Masturbation!!!

Masturbation refers to sexual arousal (and often orgasm as well) by manual stimulation of the genitals.

Generally, the word indicates self-stimulation. But it's worth noting that in 2010 some sexologists use the expression to indicate pleasuring of another person by hand, in phrases such as ‘the husband can masturbate the wife to help her achieve a climax'. However, in this article we shall deal only with self-stimulation.

This is the form of sexual behaviour that most of us learn first – quite instinctively. And, until recently, it was probably the type of sex least talked about.

In fact, in the early part of the last century: masturbation was widely considered to be a sin – and something to be avoided at all costs.

The vast majority of men masturbate sometimes – even if they're in a long-term and happy sexual relationship.

It’s most common if they’re away somewhere on a trip and have been without female company for a while.

Masturbation comes pretty naturally to most men. Let's face it: a male child discovers that his penis feels good before he can talk!

So, it's not surprising that boys fondle this area of their bodies a lot, and then, at the age of around 14, discover that masturbation can lead to orgasm and ejaculation – all of which they find exciting and pleasurable.

There are some men who don't masturbate. But these are mainly men who don't want to do it because of religious reasons or because they're a bit uptight about sex. Also, some guys who have a fairly low sex drive don't masturbate.

Some men - mostly from eastern cultures – try to avoid masturbating because they believe it depletes their energy and may shorten their lives. But there's no truth whatsoever in this belief.

Most men masturbate by rubbing the penis with their ‘dominant’ hand – slowly at first and then more vigorously.

Many guys grasp the shaft of their penis by wrapping their whole hand round it. Others grasp it between their thumb and first or middle finger.

But however they do it, they don't usually have much doubt that they'll achieve orgasm as a result. This is quite a contrast to women, who may experience considerable anxiety about whether they will actually 'make it'.

Some young men worry that they masturbate too much. The fact is that it's almost impossible to do this.

Obviously, if a young guy is staying home and masturbating on the hour every hour, one might want to try to persuade him to get out more!

But when a teenager first discovers sex, it's common for him to want to masturbate several times a day, on some days. And this certainly won't do him any harm.

But masturbating constantly over a period of hours can produce some swelling or ‘puffiness’ of this penis. This is called ‘oedema’ and is due to fluid leaking into the tissues. It will disappear after some hours because the fluid goes back into the bloodstream.