Buying condoms, talking to parents, and anything else
I recently read an article about masturbation that said, "Masturbation can be good, but you need to be careful.
Wash your hands before you masturbate. You can cause infections to your genital organs." I was thinking, Is that true? Can masturbation possibly cause an infection in your penis?
Is it true that masturbation reduces erections (spontaneous or otherwise)?
And if it does, is this a bad thing?
In the short term, generally, yes – an hour or two after masturbating, most guys are less interested in sex and are less likely to get an erection, either spontaneously or through visual, physical, or mental stimulation. This isn't bad at all, because it's temporary and has no lasting effects. As your body "reloads" and prepares for its next ejaculation, your tendency to get an erection returns to normal.
Can a condom be recycled and still have minor traces of someone else's semen on it?
I mean, how do they remake them or recycle condoms? I'm worried I may catch a slight irritation from them.
- age 19, New York
Huh? Whoever said that condoms get recycled? Condoms don't get recycled; each one you get out of a sealed package is brand spankin' new (no pun intended). As for irritation, some people do have an allergy to latex; for these people, latex condoms can irritate the skin. Those allergic to latex should use a non-latex condom such as the Durex Avanti, which is made of polyurethane.
I've been masturbating for about 3 years now, but sometimes I notice that whenever I masturbate, I have really bad luck or something bad happens to me – I have a bad day, I mess up something, or a sports team I like loses, things like that.
In my last two relationships, I didn't masturbate and things went well, but when I've masturbated when in a relationship, things went badly and I ended up being dumped. Is there any myth, curse, or religious belief that explains my situation?
- age 16, Illinois
Since I turned 18 I have been renting porno videos and DVDs to masturbate to.
After getting a DVD with a greasy fingerprint on it, I have become paranoid that I could catch some venereal disease from bodily fluids that may be on the tape or DVD from the previous renter. Are porno tapes and DVDs safe to rent? Should I be careful not to touch myself after handling a tape or DVD?
My girlfriend loves my "pre-cum." If I save it up through masturbation sessions, days later – when I have plenty saved up – would it be safe for her to drink?
That's a tough one. Certainly you'd want to refrigerate or even freeze your collection of pre-ejaculatory fluid, to prevent the growth of bacteria. But I'd guess that if you don't keep it around for too long (say, more than a week), and then you warm it gently in a microwave oven, the fluid probably would be safe for you – uh, I mean your girlfriend – to drink.
Can a guy get cystitis or a UTI (urinary tract infection) from masturbation?
If so, how does this happen?
It's probably rare, but anytime anything is able to enter the meatus (me-AY-tus), the opening at the end of the penis, you're at risk of contracting a UTI. Masturbating underwater, such as in a bath, is one way this might happen. Receiving oral sex is another way to contract a UTI, as saliva can get into the urethra that way. For instance, if the person giving oral sex is carrying gonorrhea pathogens, you can contract gonorrhea. But you're pretty safe masturbating on dry land.
A few sites in the Internet claim that masturbation can cause hair loss.
Does masturbation really cause a man to go bald? This question has been haunting me for more than a few years.
What do you think about taking a pill to increase your penis size?
Especially if it has a money-back guarantee – what do you have to lose? I mean, by taking the pill, will your penis shrink or will you develop some weird disformation?
Do you have a statistic for how many people around the world are masturbating at any given moment?
That is a very interesting question! I don't, but let's do some calculations and come up with a conservative ballpark figure. Let's start with men. There are roughly 5 billion people in the world, or 2.5 billion males. Let's say 1.5 billion of those are teenagers or older. Of those, let's guess that 1 billion masturbate regularly. Continuing to make conservative estimates, let's guess that the average masturbation frequency of those 1 billion males is 3 times a week, and that the average duration of a masturbation session is 15 minutes.
