This week: 2 columns in 1!
This week: 2 columns in 1!
Dear Dr. Holmes:I am 18 years old and I have been masturbating daily for the last two years, since I turned 16. Does this cause damage to my reproductive organs? Please help me.
BOY LONDON
Dear BOY LONDON:Thank you very much for your letter. Masturbating daily will not damage your reproductive organs. Masturbation is a self limiting activity; that is, barring any psychological impediment, no one masturbates unless he really wants to and one doesn’t really want to if pain and/or damage is involved.
I have had clients who masturbated 5 to 7 times per day for years on end and still sired the healthiest babies you could find when they got older.
I hope this answer reassures you and if not, read the q & a below, okay?
All the best!
MG Holmes
Bonus column!
Dear Dr. Holmes:Is it true that excessive masturbation can cause sterility? Just asking...
JC
Dear JC:There is no such thing as excessive masturbation, except in the psychological sense and to date I haven’t come across any psychological angst so great that it has caused sterility. So, to answer your question, masturbation does NOT cause sterility.
Masturbation is a self limiting activity in the sense that people stop masturbating when masturbation has fulfilled its purpose for them. The most common among these purposes is sexual release, but relaxation (a great way to fall asleep), as a fidelity booster (easier to stay faithful and say no to an attractive woman if you’ve just had a relationship with Mariang Palad) or a technique to last longer (masturbating before making love later in the day works for some men).
I have been told of many occasions when, especially because of religious reasons, people refrain from masturbating even if, I daresay, some of them would behave more angelically (and thus more in keeping with their religious tenets) if they got their fired-up libidos out of the way and just allowed themselves to do so. However, I have never heard of the opposite: people forcing themselves to masturbate just because they thought they should. This is what self limiting means. You do it till you need/want to and then you stop.
What is important about masturbation is not so much the frequency of the activity (how often you do it) per se, but the psychological meaning of the act for you. If a person masturbates seven, eight nine or even more times daily and still does what he is supposed to as a responsible human being, then 9+ times a day is not excessive.
If a person masturbates just once in his life but is so debilitated by guilt that that is all he thinks about, then masturbating even once in his life is too much. If a person masturbates once every two months, but this is a substitute for reaching out to others and having healthy, affirming relationships with them, then once a month is also to much.
Sige na, JC. I hope you get my drift. I will end this now, lest I too be accused of answering the question too much.
All the best!
MG Holmes
(BodyMind Vol. 3 No. 17 - First posted: 8-8-99)
