In case you needed a reason to buy more adult sex toys, science steps in.
Despite what our mothers told us for decades, masturbating won’t make you go blind, stop growing, or make your hair fall out. Stories like these have perpetuated throughout the ages, giving the impression that masturbation isn’t just dirty- but it can come with some serious health consequences. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, there are actually a number of really excellent physical and mental health benefits that can be gained from engaging in a bit of solo yolo.
As adult sex toys see higher sales than ever as mainstream adoption takes hold, retailers like those at The Pleasure Playhouse fight against these stagnant beliefs. Often hand -in-hand with the world’s top scientists. “It makes it difficult to dissuade these ingrained ideas. Luckily, society is evolving. We’re becoming much more comfortable with discussing sexuality and accepting it as a whole, but there’s still a lot of information that deserves more than a cursory glance.”
While the creators of the fun and extremely functional adult sex toys site say the struggle exists, they’re also happy to join the fight. “Exploring your body and being comfortable with openly discussing your own brand of sexuality (at appropriate times of course) can lead to a number of really great feelings. Increased body confidence, fewer feelings of alienation, and of course orgasms. Everybody loves those.”
Benefits of Adult Sex Toys For Our Physical Health
With the pervasive debate over whether or not sex toys actually provide us with any societal benefit raging, scientist have gotten involved. Taking a minute to study the possible benefits and negative consequences of masturbation. The data is in, and all things point to playtime. Here are some of the greatest physical benefits that have been correlated to the use of adult sex toys and masturbation.
Pain
Particularly in women, masturbation has been found to help decrease pain levels associated with menstruation and menopause. As many women suffer from pelvic pain secondary to gynecological problems, regular masturbation or use of vibrators can help increase blood flow to the area and maintain muscle tone, both of which help to decrease pain levels.
Body Familiarity
Regularly coming in contact with your own body can help you familiarize yourself with your own personal normal. Understanding the way your parts look, feel, and function at a baseline level helps you to more readily notice if something’s off. This can be a huge factor in catching some disease processes, like cancer, in the early stages. And bonus- it’s a lot more fun than a self-breast exam.
Prostate Health
Masturbation is actually pretty fantastic for the males of our species. This is because regular ejaculation can keep your sperm working normally and keep your numbers in a healthy range. It can also improve leukocyte (a type of white blood cell, part of your immune system) numbers. Here’s to health!
Vulvar Health
Any woman who has enjoyed an orgasm in her lifetime can tell you- there’s a whole lot of muscle use involved. Muscles in the pelvic floor, thighs, abdomen, and many, many other places throughout the body contract and release regularly throughout clitoral and vagina stimulation. Think of it like a mini-work out for your bits, and all the muscles that support them. Having finely tuned pelvic floor muscles and Kegels can actually help deter a number of other problems women may face later in life, such as vaginal atrophy and urinary incontinence.
Benefits of Adult Sex Toys For Our Mental Health
There are also a number of mental health benefits to using a sex toy now and again. Masturbation, with or without toys has been shown to have some pretty fascinating influences on mood and even can help stave off illnesses like depression and anxiety.
Desire
Particularly in women, regular orgasms, whether achieved on your own or with a partner, can actually help to increase sexual desire. As women age, our libido’s generally take a hit. Masturbation can help not just with providing the regular orgasms we want, but also by keeping things in the bedroom new and exciting. Think about it, if you got a new toy as a kid- you wanted to play with it right? Same rules apply for us adults.
Stress Relief
Masturbation can help decrease stress levels in both sexes. Not just by flooding the body with a heady cocktail of delightful hormones, but also by decreasing muscle tension and helping us to practice mindfulness. Being present is often a hard focus to muster, but it’s surprisingly difficult to worry about the dishes in the sink or that big meeting you’ve got on tomorrow if you’re in the middle of some quality one-on-one time.
Hormone Release
Masturbation floods our bodies with a number of hormones that are closely related to good mood and good vibes. While intercourse often provides these elating messengers at a higher rate, we can still enjoy their benefits when playing by ourselves. Masturbation with adult sex toys encourages our bodies to release things like dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, prolactin, and testosterone. Keeping your mood and your member up.
