11 Myths About Masturbation You Need To Stop Believing

Masturbation is a natural sexual practice. Today we busts 11 of the craziest self-love fallacies to prove that masturbation is normal. There are two things we know for sure about masturbation: almost everyone’s doing it, and absolutely no one wants to talk about it. The problem with this “Tell No One” policy is the huge amount of strange myths that many adults still somehow believe. Today, we bust the 11 most common myths about self-love the ones that need to go, now.

# Masturbation isn’t real sex

When people masturbate, they can get really aroused, which can result in very real orgasms, said About.com. From a health perspective, masturbation is as “real” a sexual activity as intercourse, oral sex or kissing.

# Childhood masturbation means you’re hypersexual or sex-addicted

Many children discover early that it feels good to touch their genitals, and usually begin masturbating long before puberty. Your genitals are already built with those feel-good nerves long before you’re even conscious of sex. In fact, experts recommend that parents teach children that it’s normal for people to touch their sex organs for pleasure — but that it should be done in private. But, whether you started early or late, it has no bearing on your adult sexual behavior.

# Only dudes masturbate

Although masturbation folk lore would have you believe this is true, it is far from the truth. While men tend to masturbate more than women, they don’t have a monopoly on the market. According to a recent survey, more than half of women ages 18 to 49 reported masturbating during the previous 90 days. And 5% of women between the ages of 25 and 29 are frequent masturbators, going at it more than four times a week.

# Masturbation kills your sex drive

If anything, masturbation helps you explore what you do and don’t like, which you can in turn communicate to a partner for better sex. And more often than not, sex begets sex — even if some of that sex is with yourself.

# Masturbation causes infertility

Masturbation absolutely does not cause infertility and, it won’t affect your chances of getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant one day.

# Masturbation is the plight of the single person

People in relationships masturbate too. People who have regular sex partners are more likely to masturbate than people without sex partners.What’s more, marriage isn’t the death knell for self pleasure: 70% of married people admit to masturbating. Married individuals shouldn’t think of masturbation as a substitution for sex with their partner of course, but rather as a complementary activity.

# Masturbating uses up all of your orgasms

This argument seems to be based more in adolescent fears than science. There’s no limit on the number of orgasms people can physically experience, so…

# There is such a thing as too much masturbation

While many people fear they masturbate too much, it’s a very unlikely scenario. It’s perfectly healthy to masturbate regularly — even more than once a day.

# It’s unhealthy to masturbate during menstruation

If there’s any area more fraught with myths than masturbation it’s menstruation. It’s totally safe and healthy for a woman to masturbate when she has her period. In fact, an orgasm is a great natural way to induce muscle relaxation. Some women masturbate during menstruation to relieve menstrual cramps.

# Women can become addicted to vibrators

This worry isn’t backed up by any real science, however. Using a vibrator for masturbation or sex with someone else can be a fun addition to your sex life. Some women may be worried that using a vibrator will somehow spoil sex with a partner, but don’t worry you won’t become addicted to your vibrator.

# Masturbation stops (or should stop) at a certain age

Just like there is no right time to start, there’s no right time to stop. Masturbation isn’t something you grow out of. Kids, teens, adults, and seniors, research shows definitively that all age groups are doing it. It’s a perfectly healthy activity at any age.