Masturbation is an important part of sexual health. There are all kinds of strange claims made about masturbation, including that it can be damaging for your wellness and wellbeing by causing blindness, acne, insanity and even unusual hair growth!
Masturbation is a normal process wherein both men and women sexually arouse themselves by touching their genitals. It is usually done alone but can be done with or to a partner.
Masturbation is entirely normal and can help people to learn about their own bodies and their own sexuality. Women can learn, through masturbation, how to reach orgasm, and men could learn how to delay their orgasm so that they last longer in bed.
There is no right or wrong way to masturbate. Men usually do it by holding and rubbing their penis, whilst women tend to touch their vagina and clitoris. The clitoris is a soft bump at the front of the vagina and it is very sensitive. Most women need some form of clitoral stimulation in order to have an orgasm during either masturbation or sexual intercourse.
Men usually ejaculate when they orgasm; ejaculation is when semen shoots out of the penis at the moment of climax. There is usually around 5ml of semen but there can be more if a man has not ejaculated for a while.
Masturbation is entirely safe, and does not cause insanity, blindness, acne or excessive hair growth. There is also no risk of pregnancy when you masturbate, and no risk of catching a sexually transmitted infection, either.
There is a small risk of infection, however, if you use sex toys to masturbate with, and if somebody who has an STI has used the toys before you. For this reason, any object that you use to masturbate should be solely used by you and not shared with anyone else, or if you must share sex toys then put a condom over them when using them.