Self-Exploration

Humans have always been a curious creature. From an early age, we are curious about our surroundings, but most importantly, we’re curious about our own body. As children grow and begin to explore their bodies, they begin to discover that it feels good to touch their bodies or in a more technical term “masturbate”. According to plannedparenthood.org, children start masturbating long before puberty. However, their act of masturbate usually isn’t sexual. Sexual thoughts typically occur during from adolescent onwards.

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What exactly is masturbation, though? WebMD defines it as the “self-stimulation of the genitals to achieve sexual arousal and pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm (sexual climax)”. Although the topic of masturbation is still a taboo is today’s society, it is showed that throughout history, people were as fascinated by this particular topic as they are today. As a matter of fact, the ancient Indian Hindu text Kama Sutra even explained the best procedure to masturbate in details. In Johnathan Margolis’ book “O: The intimate history of the orgasm”, the ancient Egyptian god Atum was believed to have created the universe by masturbating to ejaculation. In addition to that, the Sumerians believed that Tigris river was created when the Mesopotamian god Enki masturbated, causing his ejaculate to flood the earth.

Now that we know what masturbation is and its brief history since the dawn of time, let’s talk about why people masturbate. As mentioned above, humans begin masturbating as a mean of exploring their bodies -- what feels good and what doesn’t. On top of that, when we reach sexual climax, our body releases chemicals and hormones that are known as “feel-good” hormones, which include oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. Those hormones are responsible for causing pleasurable sensation, relaxation, and a sense of happiness. That explains why 38 percent of women and 61 percent of men said they'd masturbated at all during the past year, according to a recent study done by the University of Chicago sociologists on 3,116 Americans aged 18 to 60 (1,769 women and 1,347 men), published on psychologytoday.com.

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Since a lot of people are masturbating right in this moment, let’s find out what good it can do for them. The Sydney Morning Herald has published an article on their website entitled “The little known benefits of masturbation”. Apparently, masturbation may help reduce headaches and muscle aches, relieve stress and tension, provide a sexual outlet for people, help to induce sleep, improve the immune system, strengthen muscle tone in the genital and pelvic floor area, keep you free from STIs, and help people who suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). At the same time, those “feel-good” hormones as such endorphins and oxytocin also help by improving overall mood, fight off depression, and work as a natural pain reliever.

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For women alone, masturbation combats pre-menstrual tension or cramps, relieves painful menstruation by increasing blood flow to the pelvic region, builds resistance to yeast infections, and allows women to explore and understand their bodies better. For men, it helps combat premature ejaculation by training to last longer, keeps semen healthy by regular flushing of the system, and helps prevent the development of prostate cancer, as cancer-causing chemicals can build up in the prostate if men don’t ejaculate regularly.

However, masturbation isn’t all good. Without proper care, masturbation can lead to infection, usually caused by using unclean hands or objects. When practiced too often, masturbation can become an addiction which can ultimately take over people’s life just like any other addictions. Though how much is too much still remains a question.

In short, although masturbation is still a topic that is still forbidden, it has been around for as long as we can remember. Masturbation comes with its own sets of benefits, but just like everything else in life, if it is done too much, it can become an addiction, which is one of the major side effects of masturbation. At the end of the day, everyone is entitled to explore and do what feels comfortable for their own well-being, including whether or not they choose to explore their body by masturbation.