Can masturbation be a cause of premature ejaculation? Last studies show that masturbation can be either negative, if it is performed badly, or positive and therapeutical. Let see some more specific details about male and female masturbation.

masturbacionHas it always been a taboo?

Masturbation is one of the most popular taboos in our culture; the term might come from the latin words manus strupare, something like attempting against oneself with the hands.

If we consider that this term implies a disgraceful action, it clearly shows the censorship within the word itself.

As we are relating to the origin of the term, we can also talk about the term onanism which is strongly linked to the masturbation. It comes from Onan, a biblical character who after the dead of his brother was forced to copulate with his brother’s widow.

He didn’t want her to get pregnant and so he ejaculated out of the vagina. After that, and because he has wasted his seed and disobeyed the Law of Levirato, he was punished by Yahvé. We can observe that it was the first use of a non conceptive method – the coitus interruptus. And so the famous French historian Philippe Ariès affirmed that “among the huge variety of potions, phallic covers, vaginal tampons, devices and stuff, only the coitus interruptus – Onan’s crime- was the responsible of the wonderful rehearsal in the growth of the contemporary population”.

Is it normal during teenagers?

Masturbation responds to a pulse, a need of recognizing your own body or finding satisfaction with genital caress. I’m not only referring during puberty; we can also observe that behaviour among very young children, which include those or similar caress on their most recurrent games. There are people who think that this activity must be suppressed on these kids, but punishing it has no positive consequences at all. It doesn’t work. According to that, I could mention infinity of aberrant methods that were used time ago, just as: using ropes and chains, burning their hands with heated bricks, hold the penis with several and wicked devices, the extirpation of the clitoris on women…

Is it true that premature ejaculation is caused by masturbating?

Some people affirm that premature ejaculation is indeed caused by masturbating, though there is not a real connection between them. We could say that a wrong masturbation can drive you to suffer from fast ejaculation, as much. It means that many male, while self-stimulating, don’t do that in the right way. They just masturbate until ejaculate, with no interruptions or delays. Others, trying to prolong the pleasure, interrupt their caress just a moment before the orgasm, and then start again, several times, before ejaculating. The first group responds to the model of the premature ejaculator.

Is it related with the feminine orgasm?

Though there is not a strong relation between those phenomenons, we can admit that many an orgasmic women affirmed that they have never masturbated. And so, they don’t really know their own body and the ways of stimulating it.

But, masturbation on women has been seriously suppressed and censored (much more than masculine masturbation) and so many of them discovered the self-stimulation after marrying. Most commonly, they prefer rubbing their clitoris and the proximities of it. It is followed by the introduction of the fingers into the vagina or even other sexual toys like vibrators. There is also who likes stimulating with the water of the shower.

Was it always forbidden and considered a sin?

In the Holy Bible there is no a tacit prohibition of its practice, but there is mentioned as in the Crime of Onan. Every sexual action that was not destined to procreation should be punished, as the main purpose of life was the growth and survival of the Jew people. In the beginning of the XVIII century, an English monk edited a paper were he proclaimed against masturbation and baptized it as “onanism”. The idea was that it is a non natural act, a sin and that starts spreading in every generation to come, until 1758 when it is accepted as a sin by the contemporary doctors. A Swiss doctor called Tissot became the main important figure against its practice and also affirmed that masturbation is the most sinister and lethal among the sexual activities. As it started to be considered by the population of that time, they also started to deploy an uncountable number of deceases provoked by the act of masturbating. It was not only the main cause of exhaustion, nervous wreck and madness, but also of many other physical and psychic illnesses. It was also accepted that it was all part of a divine punishment and carried with it a moral damage for the person who performed that dirty act. And the list of illnesses was overwhelming: melancholy, nervous wreck, blindness, impotence, sterility, madness, heart deceases, loss of the appetite, weight-loosing and even tuberculosis…or baldness! And we must also add some other theories from that time like masturbating made appear freckles in your face, acne, hair in your hands, suicidal tendencies, warts, your testicles will dry, your clitoris will fall or your brain will became useless. On and old text it is related that someone who masturbates will become a rapist, and animal, a whore, drug addict, drunk, vagabond, sinner,…

Is it true that there are some self-stimulating techniques that are used in sexual treatments? Isn’t it an incitation to the onanism?

There are some manuals that talk about the possibility of using self-stimulation as a tool during some treatments related to the fast ejaculation (like trying to learn how to stop and continue your stimulation) and so try to revert problems of impotency or non orgasmic people. There must be the agreed of the patient, of course. And they will focus on how to start understanding your own body reactions, the feelings before ejaculating, to re-educate yourself and get ready for your next sexual acts. By some non orgasmic women it can be the only way to learn how to be capable of reaching it with their partner. In the end of the XIX century there is a change and the masturbation (in compulsive cases) is considered as a consequence not a cause in some mental disturbances. Between 1911 and 1912, in the psychoanalytical society of Vienne there was a meeting about masturbation. There, Freud talk about a therapeutical return to the onanism, and masturbation started to be considered as a tool for some people who couldn’t get an orgasm by some other ways, and that we needed to start making the parents not to suppress the sexuality in their children to summit them more easily.

Are there some pathological causes in masturbation?

It can happen that masturbation responds to some non erotic causes, like maniac or compulsives states of mind, or as a way of calming your melancholy. That which is performed without pleasure, as a ritual, impulsive, or against a tense situation, sometimes without regarding of the place you are, the time or the background. Every state of distress takes to masturbation as a way of living a pleasure sensation, though it doesn’t help to solve that problem you have. If someone self-stimulates in public, at school or on a compulsive way, it is not that he has a problem due to masturbation, but that he masturbates because of some trouble that he is not capable of sorting out. There is also who masturbates and doesn’t want to get involve in other kind of sexual expression. It can cover some mental disturbances, phobias, or troubles trying to connect to other people. Masturbation would be an attempt of hiding from the real world, which they don’t like. If someone needs to masturbate in front of other people, it can mean that is falling into the need of watching or having unusual sexual activities to get excited. It is what happens with the exhibitionists or voyeurism. It would be then a matter of mental decease and must be studied deeply.

Can old people masturbate?

Masturbation can be with you until your last days, it is an intimate practice, private, that can be or not linked to the rest of your relations with society.

Is it a possible game with your partner?

It is very common that couple practice manual-genital stimulation games, but it doesn’t have to be considered as masturbation, as it is a sexual and erotic game shared with your partner. Masturbating facing your partner or having the need of masturbating to be capable of finished the sexual act are other varieties.

Not every male masturbates the same way. With the hand there are many ways to rubber your penis, holding it strongly or just doing it with two fingers as it they were a ring. Others like doing it rubbing the pillow or the mattress. That different kind of masturbating can be also connected with some problems related to the lack of ejaculation or long-lasting ejaculation. There can be also an anal stimulation, and also pornography is linked to that phenomenon. Among women, there are different ways too, like rubbing against the bed, with the hands between their tights or directly rubbing their clitoris and the internal part of the vagina. It is less common in women the introduction of the fingers or a toy into the vagina itself.

Isn’t masturbation too tolerated by sexology as it affirms that we shall practice it?

Modern sexology doesn’t affirms that we shall masturbate or that the one with doesn’t do that is repressing himself. Religious views are also a part of the game, and also some people don’t have the need to masturbate as they luckily have a plenty sexual life. But who needs to masturbate needs to know that it is not a bad act, a sin or something like that. Indeed, masturbation has been promoted by some gay groups as a way of stopping the spread of the AIDS, with created a huge confrontation with some conservative and puritan sectors. In the end, it is something that we all have to learn to enjoy and use in a constructive and mature way.