Masturbation is essential in the animal kingdom. A scientific study shows the need for it in animals.
With Martin Ducret, doctor and journalist at Doctor’s Daily, the point on… masturbation. A new article on the origins of this sexual practice has just been published, which shows that far from being “a deviance”, it has a number of advantages.
franceinfo: What do these new publications tell us about masturbation?
Martin Ducret: This article is very interesting because it confirms that masturbation concerns almost all mammals on the planet. There is therefore no reason to make it a taboo subject. The article studies our closest cousins, the monkeys, and comes up with several hypotheses.
The first would be that this practice would facilitate fertilization. It would increase the excitement before sexual intercourse, and would renew the stock of sperm to obtain fresh sperm, available for mating. The second hypothesis would be that it would allow, after sexual intercourse, to clean the urethra, the pipe in which urine and semen pass, in order to avoid developing a sexually transmitted infection.
According to this study, masturbation would therefore have a selective advantage in the animal kingdom, particularly in males. The authors of the article point out all the same that this practice also exists in females, except that they did not find a useful function from the point of view of the evolution of the species. This is the limitation of this study.
For what ?
The authors did not really consider the regulatory effect on stress and the feeling of pleasure that masturbation provides, which concern both female and male mammals. “For human beings in particular, women and men, this sexual practice exists at any age, explained to me Dr. Damien Mascret, sexologist and journalist on France 2. It can also begin in the mother’s womb, and allows, in addition to pleasure, to control one’s excitement, to get to know one’s body, alone or with others, to relax or even to fall asleep more easily. .” Urologists also recommend it in men, to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.
Are there risks to masturbating too much or not at all?
First of all, you have understood, masturbation is not a sexual deviance, nor a disease, it does not make you deaf, contrary to what false beliefs say about this practice. Regarding the frequency, there is no rule, it depends on everyone, according to their desires. Some people can masturbate several times a day, others never. So, as long as there is no physical or psychological suffering felt, everything is fine. Otherwise, it is best to consult a sex therapist to talk about it.