All About Masturbation

Myth: Masturbation will make you blind, hairy, or sterile.
Reality: Masturbation is the safest form of sex.

Myth: If a man ejaculates too much when he is young he will run out of sperm when he is older.
Reality: There is not a limited amount of sperm. The more the body uses the more it will produce.

Children discover from an early age that touching their genitals feels good. It is a normal human response to do what makes us feel good. We eventually learn that there is a time and a place for everything and there are some things better done in private, but there is no punishment or reprimand intended by being told to be more discrete.

There is nothing bad, abnormal or wrong about touching ourselves. Our bodies belong to us and no one else. We have complete control over who touches our bodies, when and why. For children, learning to touch themselves in private and learning to understand that their bodies are under their complete control develops a great power within them to assert themselves and protect themselves sexually later in life.

Masturbation also teaches young people what feels good to them and this can allow them to have a healthy sexual relationship later by already being familiar with their own body and it's responses.

Both boys and girls, men and women, masturbate. There is no right or wrong way to do it. People discover what they like, how often, and when they like it through experimentation and over the course of time. Masturbation is a normal and healthy component of our sexual selves.

Young people's masturbation is a healthy and useful learning phase. We get to identify what our sexual organs and desires are all about.

By engaging in full intercourse at earlier and earlier ages we are not learning much about our sexuality, because emotional maturity is required for rewarding sexual experience. Masturbation allows us to fantasize whatever we wish and learn exactly how to achieve climax with no one to interfere.

It is inappropriate to expect a partner to hit upon just what does it for us without our giving them some direction. If we have not thoroughly explored our sexuality through masturbation we won't know ourselves what does it for us and will come away from each sexual experience feeling frustrated and lacking in some way.

What is the price you pay when you put another's needs before your own?

  • Many of us have ended up sleeping with someone we know we're not interested in because we didn't want to hurt their feelings.
  • We may not insist on safe sex because we don't feel comfortable demanding it or we don't think that we are important enough. Or not being sexually satisfied because we are afraid to ask for what we want and encourage our partners to do the same.
  • We may go years or months without orgasms. But none of that will happen if we are clear about what we want and feel entitled to have it.

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    © 2012 Sexual Health Centre Saskatoon -- Updated March 21, 2012.