Link between Testosterone & Masturbation? Here's what I Found!

Did you know ? That according to the Egyptian mythology, our earth is created by the masturbation of God “ATUM” and “PHAROH” when they masturbated ritually in the river Nile. I know that this fact isn’t going to help you anywhere but it’s still kind of story.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Well apart from the joke , in this article I am going to show you the relation between masturbation and testosterone. If by any chance you didn’t know a thing about testosterone, why not take a look to my already posted blog on it? What is Testosterone? (some self-promotion you know!). Well, so studies suggests that masturbation and testosterone are interrelated while the others say that they are not, so where to give your ear to ?

The Scientific Aspect

So, let me help you out a bit but, first things first, what do we mean by ‘masturbation’? The word “masturbation” originates from a Latin verb “masturbari” which is the act of self-satisfying one self by touching one’s own genitals for sexual stimulation to achieve ‘orgasm’. And why do we do it ? Yes, due to peer pressure and forces of our friends tells it to do it because it is fun. But, there is more of a scientific aspect attached to it when we masturbate.

Let me explain, Amygdala – part of our brain is responsible for the sexual arousal in our body. This part is also responsible for signs like increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and respiration rate when our body is in heat. Dopamine – the happiness hormone is also associated with the pleasure centre and flows into this area which triggers the desire for sexual arousal. Basically, our sexual response cycle is divided into 4 stages:

1. Desire Phase
2. Excitement
3. Orgasm
4. Resolution

Credits to: Flickr

While our body is in the desire phase, amygdala selects incoming sensory information. This leads to the activation of sympathetic nervous system (nervous system which responds to fight or flight situations ) which peaks during – ‘orgasm’. After achieving orgasm, our parasympathetic system (system which responds to rest and digest situations) gets activated and gradually levels us down to normal stage from the excitement levels. Through the whole process the nucleus accumbens — the part of brain which is responsible for having its role in pleasure and rewards, receives dopamine and sends the message of feeling good. This provides reinforcement to continue the behaviour (the process of arousal or masturbation). When sexually aroused, the level of sex hormones increases with the human imagination which plays a great role in sexual arousal. Thus, making us addicted to this stuff.

Studies By Research Papers

I have read some research and have summarized all the necessary things for you, all and they are:

A study was conducted on 11 young men from the campus of German Sport University Cologne, Germany for the sake of our topic. Health assessment of these men was taken by experts. These participants trained exercised themselves more than four times per day and additionally, these participants were in a committed relationship and had no previous records of sexual dysfunction. Also, none of them consumed any drugs or steroids that would alter the result of this experiment.

This experiment was performed on these eleven men. Henceforth, three groups were formed on the basis of hormonal changes occurred during masturbation and for the sake of easiness, I will call them as Group A, Group B and Group C:

1. Group A – was the group who masturbated watching visual stimulus (You know what I mean watching those naughty things).
2. Group B - was the group who masturbated without watching any visual stimulus.
3. Group C – was the group that neither masturbated nor watched any visual stimulus.

Credits to Research Paper of Reference No.3

During the experiment the following things were done :

1. Forty-eight hours prior to the experiments, all the alcohol consumption and any kind of sexual activity was prohibited.
2. Before three days for experiment to take place, participate were informed to refrain themselves from any kind of mental stress which would intervene the results.
3. The major experiments conditions were separated by a gap of time of about one week.
4. Participants were prohibited from intaking any food item twenty-four hours prior the experiment and for their first blood and saliva sample test.

During the experiments as shown the picture, 8 ml of blood test and saliva sample were taken and experiments a total of eight times after every finite interval of time.

Of course, the experiment got some result, at least we can assume that. Group A and Group B were found to have a sudden increase in the testosterone levels.  While Group C had none of the buffs as they didn’t masturbate. Researchers proposed that this sudden increase in the testosterone levels could help in development and growth of muscles or in shift of muscle fiber content.

According to the research paper written by Arpan Nandy in 2019. There are many positive sides of masturbating which include buffs and effects like:

• Getting good quality of sleep which I do agree with as it takes our bodies in a condition in which our body completely relaxes itself.
• Reduces tension and helping in reducing modern day medical problems like hypertension.
• Releases the good feeling hormones like dopamine and oxytocin while surpassing the bad ones like cortisol.
• Research has shown that it helps in reducing the risk of prostate cancer.

While it has its own positive side, the negative one coexists with it too:

• Firstly, we all know how addictive this shit can get.
• Doing excessively may cause nausea and fatigue like symptoms.
• One of the most common one is the reduction in sperm motility.
• Research also hints that excessive masturbation leads to premature ejaculation as it may damage the nerves.
• Not only this but it also increases the risks of STD (sexual transmitted disease) which spreads skin to skin like herpes.

According to another article published by Helena C. Kraemer and her team, another experiment was conducted on a group of 20 men. Every man of the twenty men had a regular sexual partner. Every day in the morning, there blood sample. This experiment was carried out for a duration of about two months. The subjects were told to note the number of intercourse and masturbation or any other kind of sexual activity that they carried out daily during this whole period of time.

The results were as follows:

Credits to Research Paper of Reference No.4

Thus, in short, this research suggests that high level of testosterone is related with high libido or with sexual arousal or the thoughts that high sexual arousal increases the testosterone levels.

Conclusion

From the above, studies and from my research, we can conclude that — There is not much of research happened in this field (Funny, isn’t it ?). Well, while some say that masturbation reduces the chances of testicular cancer, others say that excessively doing it would lead to premature ejaculations, STDs and permanent nerve damage.

Well, I am not a doctor but let me tell you a thing or two, take your favorite sugar foods like chocolates, some drinks, etc. as an example. You love to eat it. You get the dopamine from it, which makes you feel good. But when you overeat them, out of bounds, what do you get ? Obesity, fat, excess weight gains which eventually leads to skin problems, bullying, fat shaming. But when you eat them carefully and decisively after workouts ,on cheat days, what do you get? The dopamine without worrying about a thing.

And that’s what I’m trying to say, doing things in limits, you can enjoy them without worrying about a thing. So, can’t we apply the same for masturbation ? or can we ? (Why not to comment your opinion, it hardly takes a minute! )

References: Here, I am giving credits to the websites and articles which I took and shared all this precious information from. Also, the above information is been collected from many research papers and from various experts making it verified and correct. I would recommend you all to visit their sites and surf them for deeper information and knowledge :

1. Does not masturbating increase testosterone? (n.d.). Üroloji Uzmanı. https://www.omurerdemakkaya.com/does-not-masturbating-increase-testosterone
2. Joshua Gonzalez, MD
3. Isenmann, E., Schumann, M., Notbohm, H. L., Flenker, U., & Zimmer, P. (2021). Hormonal response after masturbation in young healthy men - a randomized controlled cross-over pilot study. Basic and clinical andrology, 31(1), 32. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12610-021-00148-2

4. Kraemer, H. C., Becker, H. B., Brodie, H. K. H., Doering, C. H., Moos, R. H., & Hamburg, D. A. (1976). Orgasmic frequency and plasma testosterone levels in normal human males. Archives of sexual behavior, 5, 125-132.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY ARTICLE AND PLEASE CONSIDER SHARING IT WITH YOUR BELOVED ONES !