Masturbation is the sexual stimulationof one's own genitals for sexual arousalor other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects,sex toys or combinations of these.Mutual masturbation, mutual manual stimulation of the genitals between partners, can be a substitute for sexual penetration. Studies have found that masturbation is frequent in humans of both sexes and all ages, although there is variation. Various medical and psychological benefits have been attributed to a healthy attitude toward sexual activity in general and to masturbation in particular. No causalrelationship is known between masturbation and any form of mental or physical disorder.
Masturbation has been depicted in art since prehistoric times and is mentioned and discussed in very early writings. In the 18th and 19th centuries, some European theologians and physicians described it as "heinous", "deplorable", and "hideous", but during the 20th century, these taboos generally declined. There has been an increase in discussion and portrayal of masturbation in art, popular music, television, films, and literature. Today, religions vary in their views of masturbation; some view it as a spiritually detrimental practice, some see it as not spiritually detrimental, and others take a situational view. The legal status of masturbation has also varied through history and masturbation in public is illegal in most countries.
In the West, masturbation in private or with a partner is generally considered a normal and healthy part of sexual enjoyment. Animal masturbation has been observed in many species, both in the wild and in captivity.
The English word masturbation was introduced in the 18th century, based on the Latin verb masturbari, alongside the more technical and slightly earlieronanism. The Latin verb masturbari is of uncertain origin. Suggested derivations include an unattested word for penis,*mazdo, cognate with Greek mézeaμέζεα, "genitals", or alternatively a corruption of an unattested*manusturpare ("to defile with the hand"), by association with turbare "to disturb".
While masturbation is the formal word for this practice, many other expressions are in common use. Terms such as playing with yourself,other words copyright as " jack off" or "flog your log" pleasuring oneself and slang such as wanking, jerking off, and frigging are common.Self-abuse and self-pollution were common in early modern times and are still found in modern dictionaries. A large variety of other euphemisms anddysphemisms exist which describe masturbation. For a list of terms, see the entry for masturbate in Wikisaurus.
The medical consensus is that masturbation is a medically healthy andpsychologically normalhabit.
Masturbation does not producepremature ejaculation.
General benefits
In the early 20th century, masturbation was believed by some (e.g., the social hygiene movement) to be a vice that led to terrible economic and physical consequences.
Sex therapists will sometimes recommend that female patients take time to masturbate to orgasm, for example to help improve sexual health and relationships, to help determine what is erotically pleasing to them, and because mutual masturbation can lead to more satisfying sexual relationships and added intimacy.
It is held in many mental health circles that masturbation can relievedepression and lead to a higher sense of self-esteem. Masturbation can also be particularly useful in relationships where one partner wants more sex than the other – in which case masturbation provides a balancing effect and thus a more harmonious relationship.
Mutual masturbation, the act by which two or more partners stimulate themselves in the presence of each other, allows a couple to reveal the "map to [their] pleasure centers". By watching a partner masturbate, one finds out the methods they use to please him- or herself, allowing each partner to learn exactly how the other enjoys being touched. Intercourse, by itself, is often inconvenient or impractical at times to provide sufficient sexual release for many people. Mutual masturbation allows couples to enjoy each other and obtain sexual release as often as they need but without the inconveniences and risks associated with sex.
In 2003, an Australian research team led by Graham Giles of The Cancer Council Australia found that males masturbating frequently had a lower probability to develop prostate cancer. Men who averaged five or more ejaculations weekly in their 20s had significantly lower risk. However they could not show a direct causation. The study also indicated that increased ejaculation through masturbation rather than intercourse would be more helpful as intercourse is associated with diseases (STDs) that may increase therisk of cancer instead. However, this benefit may be age related. A 2008 study concluded that frequent ejaculation between the ages of 20 and 40 may be correlated with higher risk of developing prostate cancer. On the other hand, frequent ejaculation in one's 50s was found to be correlated with a lower such risk in this same study.
A study published in 1997 found an inverse association between death from coronary heart disease and frequency of orgasm even given the risk that myocardial ischaemia and myocardial infarction can be triggered by sexual activity.
"The association between frequency of orgasm and all cause mortality was also examined using the midpoint of each response category recorded as number of orgasms per year. The age adjusted odds ratio for an increase of 100 orgasms per year was 0.64 (0.44 to 0.95)."
That is, a difference in mortality appeared between any two subjects when one subject ejaculated at around two times per week more than the other. Assuming a broad range average of between 3 to 5 ejaculations per week for healthy males, this would mean 5 to 7 ejaculations per week. This is consistent with a 2003 Australia article on the benefits against prostate cancer. The strength of these correlations increased with increasing frequency of ejaculation.
A 2008 study at Tabriz Medical University found ejaculation reduces swollen nasal blood vessels, freeing the airway for normal breathing. The mechanism is through stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and is long lasting. The study author suggests "It can be done [from] time-to-time to alleviate the congestion and the patient can adjust the number of intercourses or masturbations depending on the severity of the symptoms."
Solo masturbation is a sexual activity that is free of risk of sexually transmitted infections. With two or more participants, the risk of sexually transmitted infections, while not eliminated, is much less than with most forms of penetrative sex. Support for such a view, and for making masturbation part of the American sex education curriculum, led to the dismissal of US Surgeon GeneralJoycelyn Elders during the Clinton administration. Some EU Nationspromote masturbation in their sex education curricula.
Sexual climax, from masturbation or otherwise, leaves one in a relaxed and contented state. This is frequently followed closely by drowsiness and sleep – particularly when one masturbates in bed.
Some professionals consider masturbation to function as a cardiovascular workout. Though research is still as yet scant, those suffering from cardiovascular disorders (particularly those recovering from myocardial infarction, or heart attacks) should resume physical activity (including sexual intercourse and masturbation) gradually and with the frequency and rigor which their physical status will allow. This limitation can serve as encouragement to follow through with physical therapy sessions to help improve endurance. In general, real sex slightly increases energy consumption, according a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Both sex and masturbation lower blood pressure. A small study demonstrated lower blood pressure in persons who had recently masturbated compared to those with no proximate sexual activity.
Risks
A small percentage of men have a disease called postorgasmic illness syndrome (POIS), which causes severe muscle pain throughout the body and other symptoms immediately followingejaculation, whether due to masturbation or partnered sex. The symptoms last for up to a week.Some doctors speculate that the frequency of POIS "in the population may be greater than has been reported in the academic literature", and that many POIS sufferers are undiagnosed.
Those who insert objects as aid to masturbation risk them becoming stuck (e.g. as rectal foreign bodies). Men and women can fall prey to this problem. A woman went into a German hospital with two pencils in her bladder. She had inserted them into her urethra during masturbation.
Pregnancy
Solo masturbation, or masturbation involving individuals of the same gender, cannot produce pregnancy. Masturbation involving both a man and a woman (see mutual masturbation) can result in pregnancy only if semencontacts the vulva.
Male masturbation may be used as a method to obtain semen for third party reproductive procedures such asartificial insemination and In vitro fertilisation which may involve the use of either partner or donor sperm.
At a sperm bank or fertility clinic, a special room or cabin may be set aside so that semen may be produced by male masturbation for use in fertility treatments such as artificial insemination. Most semen used forsperm donation, and all semen donated through a sperm bank by sperm donors, is produced in this way. The facility at a sperm bank used for this purpose is known as a masturbatorium (US) or men's production room (UK). A bed or couch is usually provided for the man, and pornographic films or other material may be made available.
Problems for males
A man whose penis has suffered a blunt trauma, severe bend or other injury during intercourse or masturbation may, rarely, sustain a penile fracture or suffer from Peyronie's disease.Phimosis is "a contracted foreskin (that) may cause trouble by hurting when an attempt is made to pull the foreskin back". In these cases, any energetic manipulation of the penis can be problematic.
Compulsive masturbation
For more details on this topic, seeHypersexuality.
Compulsive masturbation and other compulsive behaviors can be signs of an emotional problem, which may need to be addressed by a mental health specialist. As with any "nervous habit", it is more helpful to consider the causes of compulsive behavior, rather than try to repress masturbation.
Masturbation among adolescents contributes to them developing a sense of mastery over sexual impulses, and it has a role in the physical and emotional development of prepubescents and pubescents. Babies and toddlers will play with their genitals in much the same way as they play with their ears or toes. If such play becomes all-consuming, it may be necessary to look for an underlying cause of this, such as the child being tense and in need of comfort, or that others may be overreacting and thus reinforcing the habit. It could be caused by a low-grade urinary tract or yeast infection, or the child may be overstimulated and in need of soothing, or indeed understimulated and bored. Alongside many other factors, such as medical evidence, age-inappropriate sexual knowledge, sexualized play or aggression, and precocious or seductive behavior, excessive masturbation may alternatively be an indicator of sexual abuse.
There are depictions of male masturbation in prehistoric rock paintings around the world. Most early people seem to have connected human sexuality with abundance in nature. A clay figurine of the 4th millennium BC from a temple site on the island ofMalta, depicts a woman masturbating. However, in the ancient world depictions of male masturbation are far more common.
An Ancient Greek krater from the 6th century BCE of asatyr masturbating
From the earliest records, ancientSumer had a relaxed attitude toward sex, and masturbation was a popular technique for enhancing potency, either alone or with a partner.
Male masturbation became an even more important image in ancient Egypt. When performed by a god it could be considered a creative or magical act: the god Atum was believed to have created the universe by masturbating to ejaculation, and the ebb and flow of theNile was attributed to the frequency of his ejaculations. Egyptian Pharaohs, in response to this, were at one time required to masturbate ceremonially into the Nile.
The ancient Greeks had a more relaxed attitude toward masturbation than the Egyptians did, regarding the act as a normal and healthy substitute for other forms of sexual pleasure. They considered it a safety valve against destructive sexual frustration. The Greeks also dealt with female masturbation in both their art and writings. One common term used for it was anaphlan, which roughly translates as "up-fire".
Diogenes, speaking in jest, credited the god Hermes with its invention: he allegedly took pity on his son Pan, who was pining for Echo but unable to seduce her, and taught him the trick of masturbation in order to relieve his suffering. Pan in his turn taught the habit to young shepherds.
As late as the seventeenth century in Europe the practice was commonly employed by nannies to put their young male charges to sleep. That tolerance was soon to change. The first use of the word "onanism" to consistently and specifically refer to masturbation appears to be Onania, an anonymous pamphlet first distributed in London in 1716. It drew on familiar themes of sin and vice, this time in particular against the "heinous sin" of "self-pollution". After dire warnings that those who so indulged would sufferimpotence, gonorrhea, epilepsy and a wasting of the faculties (included were letters and testimonials supposedly from young men ill and dying from the effects of compulsive masturbation), the pamphlet then goes on to recommend as an effective remedy a "Strengthening Tincture" at 10 shillings a bottle and a "Prolific Powder" at 12 shillings a bag, available from a local shop.
A patented device designed to prevent masturbation by inflicting electric shocks upon the perpetrator, by ringing an alarm bell, and through spikes at the inner edge of the tube into which the penis is inserted. The entire patent document: Page 1, 2, 3,4.
One of the many horrified by the descriptions of malady in Onania was the notable Swiss physician Samuel-Auguste Tissot. In 1760, he publishedL'Onanisme, his own comprehensive medical treatise on the purported ill-effects of masturbation. Citing case studies of young male masturbators amongst his patients in Lausanne,Switzerland as basis for his reasoning, Tissot argued that semen was an "essential oil" and "stimulus" that, when lost from the body in great amounts, would cause "a perceptible reduction of strength, of memory and even of reason; blurred vision, all the nervous disorders, all types of gout andrheumatism, weakening of the organs of generation, blood in the urine, disturbance of the appetite, headaches and a great number of other disorders."
Though Tissot's ideas are now considered conjectural at best, his treatise was presented as a scholarly, scientific work in a time when experimental physiology was practically nonexistent. The authority with which the work was subsequently treated – Tissot's arguments were even acknowledged and echoed by luminaries such as Kant and Voltaire – arguably shifted the view of masturbation in Western medicine over the next two centuries into that of a debilitating illness.
This view persisted well into theVictorian era, where such medical censure of masturbation was in line with the widespread socialconservatism and opposition to open sexual behavior common at the time. There were recommendations to have boys' pants constructed so that the genitals could not be touched through the pockets, for schoolchildren to be seated at special desks to prevent their crossing their legs in class and for girls to be forbidden from riding horses and bicycles because the sensations these activities produce were considered too similar to masturbation. Boys and young men who nevertheless continued to indulge in the practice were branded as "weak-minded." Many "remedies" were devised, including eating a bland, meatless diet. This approach was promoted by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg(inventor of corn flakes) and Rev. Sylvester Graham (inventor of Graham crackers). The medical literature of the times describes procedures for electric shock treatment, infibulation, restraining devices like chastity beltsand straitjackets, cauterization or – as a last resort – wholesale surgical excisionof the genitals. Routine neonatalcircumcision was widely adopted in the United States and the UK at least partly because of its believed preventive effect against masturbation (see also History of male circumcision). In later decades, the more drastic of these measures were increasingly replaced with psychological techniques, such as warnings that masturbation led to blindness, hairy hands or stunted growth. Some of these persist as myths even today.
Image of a chastity belt from a patent document.
At the same time, the supposed medical condition of hysteria—from the Greekhystera or uterus—was being treated by what would now be described as medically administered or medically prescribed masturbation for women. Techniques included use of the earliest vibrators and rubbing the genitals with placebo creams.[95]
Medical attitudes toward masturbation began to change at the beginning of the 20th century when H. Havelock Ellis, in his seminal 1897 work Studies in the Psychology of Sex, questioned Tissot's premises, cheerfully named famous men of the era who masturbated and then set out to disprove (with the work of more recent physicians) each of the claimed diseases of which masturbation was purportedly the cause. "We reach the conclusion", he wrote, "that in the case of moderate masturbation in healthy, well-born individuals, no seriously pernicious results necessarily follow."
Robert Baden-Powell, the founder ofThe Scout Association, incorporated a passage in the 1914 edition of Scouting for Boys warning against the dangers of masturbation. This passage stated that the individual should run away from the temptation by performing physical activity which was supposed to tire the individual so that masturbation could not be performed. By 1930, however, Dr.F. W. W. Griffin, editor of The Scouter,had written in a book for Rover Scouts that the temptation to masturbate was "a quite natural stage of development" and, citing Ellis' work, held that "the effort to achieve complete abstinence was a very serious error."
Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reichin his 1922 essay Concerning Specific Forms of Masturbation tried to identify healthy and unhealthy forms of masturbation. He tried to relate the way people masturbated to their degree of inclination towards the opposite sex and to their psycho-sexual pathologies. Masturbation by men was at one time believed to cause homosexuality.
The works of Sexologist Alfred Kinseyduring the 1940s and 1950s said that masturbation was an instinctive behavior for both males and females, citing the results of Gallup Poll surveys indicating how common it was in the United States. Some critics of this theory held that his research was biased and that the Gallup Poll method was redundant for defining "natural behavior".
Thomas Szasz states the shift inscientific consensus as "Masturbation: the primary sexual activity of mankind. In the nineteenth century it was a disease; in the twentieth, it's a cure."
In 1994, when the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, mentioned as an aside that it should be mentioned in school curricula that masturbation was safe and healthy, she was forced to resign, with opponents asserting that she was promoting the teaching of how to masturbate. Many[who?] believe this was the result of her long history of promoting controversial viewpoints and not due solely to her public mention of masturbation.
Stigma
Even though many medicalprofessionals and scientists have found large amounts of evidence that masturbating is healthy and commonly practiced by males and females, stigma on the topic still persists today. On November 2013, Matthew Burdette, after being filmed masturbating, committed suicide.
Proving that these ancient stigmas against masturbation are still alive and felt by women and men, researchers in 1994 found that half of the adult women and men who masturbate feel guilty about it (Laumann, et al., 1994 , 85). Another study in 2000 found that adolescent young men are still frequently afraid to admit that they masturbate (Halpern, et al., 2000, 327).
—Planned Parenthood,Masturbation—From Stigma to Sexual Health
Religious views
A temple relief at Khajuraho inMadhya Pradesh, India features a couple in a sexual embrace with a man and a woman masturbating to either side.
Main article: Religious views on masturbation
See also: Religion and sexuality and Sperm in vain (Judaism)
Religions vary broadly in their views of masturbation, from considering it completely impermissible (as in Roman Catholicism) to encouraging and refining it (see, for example Neotantraand Taoist sexual practices).
Philosophical arguments
Immanuel Kant regarded masturbation as a violation of the moral law. In The Metaphysics of Morals (1797), he made the a posteriori argument that "such an unnatural use of one's sexual attribute" strikes "everyone upon his thinking of it" as "a violation of one's duty to himself", and suggested that it was regarded as immoral even to give it its proper name (unlike the case of the similarly undutiful act of suicide). He went on, however, to acknowledge that "it is not so easy to produce a rational demonstration of the inadmissibility of that unnatural use", but ultimately concluded that its immorality lay in the fact that "a man gives up his personality ... when he uses himself merely as a means for the gratification of an animal drive".
Subsequent critics of masturbation tended to argue against it on more physiological grounds, however.
Law
The prosecution of masturbation in the sight of others has varied at different times, from virtually unlimited acceptance to complete illegality. In a 17th-century law code for the Puritancolony of New Haven, Connecticut"blasphemers, homosexuals and masturbators" were eligible for thedeath penalty.
Often, masturbation in the sight of others is prosecuted under a general law such as public indecency, though some laws make specific mention of masturbation. In the UK, masturbating in public is illegal under Section 28 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847. The penalty may be up to 14 days in prison, depending on a range of circumstantial factors. In the US, laws vary from state to state. In 2010, the Supreme Court of Alabama upheld a state law criminalizing the distribution of sex-toys. In the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, masturbating in public is a class 3 misdemeanour. In 2013, a man found masturbating openly on a beach in Sweden was cleared of charges of sexual assault, the court finding that his activities had not been directed towards any specific person.
In many jurisdictions, masturbation by one person of another is considereddigital penetration which may be illegal in some cases, such as when the other person is a minor.
There is debate whether masturbation should be promoted in correctional institutions. Restrictions onpornography, used to accompany masturbation, are common in American correctional facilities. Connecticut Department of Corrections officials say that these restrictions are intended to avoid a hostile work environment forcorrectional officers. Other researchers argue allowing masturbation could help prisoners restrict their sexual urges to their imaginations rather than engaging inprison rape or other non-masturbatory sexual activity that could pose sexually transmitted disease or other health risks.
References
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^ a b Jack Boulware (9 May 2000). "Sex educator says most people masturbate". Salon.com. Retrieved 27 August 2014. apud "Masturbation: Current medical opinions". Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ a b Szasz, Thomas S. (1974) [1973]. "Sex". The Second Sin. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. p. 10. ISBN 0-7100-7757-2. Retrieved 30 June 2011. Masturbation: the primary sexual activity of mankind. In the nineteenth century it was a disease; in the twentieth, it's a cure.
^ Shpancer, Noah (29 September 2010). "The Masturbation Gap. The pained history of self pleasure". Psychology Today. New York City: Sussex Publishers. Retrieved 27 June 2013. The publication of Kinsey's and Masters and Johnson's research revealed that masturbation was both common and harmless. Many studies have since confirmed this basic truth, revealing in addition that masturbation is neither a substitute for "real" sex nor a facilitator of risky sex.
^ Coon, Dennis; Mitterer, John O. (2010) [2007]. "11. Gender and Sexuality". Introduction to Psychology. Gateways to Mind and Behavior (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. p. 371. ISBN 978-0-495-59911-1. Retrieved 27 June 2013. Fifty years ago, a child might have been told that masturbation would cause insanity, acne, sterility, or other such nonsense. "Self-abuse," as it was then called, has enjoyed a long and unfortunate history of religious and medical disapproval. The modern view is that masturbation is a normal sexual behavior (Bockting & Coleman, 2003). Enlightened parents are well aware of this fact. Still, many children are punished or made to feel guilty for touching their genitals. This is unfortunate because masturbation itself is harmless. Typically, its only negative effects are feelings of fear, guilt, or anxiety that arise from learning to think of masturbation as "bad" or "wrong." In an age when people are urged to practice "safer sex," masturbation remains the safest sex of all.
^ Sigel, Lisa Z. (Summer 2004). "Masturbation: The History of the Great Terror by Jean Stengers; Ann Van Neck; Kathryn Hoffmann". Journal of Social History (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 37 (4): 1065–1066. doi:10.1353/jsh.2004.0065. ISSN 0022-4529. JSTOR 3790078. Stengers and Van Neck follow the illness to its fairly abrupt demise; they liken the shift to finally seeing the emperor without clothes as doctors began to doubt masturbation as a cause of illness at the turn of the twentieth century. Once doubt set in, scientists began to accumulate statistics about the practice, finding that a large minority and then a large majority of people masturbated. The implications were clear: if most people masturbated and did not experience insanity, debility, and early death, then masturbation could not be held accountable to the etiology that had been assigned it. Masturbation quickly lost its hold over the medical community, and parents followed in making masturbation an ordinary part of first childhood and then human sexuality.
^ Wood, Kate (March 2005). "Masturbation as a Means of Achieving Sexual Health by Walter Bockting; Eli Coleman". Culture, Health & Sexuality (London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.) 7 (2): 182–184. ISSN 1369-1058. JSTOR 4005453. In the collection's introductory chapter, Eli Coleman describes how Kinsey's research half a century ago was the first in a series of studies to challenge widely prevalent cultural myths relating to the 'harmful' effects of masturbation, revealing the practice to be both common and non-pathological. Subsequent research, outlined by Coleman in this chapter, has shown masturbation to be linked to healthy sexual development, sexual well-being in relationships, self-esteem and bodily integrity (an important sexual right). As such, the promotion and de-stigmatization of the practice continue to be important strategies within sexology for the achievement of healthy sexual development and well-being.
The collection concludes with two surveys among US college students. The first of these was based on limited quantitative questions relating to masturbation. The findings suggest that masturbation is not a substitute for sexual intercourse, as has often been posited, but is associated with increased sexual interest and greater number of partners. The second of these surveys asks whether masturbation could be useful in treating low sexual desire, by examining the relationship between masturbation, libido and sexual fantasy.
^ Strassberg, Donald S.; Mackaronis, Julia E.; Perelman, Michael A. (2015). "Sexual dysfunctions". In Blaney, Paul H.; Krueger, Robert F.; Millon, Theodore. Oxford textbook of psychopathology (Third ed.). NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 441–442. ISBN 9780199811779. OCLC 879552995.
^ Shuman, Tracy (February 2006). "Your Guide to Masturbation". WebMD, Inc./The Cleveland Clinic Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Knowles, Jon (November 2002). "Masturbation — From Stigma to Sexual Health". Katharine Dexter McCormick Library/Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Masturbation Information on Healthline". Healthline.com. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
^ a b "Masturbation key to healthy, functional sexual relationships". The Badger Herald, Daily campus newspaper. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: Badger Herald, Inc. 19 April 2007. Retrieved July 2007.
^ Giles, G.G.; G. Severi; D.R. English; M.R.E. McCredie; R. Borland; P. Boyle; J.L. Hopper (2003). "Sexual factors and prostate cancer". BJU International. doi:10.1046/j.1464-410X.2003.04319.x.
^ Dimitropoulou, Polyxeni; Artitaya Lophatananon, Douglas Easton, Richard Pocock, David P. Dearnaley, Michelle Guy, Steven Edwards, Lynne O'Brien, Amanda Hall, Rosemary Wilkinson, Rosalind Eeles, Kenneth R. Muir (11 November 2008). "Sexual activity and prostate cancer risk in men diagnosed at a younger age". BJU International 103 (2): 178–185. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2008.08030.x. PMID 19016689.
^ Smith, George Davey; F; Y (20 December 1997). "Sex and death: are they related? Findings from the Caerphilly cohort study". BMJ 315 (7123): 1641–4. doi:10.1136/bmj.315.7123.1641. PMC 2128033. PMID 9448525. Retrieved July 2007.
^ "Masturbation could bring hay fever relief for men". April 2008. Retrieved August 2009.
^ Sutherland, Tammy. "Six healthy reasons to masturbate". Best Health Magazine. Reader's Digest Magazines (Canada). Retrieved 4 July 2013. Just as people fall into a deep sleep after sex with a partner, because blood pressure is lowered and relaxation is increased through the release of endorphins, masturbation is a good sleeping pill," says Golden. "It is relied on by many as a nightly occurrence.
^ "Five Things You Didn't Know About Masturbation". WebMD. Retrieved 4 July 2013. Masturbation can help you relax.
^ Wenner, Melinda (2006). "Why do guys get sleepy after sex?". NYU Journalism (New York University). Retrieved 4 July 2013. The bottom line is this: there are many potential biochemical and evolutionary reasons for post-sex sleepiness, some direct and some indirect
^ Graber, Benjamin; Balogh, Scott; Fitzpatrick, Denis; Hendricks, Shelton (June 1991). "Cardiovascular changes associated with sexual arousal and orgasm in men". Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment (Springer Netherlands) 4 (2): 151–165. doi:10.1007/BF00851611. ISSN 1079-0632.
^ Kevin Charles Redmon (1 February 2013). "Bad news: Sex doesn't burn that many calories". Salon.com. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ Krista Casazza et. al (31 January 2013). "Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity". N Engl J Med 2013 368: 446–454. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa1208051. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ Brody S (February 2006). "Blood pressure reactivity to stress is better for people who recently had penile-vaginal intercourse than for people who had other or no sexual activity". Biol Psychol 71 (2): 214–22. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.03.005. PMID 15961213.
^ Balon R, Segraves RT, ed. (2005). Handbook of Sexual Dysfunction. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780824758264.
^ Wylie KR, ed. (2015). ABC of Sexual Health. John Wiley & Sons. p. 75. ISBN 9781118665565.
^ "Postorgasmic illness syndrome". Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (GARD). National Institutes of Health. 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
^ Ashby J, Goldmeier D (May 2010). "Postorgasm illness syndrome--a spectrum of illnesses.". J Sex Med. 7 (5): 1976–81. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01707. PMID 20214722.
^ McMahon CG (October 2014). "Post-Orgasmic Illness Syndrome" (PDF). 16th World Meeting on Sexual Medicine.
^ Wegner, HE; Franke M; Schick V. (May 1997). "Endoscopic removal of intravesical pencils using percutaneous nephrolithotomy sheath and forceps.". J Urol. 157 (5): 1842. doi:10.1016/s0022-5347(01)64878-x. PMID 9112540.
^ "Donor insemination – how does it work?". Hfea.gov.uk. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ "Sperm donation Definition – Tests and Procedures". Mayo Clinic. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ OHasan. "What Does Sperm Donation Involve?". Web.stanford.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ Penile Fracture and Trauma at eMedicine
^ El Atat, R.; Sfaxi, M.; Benslama, R.; Amine, D.; Ayed, M.; Mouelli, B.; Chebil, M.; Zmerli, S. (Jan 2008). "Fracture of the penis: management and long-term results of surgical treatment. Experience in 300 cases". The Journal of trauma 64 (1): 121–125. doi:10.1097/TA.0b013e31803428b3. ISSN 0022-5282. PMID 18188109. edit
^ Asgari, S.; Roshani, A.; Falahatkar, S.; Mokhtari, G.; Pourreza, F. (2007). "MP-21.01: Report on the early and late complications of 169 penile fractures". Urology 70 (3): 160–161. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2007.06.119. edit
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^ "article on Foreskin contraction (phimosis)". Netdoctor.co.uk. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
^ "University of Pennsylvania Office of Health Education article on masturbation". Vpul.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
^ "Children's Medical Office of North Andover, P.C. article on Masturbation in Early Childhood". Chmed.com. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
^ Parul Datta (2007). Pediatric Nursing. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers. p. 189. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
^ John E. B. Myers (2005). Myers on Evidence in Child, Domestic and Elder Abuse Cases, Volume 1. Aspen Publishers. p. 385. Retrieved 27 August 2011. Jon Conte and his colleagues were interested to learn what factors are important to mental health professionals who regularly evaluate children for sexual abuse. The evaluators were asked to rank the importance of forty-one indicators of sexual abuse. The following indicators were thought important by more than ninety percent of evaluators: medical evidence of abuse, age-inappropriate sexual knowledge, sexualized play during the interview, precocious or seductive behavior, excessive masturbation, child's description is consistent over time, child's description reveals pressure or coercion.
^ Kathleen Coulborn Faller (2003). Understanding and Assessing Child Sexual Maltreatment. Sage Publications. p. 39. Retrieved 27 August 2011. Six different types of sexual behavior that signal possible sexual abuse will be described in this section: (a) excessive masturbation, (b) sexual interaction with peers, (c) sexual aggression toward younger or more naive children, (d) sexual accosting of older people or adults, (e) seductive behavior, and (f) promiscuity.
^ Taylor, Timothy (June 1996). "Uncovering the prehistory of sex". British Archaeology (15). The Ħaġar Qim woman is... masturbating, with one hand languidly supporting her head.
^ Dening, Sarah (1996). "Chapter 3". The Mythology of Sex. Macmillian. ISBN 9780028612072. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
^ Margolis, Johnathan (2003). O: The intimate history of the orgasm. p. 134.
^ Dio Crysostom, Discourses, iv.20
^ The tyranny of pleasure, Jean Claude Guillebaud, Keith Torjoc; p.22
^ "The Ritual of Circumcision". Noharmm.org. 6 September 2005. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
^ Stengers, Jean; van Neck, Anne (2001). Masturbation: the history of a great terror. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 0-312-22443-5.
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^ Rachel P. Maines (1999). The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria", the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6646-4.
^ The Life Cycle Library for Young People, Book 3. Chicago: Parent and Child Institute. 1969. p. 322. LCCN 70-90267.
^ Ornella Moscucci, "Male masturbation and the offending prepuce," at: http://www.cirp.org/library/history/moscucci/ (It is an excerpt from "Sexualities in Victorian Britain.") apud Masturbation: Current medical opinions Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. New URL: http://sites.google.com/site/completebaby/repression
^ "JackinLibrary: Joycelyn Elders". Jackinworld.com. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
^ "We need to talk about masturbation, the last great sexual taboo". The Globe and Mail.
^ "Matthew Burdette: Boy Scout, 14, took his own life after being 'bullied' over 'viral video'". The Independent.
^ "Bullying, shame, suicide – why is masturbation still stigmatized?". The Globe and Mail.
^ Planned Parenthood, Masturbation—From Stigma to Sexual Health
^ "Catechism of the Catholic Church". Retrieved 8 October 2007. Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose". For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved".
^ Kant, Emmanuel. Mary J. Gregor, ed. The Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 0521566738. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
^ James, Lawrence (15 September 1997). The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 41. ISBN 978-0312169855. The context is a discussion of the social habits of the early North American colonists.
^ a b "Masturbation laws around the world: the penal code". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
^ "1568 MONTGOMERY HIGHWAY INC v. CITY OF HOOVER". 5 March 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
^ Withnall, Adam (19 September 2013). "Swedish court rules that it is 'okay' to masturbate in public". London: The Independent. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
^ Eaton-Robb, Pat (8 October 2011). "Connecticut Prisoners Express Anger Over Porn Ban". Associated Press.
^ Johns, David Merritt (10 January 2012). "Free Willy". Slate.
^ Nikkhah, Roya (12 July 2009). "NHS tells school children of their 'right' to 'an orgasm a day'". London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
^ Grimston, Jack (12 July 2009). "Pupils told: Sex every day keeps the GP away". London: Times Newspapers. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
^ Giles Tremlett (12 November 2009). "Spanish region takes hands-on approach to sex education". London: Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 12 November 2009.
^ Matzo, Marianne; Deborah Witt Sherman (2006). Palliative care nursing: quality care to the end of life. Springer Publishing. p. 70. ISBN 978-0826157911. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
^ "The Sambia". Faculty.mdc.edu. 4 October 1999. Archived from the original on 7 September 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
^ Hewlett, B.S. (1996). "Diverse contexts of human infancy". In Ember, C., Ember, M. Cross-Cultural Research for Social Science. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall.
^ "article on Masturbation Marathon London". Viewlondon.co.uk. 5 August 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
^ Leslie Vella. "Malta's prehistoric statues and sexuality". Maltainsideout.com. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ Pete Townshend (1971). "Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy". Printed article. "Rolling Stone or one of the similar magazines (Melody Maker, NME, etc.)". Retrieved 9 January 2009. "Merely a ditty about masturbation and the importance of it to a young man. I was really diggin' at my folks who, when catching me at it, would talk in loud voices in the corridor outside my room. 'Why can't he go with girls like other boys?'"
^ McLean, Craig (25 March 2006). "Pink: The outspoken pop star on fame and growing up". The Independent (London). Retrieved 16 March 2010.
^ Macdonald, Cameron (23 January 2006). "Treating Dandruff by Decapitation — Playing God". Stylus Magazine.
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^ Chaney, Jen (1