masturbation is the ultimate form of
self-pleasure but a question I get asked
all the time is how much is too much
well I'm Dr Rena Malek urologist and
pelvic surgeon and today I'm going to
explain three ways that you can
potentially harm yourself with
masturbation if you're new here you will
know that I'm very pro-masturbation it
is a ultimate form of self-pleasure and
it is safe when done appropriately and a
great way to relieve stress sleep better
and has a number of health benefits if
you're curious to learn about those
things and debunk those myths you might
have heard about masturbation make sure
you check out my video on seven myths of
masturbation but today I'm going to talk
about three things that could
potentially hurt you if you're doing
them during masturbation so the first
one is something that was coined called
traumatic masturbation syndrome and this
was first coined and described by Dr
Lawrence sank in 1998 and this was
described as the habit of masturbating
in a prone in fashion that means lying
on your stomach or having your stomach
facing a bed a pillow or a hard surface
and patients who develop traumatic
masturbatory syndrome or traumatic
masturbation syndrome complained of
symptoms of low sexual desire inability
to orgasm or having issues with
erections in fact there's very little
data on this but we see it anecdotally
in practice that some patients do
experience this there was a study
looking at almost 2 600 men who describe
themselves as having premature
ejaculation in order to identify if
there were some habits related to them
developing premature ejaculation they
ask them a number of questions including
what their masturbation techniques were
and they also asked these as open-ended
questions so a lot of surveys that you
get reported on in the literature are
closed and I mean they give you like
four or five options to choose from but
here they ask them like tell us about
your masturbation practice and what they
found was that people who describe
themselves as having traumatic
masturbatory behaviors like having
masturbation in a prone position or
rubbing through their clothes we're more
likely to have issues with erections or
erectile dysfunction the next thing is
something that's commonly described as
death grip so what exactly is that well
there's no real medical term for death
grip but it's been described as having a
very firm or aggressive grip on the
penis during masturbation and so in
medical speak we describe this as
habituation so basically what happens is
your body gets used to having a certain
amount of force or vibration or whatever
it is so for women it may be using
vibratory toys or for men it may be
using a very firm grip and your body
gets used to that and so it becomes more
and more difficult to climax or have
enjoyment or the same Sensation from
your partner because you can't get that
same level of stimulation and it can be
actually like a very vicious cycle for
example in a man who uses a firm grip
during masturbation they can start
become having reduced sensation in the
penis and then they may need an even
firmer grip to reach Climax and it
becomes this vicious cycle as the grip
needs to get firmer and firmer in order
to get the same sort of simulation and
so this has been described actually as
what doctors call idiosyncratic
masturbation method so an idiosyncratic
style is essentially a style that cannot
be replicated by a partner in this case
for a man it's a female partner's mouth
hands or vagina or it can even include a
fantasy that is very difficult to
replicate when with a partner so in a
small study of 500 men who had what we
call delayed ejaculation or difficulty
achieving ejaculation or climax about 37
percent described having what we call
idiosyncratic masturbation practices it
can be more than just a grip right it
can be the certain speed that you're
using this certain place or position for
example as we describe prone
masturbation or it can be a certain item
that you use every single time that
can't be replicated in partnered sex and
unfortunately this can be very difficult
to talk about with your partner but
before you start blaming yourself it's
important to realize that there are
other causes for changes in sensation in
the genitals for both men and women and
it's important to rule out medical
causes so for men it can be a decrease
in testosterone it can be due to certain
medications like antidepressants I've
made a video about that as well as
videos about testosterone it can be to
certain medical problems like diabetes
or having injuries to the area it can
also be due to having drugs on board or
alcohol because those things can depress
the nervous system making it hard to
feel the same Sensations you would when
you're not under the influence of those
things also if you're doing a lot of
sitting particularly during covet a lot
of people were sitting in their home
offices and not moving very much or if
you're doing a lot of extensive biking
that has also been shown to decrease
sensation down below so what do you do
if either of the first two things we
talked about are happening to you and
you know it's not a medical problem well
number one you want to give masturbation
a break try to stop for a couple weeks
and let your body adjust to normal
Sensations that you would normally feel
and when you resume masturbation you
want to try different modalities I tell
a lot of people to incorporate lubricant
in their masturbation because it still
allows for very nice sensation but then
also allows for more slipperiness and
less intense friction that that you may
be using previously you may want to
avoid things like pornography and try to
avoid the types of fantasies that we're
using previously to get stimulation or
get excited visually or mentally and you
may want to actually try to use internal
fantasies rather than relying on
external fantasies that you may be
reading or watching and lastly you may
want to use hands instead of things like
toys or vibrators that can provide a
much stronger stimulation also it can be
helpful to see a sexual therapist to
talk about things like sensate focus and
so what that is is actually focusing on
the feeling of touch and pleasure when
you're with your partner without the
expectation of penetrative sex to kind
of focus your brain on those things
rather than the performance or the
stress of not being able to reach climax
the last thing that can be damaging
particularly to men is if you have very
aggressive masturbation techniques which
may involve some bending of the penis
that can lead to things like penile
fractures any sort of bend that occurs
to an erect penis can lead to what's
called a penile fracture I made a couple
videos about penile fractures but
essentially they are a break of the
lining of the erectile bodies of the
penis that then cause your penis to
sometimes you'll hear a pop and your
penis will get very swollen and painful
and that is a surgical emergency and
must be treated immediately also if
you're masturbating trading with a less
than erect penis you have to be careful
because that can sometimes cause
injuries to the penis as well where you
can get micro fractures or micro
injuries that can lead to plaques and
eventually cause curvature of the penis
so otherwise if you're not having any of
these problems and you're having a
normal healthy masturbation practice and
you're not having any problems having
sex with your partner and you're still
able to enjoy your partner as well as
enjoy yourself then by all means please
go ahead and continue masturbating it is
healthy and wonderful way to express
yourself pleasure but back to the
question everyone's always asking me how
much is too much well I wish I could
tell you there was an exact number but
there's not if you find that you're
masturbating you know multiple times a
week but you're still going to work
doing all things you need to do being a
good partner being a good parent
whatever it is and it's not interfering
in your day-to-day activities and it's
not encompassing large amounts of time
that you could be doing something else
productive then it's totally fine to
continue as you are if if you're
starting to realize that maybe you
prefer masturbation to other things like
going out with your friends or hanging
out with your partner then it's probably
time to take a deep look at how often
you're masturbating how you're
masturbating what techniques you're
using to masturbate and really check out
how you can modify those and have a more
fulfilling and enjoyable life and if
you're curious about pornography make
sure you check out my video on the pros
and cons of pornography and if you're
suffering from issues where you have
problematic pornographies check out my
video on porn addiction I hope you guys
found this helpful as always you want to
take care of yourself because you are
worth it
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