Masturbation: Myths, Health Benefits & Side Effects

Masturbation is often believed to provide a lot of health benefits, and it is a very common activity that can help in sexual arousal. Many health care experts are known to state the benefits that one can have after masturbating. Masturbation can be quite helpful as it can help to benefit not only your physical health but can help in improve your emotional or mental health as well.

There are both positives and negative sides of masturbating . But the topic related to masturbation, sexual pleasure and arousal are less talked about because there are a lot of taboos and myths attached to them. This article will help you to get an important insight of what masturbation is all about, the process, its benefits and side effects.

What do you need to know about masturbation?

Masturbation is deriving sexual pleasure by touching your genitals or sexually sensitive parts on the body on your own. It is mostly a healthy sexual stimulation by your own self to get sexual pleasure. Many people masturbate to get pleasure through orgasm. Both men and women can masturbate by massaging, touching or stroking their penis or clitoris until they reach orgasm.

What is the process for masturbation?

The process of masturbation, according to some health care experts, involves touching or caressing the sexual or errogenous parts of the body. It also includes using your hands (make sure they are clean to avoid infections) which is often considered to be one of the best ways to masturbate. Otherwise, you can also masturbate by using different types of sex toys of your choice, for example, vibrators.

Why is masturbation important?

Masturbating is a very common act for deriving your sexual pleasure , performed by people of all sexes and genders. In fact, masturbation is a common activity for adolescent children as a part of their growing up as well. Masturbation is important not only because it helps you to feel good but also helps known to be good for health. It helps to improve your mood, helps in better sleep, can be a major activity for stress relief, and it also helps in releasing sexual tension.

Masturbation is beneficial also because it helps to reduce the chances of developing diseases like diabetes, which is one of the most common disorders that people are known to suffer from. Along with this, masturbation can also be recommended to increase the strength of the pelvic floor - which happens mostly through orgasmic contractions and prevent sleeplessness.

Impacts of masturbation on men and women:

Women:

For women, masturbation can be a safe expression for sexual activity because it not only helps to reduce the risks of developing sexually transmitted diseases or STDs, but there would also be a much lesser risk of having unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. Moreover, masturbating can also help to prevent the risks of developing cervical diseases and urinary tract infections among women, by helping in the easy opening up of the cervical region during the arousal.

Men:

For men, masturbation can be beneficial because it helps to reduce the risks of developing prostate cancer, especially in their older ages, as it helps to remove those agents that have potential risks of causing cancer. Another beneficial impact of masturbation on men is that it helps in better sperm motility, especially when you masturbate before intercourse and helps managing premature ejaculation.

The common myths related to masturbation:

Conversations regarding masturbation is often considered to be a taboo and there are various myths attached to masturbation, such as:

1. Masturbation can damage the genitals:

This myth about masturbation is not at all true because stroking their penises or women rubbing their clitorises can never affect the health of the genitals. For extra care, you may also lubricants but masturbation in this case will not be harmful.

2. Masturbation can cause mental health issues:

The reverse is true. Masturbation helps in reducing stress levels and keeps you emotionally healthy by improving neurotransmitters and releasing happy hormones in the body. It can also help to reduce the risks of depression in men.

3. Vibrators and sex toys are bad for women:

This is a common myth but using sex toys and vibrators are quite safe for women during masturbation, as long as they are clean. The female erotic zones such as the vulva, clitoris, nipples can be aroused by vibrators and there is no harm in that.

Other common myths about masturbation are:

• Infertility

• low libido

• dehydration

• hormonal imbalances

• changes in the size or shape of the penis

What are the health benefits of masturbation?

As mentioned before, one can derive a good number of both physiological and emotional health benefits through masturbation, some of which can be listed here as follows:

1. Masturbation helps to improve your immune system:

Masturbating can help to boost your immune response system that can help to prevent the chances of developing various diseases. This mostly happens because when you masturbate, the levels of prolactin and endocannabinoids increase in the body, which help to improve the immune system.

2. Masturbation improves your sleep quality:

Masturbation is highly beneficial for improving your sleep cycles. It also helps to reduce the risks of developing sleeplessness, irregular sleep, sleep apnea, or chronic related disorders such as insomnia. This happens because when you masturbate, the hormones and neurotransmitters that are released in the body are beneficial for better sleep.

3. Masturbating can result in reduced stress and anxiety:

The hormones and neurotransmitters that are increased in the body after masturbation can help to stress release and thus significantly help to lower the chances of developing mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and so on.

4. Masturbation is important for reducing pain:

Masturbation helps to enhance the function of endorphins in the body that can help to heal pain naturally. Moreover, endocannabinoids can also aid in regulation of chronic pain in the body that may occur as a result of inflammation.

5. Mood lift is an instant impact of masturbation:

Mood lift occurs after you masturbate, because masturbation helps in lowering the levels of stress hormones or cortisol in the body. So, many people often masturbate for refreshing their mood.

6. Your focus and concentration increases:

You will have better focus and concentration abilities because the hormones and neurotransmitters released in the body due to masturbation are responsible for better learning, memory, and concentration skills.

7. Masturbation is linked to improved cognitive skills:

Masturbation enhances the function of prolactin that aids in preventing neural damage and the dopamine release after masturbation can help to improve the cognitive skills of a person, especially among aged people.

8. Masturbation improved muscle flexibility:

Experts claim that masturbating can have a probability of improving the flexibility of your muscles, especially those that lie in the pelvic region or that are closer to the genitals.

9. Masturbation can help reduce blood pressure:

There are two types of hormones that are released in the body, which are oxytocin and endocannabinoids. These two components are known to reduce the levels of high blood pressure in the body.

10. Masturbation results in better self-esteem:

Many experts claim that masturbating ca help to improve your self-esteem. This is because, masturbation helps to increase the levels of adrenaline in the body. Such high levels of salivary and urinary adrenaline can help you to have better personal growth. Moreover, when you know how to pleasure yourself, that is, when you are sexually independent, you are more likely to have a better sense of life purpose and improved self-esteem.

Is there any side effect of masturbation?

Though there are so many important health benefits of masturbation, it can also have some negative points, such as follows:

1. Masturbation addiction:

Many people are known to become increasingly addicted to masturbation, and in some cases, it may become a clinical condition, which may make them skip chores or hamper their daily activities.

2. Feeling guilty after masturbation:

Many people may feel guilty after masturbating, because of certain cultural or social conditions, and they may become fearful of being shamed for masturbating.

3. Harming the genitals:

If you are not careful while masturbating, you might end up hurting your genitals or sensitive zones, for example, chafing or tender skin, after masturbating too harshly.

Conclusion:

Masturbation is a very usual and a healthy sexual activity that can make you sexually independent as you get to know your body, what you want for pleasure and how you wish to be pleasured. Though there are various myths related to masturbation, one must focus on the health benefits of masturbation and try to be conscious of the negative sides of masturbation.