Written By Yvonne K. Fulbright / Published August 11, 2008 / FoxNews.com
Perhaps the joke’s on us. While people love to make wisecracks about it, few will actually admit to doing “it.”
Yet, according to Martha Cornog, of "The Big Book of Masturbation", self-pleasuring is surely the second most common human sex act. And, despite its torrid history, that’s proving to be a good thing. Turns out this once taboo behavior has plenty of health benefits and can do wonders for your sex life.
While the shackles of masturbation have been loosening around our loins, it is only recently that society has started to let go of its guilt around solo sex. This is in part thanks to sex researchers affirming that most of us do it, as well as the embracing of it by television sitcoms. Who can forget the bet made by Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer as to who could remain the “master of their domain” the longest?
Even if you’re not a conformist, there’s something about safety in numbers when it comes to this topic. (And if it makes you feel even better, know that masturbation is common among other animals, like dogs, cats, horses, bulls, rats, hamsters, deer, and whales, too).
This more relaxed attitude is also due to the medical community challenging its own original claims that masturbation was a serious medical-ethical problem with dire results. According to works like Onania, circa 1712, male masturbation was said to lead to disease or disorder with the loss of semen.
Likewise, in losing vaginal fluid, a female who took matters into her own hands was supposedly at risk for hysteria, jaundice, epileptic fits, and other negative health conditions. Of equal concern, self-pleasuring was thought to send her down the road to sodomy as well.
Anybody with “solo sexploration” experience can tell you that, contrary to popular myths, masturbation does not result in any of the aforementioned, nor does it lead to acne, warts, hair on the palm, insanity, blindness...
What many may not know, however, is that stimulating yourself can ultimately boost your health in many ways.
Health Benefits for Men
Research summarized in a 2007 article in Sexual and Relationship Therapy found that masturbation may help men by:
— Improving his immune system’s functioning.
— Building his resistance to prostate gland infection.
— Making for a healthier prostate.
Australian researchers have reported that frequent masturbation may lower a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer. A survey of men found the more frequently a man masturbates between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to get prostate cancer. In fact, those who masturbated more than five times a week were one-third less likely to develop prostate cancer.
Health Benefits for Females
When it comes to a woman’s health, self-pleasuring serves her well by:
— Building her resistance to yeast infections.
— Combating pre-menstrual tension and other physical conditions associated with their menstrual cycles, like cramps.
— Relieving painful menstruation by increasing blood flow to the pelvic region. This will also reduce pelvic cramping and related backaches.
— Relieving chronic back pain and increasing her threshold for pain.
Health Benefits for Both Sexes
Masturbation rewards both men and women because it’s:
— The safest kind of sex, keeping you free of sexually transmitted infections.
— A great form of stress relief.
— A mood booster in releasing endorphins.
— A natural sleep sedative.
— A mechanism for building stronger pelvic floor muscles, which can lead to better sex.
— A natural energetic pick-me-up.
As Sigmund Freud once remarked at the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society, “the subject of masturbation is quite inexhaustible.” While he wasn’t getting at the benefits (Freud saw self-pleasuring as harmful to the genitals and one’s psychosexual and moral development), the same can be said in how it can improve one’s sexual relationship.
For couples who masturbate on occasion or regularly, sex with yourself can:
— Be empowering, especially by helping you to feel better about your body, genitals and sexual response.
— Deliver some of your most intense orgasms ever, which you’ll now know how to recreate with that special someone!
— Increase your sexual awareness, giving you the opportunity to discover what turns you on – the sensations and movements that work best to give you the greatest of sexual gratification.
— Have the potential to enhance your sex life in general, boosting your sexual confidence and turning you into a better lover.
— Get you or your partner off the hook if neither is available or not in the mood.
via
FOXSexpert: The Health Benefits of Masturbation | Fox News.
Some enterprising Scottish researchers decided to study the sexual appetites of 323 women and discovered, interestingly enough, that size does matter. Women who achieved orgasm did so with more ease if their partner had a penis length of over 5.8 inches. The longer the ding-a-ling, the more stimulation the vagina and the cervix get, the more fun everyone's having.
So all that so-called internal anxiety about dick size? Ha ha, it's real. Size matters. Big time. Guess we better cool it with our "size matters" jokes, huh?
I mean, since it's a real thing, maybe we shouldn't poke fun at it.
Psych! It's a mostly, if not universally, accepted standard that bigger boobs are better than small boobs, so welcome to the club, dudes! Now you, too, can feel like less of a person because of the size of your sex organ.
Here, in our club, behind door number one, we have some literature on how to get over your inferiority complex. Then there, behind door number two, we've got videos about how to deal with your genetic shortcomings. And way over yonder, behind door number three, we've got a plastic surgeon waiting to capitalize on your need to have something enlarged.
The good news for men, though, is that if you're Italian, Swedish, Greek, or German, you don't really have anything to worry about. Each of those countries has an average penis size of over 5.8 inches.
But if you're from the US, UK, Spain, France, or Russia ... your average penis size is under 5.8 (the US is 5.1 inches!), so ... yeah. There's that. Better go ahead and pick your door.
Penis Size Really, Really, Truly Matters -- Really | The Stir.
