sexual healthy tips ; masturbation

A Guide to Masturbation

Masturbation is a good way to learn about your own body, and it can even help improve your sex life.

Masturbation has long been a sensitive topic for many Americans. While sex experts consider it basic to sexual development, for many people, masturbation represents a source of guilt and shame. Only in recent years have the positive emotional and physical health benefits of masturbation gained recognition.
The term "masturbation" refers to touching and stroking your own sex organs for pleasure. It has also been called self-pleasuring, self-stimulation, or self love. Recent studies found that 95 percent of men and 89 percent of women have masturbated. Most men and women report that masturbation was the first overt sexual act they ever engaged in.
Masturbation Techniques
Given the differences in anatomy, it makes sense that masturbation is a different experience for men and women.
Men nearly always masturbate by holding the shaft of the penis and stroking it in an up-and-down motion. The speed and pressure applied to stroking tends to increase until the man reaches orgasm.
Women enjoy a wider variety of masturbation techniques from which they can achieve orgasm:

• Clitoral stimulation, using a finger or an object to gently stroke the clitoris
• Vaginal insertion using fingers or sex toys
• Breast and nipple stimulation
• Squeezing the thighs together in a rhythmic motion

Both men and women can perform masturbation in a variety of positions. Some men enjoy masturbating by rubbing their penis against soft bedding or pillows. Some women like spreading their legs wide apart, while others find more pleasure in squeezing the thighs together tightly during stimulation.
The Benefits of Masturbation
A common concern is that masturbation will affect sexual performance or create sexual dysfunction. In fact, some experts believe masturbation improves your sexual responsiveness by giving you a better understanding of your body and how it responds to stimulation.
Masturbation can help men better control ejaculation and resolve problems with premature or delayed ejaculation. Women can use masturbation to learn how to achieve orgasm during sexual intercourse.
Masturbation also has other health benefits. It can serve to:

• Reduce stress
• Relieve sexual tension
• Be an outlet for people abstaining from sexual intercourse
• Be a means of "safe sex," to prevent pregnancy and the spread of sexual transmitted diseases (STDs)
• Help offset insomnia
• Boost metabolism and stimulate the production of endorphins — brain chemicals that help ease pain and stress 
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