Should You Be Worried About Spermicide in Your Spa Cream?

Teresa has Trepidations: I was shopping for high end spa products and noticed that their exfolliant cream contains Nonoxynol-9, a famously debated spermicide ingredient! I’m assuming it’s not there to keep my freshly smoothed skin from becoming pregnant. So why is it in my creme and is there any downside to using it?

The Right Brain calms her down:

Take a deep breath Teresa, there’s nothing to worry about.

Some creams contain detergents

Nonoxynol-9 (or N-9) is in your spa cream to help the dissolve the oil soluble ingredients in the cream base. That’s because it’s a surfactant (which is short for surface active agent) which is just a fancy way of saying it’s a type of detergent. The cool thing is that N-9 is a nonionic surfactant which is a special type that doesn’t create a lot of lather. Otherwise the spa cream would get all foamy when you rub it into your skin.

Detergents can be spermicidal

It just so happens that N-9’s ability to dissolve oil into water has a very important side effect – it can also dissolve the acrosomal membranes of sperm, which stops the little guys from swimming. That’s why it’s used in many spermicidal creams, jellies, foams, gel, film, and suppositories. So, N-9 serves double duty: shy spa-cream emulsifier by day; sultry sperm-killer by night.

Finally, I feel compelled to point out that this discussion reminds me of the Seinfeld episode about being “sponge-worthy.”