Is Masturbation Healthy? 7 Science-Based Facts

At a Glance

• The short answer: Yes, and science backs it up. Masturbation triggers the release of endorphins, dopamine, and oxytocin, which improve mood, reduce cortisol (the stress hormone), and support better sleep.
• Heart and prostate benefits: Research from The American Journal of Cardiology found that people who orgasmed more than twice a week were 45% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease. Separately, ejaculating 21 or more times per month has been linked to a 22% lower risk of prostate health issues.
• Pelvic floor and ED: Every time you masturbate and orgasm, you’re exercising your pelvic floor muscles. Stronger pelvic floor muscles are directly tied to better erectile function and reduced risk of ED over time.
• How to stimulate your prostate: The post walks through prostate anatomy, how to locate the gland internally, the “come hither” finger technique, and how to progress to using a prostate massager for more intense stimulation.
• Urinary health: Regular prostate stimulation can help reduce prostate swelling, which in turn keeps the urinary tract clear and functioning properly, especially important as you age.

Figuring out what feels good to you while masturbating can be a complicated journey. Some people are taught, in one way or another, that masturbation is wrong, and they are too scared to try it.

But if you feel uncomfortable with the idea of masturbation, a qualified sex therapist may be able to help you work through your thoughts and get rid of the guilt.

There are plenty of health benefits of masturbation, such as:

• Helping to release sexual tension
• Reducing the effects of stress
• Strengthens muscle tone in the pelvic and anal region
• Promoting better sleep quality
• Supporting relief for muscle tension

We are here to bust every masturbation myth and show you the many ways that making yourself bust can be good for your body and mind. We narrowed our list of ways masturbation can help support your overall health and wellbeing.

Keep reading to get all the info you need on why masturbation is a normal part of anyone's life.

What Is Masturbation?

There are many different ways to masturbate as it looks different for everyone. If you boiled down the definition of masturbation, it would look like this: a person stimulating their own body for pleasure.

To masturbate, you can use sex toys, touch different areas of your body, and go at your own pace without the risk of pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. There are some common forms of masturbation that we will get into later, but whatever feels best to you is the way to do it.

Why Should You Masturbate?

Masturbation can be physically beneficial to your overall health and wellbeing, but it's also a good way to connect with yourself. Self-pleasure is a wonderful way to get to know your body better and explore what feels good to you.

Whenever you plan to get intimate with your partner, there should be a conversation about expectations for your sex life, explaining what you want, what feels good, and how you can help each other reach climax.

Solo masturbation is the best way to help prepare you for those questions.

Masturbation allows you to explore your own pleasure without feeling pressured or rushed into climax. Everyone is unique and likes to be pleasured in different ways, so do yourself a favor and dedicate some time to figuring out what moves or toys bring you the most pleasure.

Regardless of your relationship status, focusing on your desires and pleasures is a way to show yourself self-love. Taking some time to focus on yourself is self-care and a great way to feel sexually confident and comfortable in your body.

When you learn how to pleasure yourself, this can help you maintain a positive body image.

What Are the Pleasure Points?

Your body has many stimulating spots to explore. It is common for people assigned male at birth to stimulate their penis and prostate, as these areas can lead to intense orgasms.

Pleasuring the Penis

Stimulating the head of the penis is an extremely common way to masturbate. To masturbate this way, you'll need your hands, your penis, and some lube.

Don't be afraid to try exploring with the pace of your stroke, the amount of pressure you are applying, and different hand positions. It could also feel good to stimulate other endogenous zones like your balls, perineum, inner thighs, or neck.

Pleasuring the Prostate

For many cisgender males, stimulating the prostate during masturbation may be pleasurable, but it is often ignored or judged. However, we are here to tell you that you are missing out if you aren't using your prostate to masturbate!

Milking the prostate could become your new favorite way to support your sexual health.

Your penis can cause four to eight pelvic muscles to contract while stimulating your prostate can cause more than a dozen pelvic floor muscles to contract. Your orgasm can be more intense — and give you pleasure from head to toe.

How Do I Stimulate My Prostate?

Prostate stimulation is not discussed enough, so we're here to give you all the information you need to access this pleasure center in your body.

Your prostate is a small organ below the bladder and inside the rectum. It is an essential part of the reproductive system and creates the fluid that carries your sperm.

This walnut-sized gland is covered in nerve endings, which is why so many people find prostate stimulation pleasurable. Because of its convenient location, you can access your prostate internally or externally.

Use Fingers

Using your fingers is the easiest way to get started with prostate masturbation. Before jumping right in, set the scene and make sure you feel relaxed and comfortable. The first step is ensuring your fingers and anus are properly lubed. In this case, there is no such thing as too much lube!

Start by slowly massaging the exterior muscles that surround your anus. This will encourage your muscles to feel more relaxed and make penetration easier. Once ready, slowly enter one or two fingers inside your anus as you locate the prostate.

The prostate is a fleshy bulge that feels different from the surrounding tissue. You might feel the urge to pee once you've found the prostate, but that means you are in the right spot.

There are plenty of strokes and positions to use while stimulating your prostate, but for beginners, we recommend using the “come hither” motion with your legs up. Once you have located the prostate, move your fingers as if you were telling someone to “come here.”

Change the speed and pressure to make it most pleasurable for you.

Although reaching around yourself to enter your anus may seem like an act reserved for acrobats, we promise it gets easier the more you do it. Laying on your back with your knees to your chest will allow you to reach down to your rectum while having easy access to the perineum.

Use Toys

Once you feel comfortable using your fingers, you might be ready for something more intense or hands-free. Luckily, plenty of toys are designed specifically for prostate stimulation. If you aren't sure which toy is best for you, we recommend our Tomo II massager to start.

This remote-controlled toy will fit snugly inside you, using vibrating patterns to stimulate your prostate. Additionally, there is an external head that will massage your perineum.

If you want to explore more options, you can check GIDDI's prostate pleasure products or even take our quiz to find your best match.

When trying to use a toy, there are two major things to keep in mind: use lube and go slowly.

Apply a generous amount of lube to the head of the toy and outside of the anus. Then, gently insert your toy by rocking it back and forth until it feels secure. While inserting the toy, be sure to take deep breaths, and soon enough, you'll see why we're shook prostate stimulation doesn't get the attention it deserves.

7 Science-Based Ways Masturbating Boosts Your Health

Now that you know what masturbation is and how to do it, we're going to talk about how masturbation can be beneficial for your health.

Releases Endorphins

Endorphins and dopamine are powerful chemicals in your body that are often referred to as “the happy chemicals.” These chemicals are naturally produced by your nervous system and can act as happiness boosters.

Endorphins and dopamine are thought to be aids in determining a person's mood and help support mental health.

Your body naturally produces these chemicals, but there is a list of activities that, when done, give your body a boost of them. This list includes exercising, laughing, meditation, and, you guessed it, masturbation.

Orgasms have been shown to release endorphins and dopamine in the body, which can help increase a person's overall mood and help them feel more relaxed and at ease!

Relieves Stress

If you are a naturally anxious or stressed person, you've probably heard every recommendation under the sun to get yourself to ease up a little. People tell you to meditate, get plenty of exercise, eat healthily, and sleep enough.

However, how often have you been told that touching yourself and having an orgasm might be the best stress reliever yet? Besides releasing endorphins and dopamine in your body, orgasms have other stress-relieving factors.

Orgasms can lead to a release of the hormone oxytocin in your body. Oxytocin has been proven to lower cortisol levels. If you have never heard of cortisol, it is the hormone that spikes when a person feels stressed. So, by masturbating, you can potentially help reduce the feelings of overwhelm, increasing your oxytocin levels and the sexual tension you are holding in your body.

Promotes Better Sleep

Not getting a good night's sleep can lead to various issues. Without quality sleep, you can feel more irritable and can't think as clearly, and your physical performance is often negatively affected.

However, masturbation might be the tool you are missing in your nighttime routine. When your body releases all the endorphins, dopamine, and oxytocin during orgasm like we talked about above, your body feels much more relaxed and calm. This can hopefully nudge your body toward a better night's sleep.

Additionally, your body releases another chemical during orgasm called prolactin, which has also been shown to make you feel more relaxed.

In fact, research has shown that around 50% of people say they are more likely to fall asleep if they frequently have orgasms.

Lowers Potential Health Risks

If you were assigned male at birth, you probably understand the major risks associated with poor prostate health. Besides eating healthily and getting regular prostate exams, masturbation may be the tool you are not using to help maintain your overall wellness.

Ejaculation has been proven to reduce the risk of potential prostate health risks. In a study done over the span of 18 years, people who ejaculated 21 times or more in a month were 22% less likely to receive a diagnosis compared to those who ejaculated around four to seven times per month.

So, do your body a favor, and support your health while bringing your body some pleasure, too.

Reduces Chance of Erectile Dysfunction

Having erectile dysfunction (ED) is a serious fear of those who were assigned male at birth. Although there are plenty of medications to help fight it, and there is nothing wrong with having ED, most people generally want to do what they can to avoid it.

Turns out, regular masturbation can be one of the best tools to help support a male's total health. Think of your penis like your brain: the more you use it, the better it works.

Erectile dysfunction is a condition that prohibits a person with a penis from either getting or maintaining a firm erection. One potential cause of erectile dysfunction is the weakening of the pelvic floor muscles.

However, every time you masturbate and have an orgasm, you are exercising and strengthening your pelvic floor muscles. While there can be too much of a good thing, one of the side effects of masturbation can include a stronger pelvic floor.

Helps Support Heart Health

Sex can sometimes feel like a workout. Thrusting, tossing around, and putting yourself in precarious positions usually gets the blood flow going and leads to sweating and a faster heart beat. However, you don't need a partner or a four-hour session for your heart to feel like it just did a workout.

In fact, a 20-minute solo session that leads to an orgasm is enough to get your heart going.

If you have high blood pressure or underlying heart issues, you should talk to your healthcare provider for medical advice regarding what sort of sexual activity is safe for you.

A recent study done by The American Journal of Cardiology discovered that people assigned male at birth who had orgasms only once a month were 45% more likely to contract a cardiovascular disease compared to those who orgasmed more than twice per week.

While correlation isn't causation, we're happy to take any reason to self-satisfy more!

So what are you waiting for? Start masturbating and support your health.

Supports Urinary Health

Sometimes, as people age, they can have trouble peeing. They are either going way too much, not enough, or when they do urinate, it's less than satisfactory. This can be caused by many reasons, but a common cause is a swollen prostate.

As a person with a prostate gets older, their prostate naturally grows, but if it becomes too large, it can cause some health issues. However, masturbation can help keep the health of your prostate and your urinary tract in check.

If your prostate swells too much, it begins to press on the tube that travels from your bladder and drains your urine. Understandably, this causes issues with urine flow. However, prostate massages and masturbation reduce swelling in the prostate. So, if you regularly masturbate you can reduce the swelling of your prostate so you can maintain proper urinary health.

Conclusion

Whether you are new to masturbation or you are a seasoned pro, we hope you know that male and female masturbation (and all the other ways someone can identify themselves), is a totally normal part of people's lives. In fact, it is not only completely normal but also proven to improve your health!

No matter why you masturbate, just remember that it should be a fun and pleasurable experience that lets you explore your body.

Not sure which of our award-winning toys is right for you? Take this short quiz to help us help you find the perfect toy for yourself, your partner, or someone special!