10 Great Reasons To Masturbate

Self love is OK.

“Don’t knock masturbation…it’s sex with someone I love.” -Woody Allen

1. It keeps you in touch with yourself.

Men and women who masturbate on a regular basis understand the rhythms of their bodies better than those who don’t. This can help you build up sexual stamina for when you’re with a partner, avoid premature orgasms, and be able to keep yourself satisfied longer.

2. Orgasming before a date relieves pressure.
For some men, going on a date can be stressful and/or sexually frustrating. Rubbing one out prior to leaving home can leave you with a clearer mind and better focus on the activities themselves, rather than fantasizing about your date the whole time.

3. It can relieve menstrual cramps.
For many women, the contractions involved in cumming can be a big help in getting rid of cramps. It also helps you focus on the pleasure your body can bring in that area, and put you in a healthier frame of mind. Or, if you’re like me and don’t have pain during your period, it can just aid in ending the bleeding sooner.

4. Natural sleep enhancer.
When you orgasm, your blood pressure lowers, breathing deepens, muscle tension decreases, and dopamine/endorphins flood your body. This creates a nice relaxed state for both sexes to easily fall asleep in.

5. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
Sad, but ultimately true. Orgasms, whether attained with a partner or alone, raise the levels of nitric oxide in the bloodstream. This chemical is necessary for proper lubrication in women and erection in both sexes. The less time you spend with your sexual side, the less nitric oxide you have available to use…and the harder it is to get in a physically aroused state. There’s a reason people in relationships masturbate more than loners!

6. Orgasms keep the plumbing clean.
Regular use of your genitals can lead to better health later on. For both sexes, orgasms mean better blood flow, fresher sexual scent, and prevention of blockages in the prostate gland in men and skene glands in women. Is your health worth the 10 minutes it takes to cum?

7. It can relieve blue balls/labia.
It’s not as spoken about from the female side, but both men and women can become so physically aroused that if orgasm isn’t reached the entire genital area becomes a point of agony. Trust me on this…it’s bad. This is caused by blood remaining in an area for too long, creating intense pressure, pain, pelvic aches, slight discoloration of the scrotum or labia, and in severe cases can even make walking difficult/painful. The only way to stop this from occurring (or curing it) is to climax and allow the blood to flow normally again.

8. You’ll be healthier overall.
It’s probably not a surprise at this point, but people who freely masturbate have fewer hangups about cumming solo than those who are raised to believe it’s somehow bad to touch your own body. This means they obsess about masturbation less, and feel no guilt over doing it. It’s also been shown that frequent orgasms can improve your immune system, increase the health of your cardiovascular self, and alleviate some symptoms of depression. Orgasms: They’re good for what ails ya.

9. Face it: You don’t always have a partner.
Whether you are completely single, are in a long distance relationship, or are with a partner who’s libido is smaller than yours…it’s time to acknowledge that you can’t always get sex when you want it. I know how it is to be “ready to go” when your sex partner isn’t feeling up to it. It sucks, but what are you gonna do? Answer: Take matters into your own hand! This helps to relieve you sexually, and your mate from feeling guilty. Remember that resentment isn’t sexy.
*Note: if your partner consistently begs off from sex of any kind without an adequate reason/explanation, it’s probably time to see a counselor or have a serious heart-to-heart talk.*

10. It’s fun.

With all the toys, porn, sexual education movies, and erotica out there to choose from, is it any wonder that people choose to masturbate more? It can give you fresh ideas to try with a partner, or allow you to live out entire complex fantasies in your head. That, and if you’ve ever had a orgasm, you know just how amazing and nigh indescribable an experience it is. Why not give yourself a treat everyday? You deserve it!

Sex Ed: Women vs. Men Fantasy Types

Who fantasizes about what—and why.

By Jay Dixit

Everyone knows the usual scenarios—the mysterious stranger, the threesome, meeting and making love to George Clooney. But sexual fantasies are more varied than we imagine, says Wendy Maltz, a sex therapist and author of Private Thoughts: Exploring the Power of Women's Sexual Fantasies.

In scripted fantasies—which we conjure while having sex or daydreaming, and which involve characters and follow a narrative—women mostly cast themselves in six roles, found Maltz: 

1. The Pretty Maiden (object of another's desire) 
2. The Victim (object of humiliation or violence) 
3. The Wild Woman (initiator of sex) 
4. The Dominatrix (who exerts power over others) 
5. The Voyeur (who watches others having sex) 
6. The Beloved (who intimately connects with a lover of equal power)

Unscripted fantasies are more fleeting—often triggered by objects in our environment—and focus on images or sensations rather than characters or a traditional storyline. Among women, these often portray the building and releasing of tension—mimicking the sexual response cycle itself—and involve images not usually considered sexual, such as horses galloping, flowers blossoming and releasing perfume, trains cresting hills, or storm clouds gathering and then spilling their water. Men have abstract fantasies too. One man imagined his wife was a diamond, and he a ray of light shining into her.

Fantasies reflect the stimuli we're exposed to during our sexual awakening, says Maltz, the way drug addicts learn to associate the stimuli present when they get high—shot glasses, rock music, drug paraphernalia—with pleasure itself. One subject experienced her first orgasm when jumping into a swimming pool, then found her fantasies as an adult all involved water. A girl who first experienced sensual feelings on a swing set might have kinesthetic fantasies. A boy who gets his first erection watching a girl brush her hair might have fantasies involving hair.

Our fantasies also reflect our anxieties, says Michael Bader, author of Arousal: The Secret Logic of Sexual Fantasies. A woman insecure about her attractiveness may fantasize about driving men crazy with desire—say, inducing a police officer, president, or priest to step out of his normal role—or of having sex while men watch. A woman worried she's too much for a man may fantasize about being overpowered. As one female subject put it, "My desire is like a wave crashing on the shore. I don't want to worry about whether the shore can take it."

Powerful men, meanwhile, may fantasize about relinquishing that power and being dominated. Studies show men are actually more aroused than women by fantasies of being restrained, dominated, or spanked, says Bader. As sex researcher Nancy Friday put it in Men In Love, the secret wish of men is "to be done to." 

MALE FANTASY

• Graphic and visual
• Impersonal relationship dynamics; multiple or interchangeable partners.
• Focus more on body parts and explicit sex

FEMALE FANTASY

• Multisensory, including touch
• Romantic situations, emotional involvement; think the soft-focus mood-lighting of perfume ads
• Can be abstract, like flowers blossoming.

What are some of the things you fantasize about?