Elizabeth says...

Jane, 24 from London asks...

Last week I slept with my new boyfriend for the first time but when I went down on him, I noticed a really foul smell. It was horrible, a total turn-off, and I couldn't face going ahead with the task I'd started. I've avoided going down on him since but I do like this guy and feel I should say something. How do I broach the subject without offending him?

Somethings off

Elizabeth says...

I suspect you'll offend him by NOT broaching the subject - I imagine he noticed that you were all poised to give him a blowjob and then thought better of it.
The good news is that your boyfriend's problem is a simple one: soap avoidance-itis. Blokes - particularly uncircumcised ones - get very whiffy if they don't give their best friend a good clean once a day. A substance called smegma builds up, particularly under the foreskin, and that's where your boyfriend's pong is coming from. Smegma is generally hard to spot but if it's left to ferment for long enough, it starts to look like curdled yoghurt and to smell like old cheese. It's made up of a combination of shed skin cells, skin oils, moisture, and bacteria. But it's not a sign of poor health - it's secreted by the body (a woman's too!) to help clean and lubricate the genitals. It only becomes problematic when it's not washed away from time-to-time...err, make that every day.
So that's the message you need to get across to your boyfriend. 'Honey, when you take your shower, please pull back your foreskin and clean underneath it with a bar of soap.' Good luck to you in finding a way of phrasing this that won't cause a moment of awkwardness!