 13.3% proteins, which they judged to be consistent with necrotic epithelial debris. Newly produced smegma has a smooth, moist texture. It is thought to be rich in squalene

Squalene

Squalene is a natural organic compound originally obtained for commercial purposes primarily from shark liver oil, though plant sources are used as well, including amaranth seed, rice bran, wheat germ, and olives. All plants and animals produce squalene, including humans...

 and contain prostatic and seminal secretions, desquamated epithelial cells, and the mucin content of the urethral glands of Littré

Urethral gland

-External links:* *...

. Some state that it contains anti-bacterial enzymes such as lysozyme

Lysozyme

Lysozyme, also known as muramidase or N-acetylmuramide glycanhydrolase, are glycoside hydrolases, enzymes that damage bacterial cell walls by catalyzing hydrolysis of 1,4-beta-linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues in a peptidoglycan and between...

 and hormones such as androsterone

Androsterone

Androsterone is a steroid hormone with weak androgenic activity. It is made in the liver from the metabolism of testosterone. Its beta-isomer is Epiandrosterone.-History:...

, though others dispute this.

According to Wright, little smegma is produced during childhood, although the foreskin may contain sebaceous glands. She also says that production of smegma increases from adolescence until sexual maturity when the function of smegma for lubrication assumes its full value, and from middle-age production starts to decline and in old age virtually no smegma is produced. Oster reported that the incidence of smegma increased from 1% among 6-7 year olds to 8% among 16-17 year olds (an overall incidence of 5%).

In other mammals

In healthy animals, smegma helps clean and lubricate the genitals. In veterinary medicine, analysis of this smegma is sometimes used for detection of urogenital tract pathogens, such as Tritrichomonas foetus

Tritrichomonas foetus

Tritrichomonas foetus is a single celled flagellated protozoan parasite that is known to be a pathogen of the bovine reproductive tract as well as the intestinal tract of cats. In cattle, the organism is transmitted to the female vagina and uterus from the foreskin of the bull where the parasite...

. Accumulation of smegma in the equine preputial folds

Foreskin

In male human anatomy, the foreskin is a generally retractable double-layered fold of skin and mucous membrane that covers the glans penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect...

 and the urethral fossa and urethral diverticulum can form large "beans" and promote the carriage of Taylorella equigenitalis

Taylorella equigenitalis

Taylorella equigenitalis is a Gram-negative bacterium of the genus Taylorella, and the causative agent of Contagious Equine Metritis in horses.-External links:...

, the causative agent of contagious equine metritis

Contagious equine metritis

Contagious Equine Metritis is a venereal infection of the genital tract of horses brought on by the Taylorella equigenitalis bacteria. Passed on through sexual contact, according to Robert N. Oglesby DVM, the disease was first reported in 1977 on horse breeding farms in England and was found in...

. Some equine veterinarians have recommended periodic cleaning of male genitals to improve the health of the animal.