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Is it possible to masturbate too much?

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Someone asked us:

can a guy master bate to much

A lot of people worry about masturbating “too much,” but the truth is it’s perfectly healthy to masturbate regularly – even more than once a day. Masturbation has no health risks, and despite what you might have heard, masturbating a lot won’t make you go blind, or make your penis shrink, or make you unable to have sex, or otherwise negatively effect your body.

The only situation in which a person might be masturbating too much is if masturbating is getting in the way of going to work, going to school, spending time with friends or family, or doing other responsibilities or enjoyable stuff. Otherwise, regular masturbation is completely okay.

 -Alex at Planned Parenthood

Tagged: questionsmasturbationmyths

Birth Control and Weight Gain


You might need to sit down for this one. It kinda goes against everything you’ve ever heard or learned or maybe even experienced. But it just so happens to be true. Are you ready?

There is no evidence that taking birth control pills causes you to gain weight. 

I know, I know. Your cousin. Your best friend. Your dental hygienist. They’ve all complained about gaining weight while taking the pill. And maybe they did. But it wasn’t because of the pill.

Like most myths, it’s hard to figure out where this pill-slander originated. But the idea that the birth control pill makes you gain weight is everywhere—it’s among the most common reasons people choose not to use the pill. So where did this convincing urban legend originate?

Slate has some ideas, including the good ol’ “blame it on the hormones” excuse. But what we do know for certain is there’s no convincing scientific evidence that birth control pills make you gain weight. That’s right, none. Shout it from the rooftops! 

-Nathan at PPFA

Tagged: Birth ControlBirth Control PillsSide EffectsNewsMyths

Peeing to prevent pregnancy


Someone asked us:

Q. I was wondering about a rumor I had heard. Something about how urine has chemicals that, not necessarily kills sperm, but reduces the risk of getting pregnant. So going to the bathroom after sex helps lower your chance. Is this true, or ever heard of this or anything?

Going to the bathroom after sex does absolutely nothing to lower your chances of getting pregnant.

Even if urine had the ability to kill sperm, peeing wouldn’t have any effect on the sperm that have already entered the vagina, because urine comes out your urethral opening (aka pee hole – which is different from your vaginal opening). It’s a different set of plumbing, basically.

Once the semen goes into the vagina, there’s nothing you can do to get it back out again (douching, showering, jumping up and down, swearing you’ll never have unprotected sex again, etc.). Those li’l guys are in there and they’re not leaving. So at that point, if you’re not already on a form of birth control, you’d want to consider emergency contraception instead. (Click here to learn more about emergency contraception.)

The only things that actually, in real life, reduce the risk of getting pregnant are:

  • Correctly and consistently using a form of effective birth control.  You can use our My Method tool to help you figure out which one might be best for you.  You might even want to consider using a condom plus another form of birth control (like the pill,  NuvaRing, or an IUD).

Hope that helps!
-Mary at PPFA

Tagged: QuestionsMythsAm I pregnanturine

Masturbation and You (and other people)

We’re always really surprised by the massive amount of misinformation floating around about masturbation. Crazy-false urban legends about all the bad stuff that will happen to you if you touch yourself kind of transcend every generation and culture. You’ll go blind, you’ll get acne, you’ll grow hair on the palms of your hands (gross).

And since most adults (and plenty of young people) masturbate, it’s not even like any of this negative propaganda is keeping masturbators down.

Here’s the thing about masturbation: lots of totally smart, savvy folks believe that, for one reason or another, masturbation is dirty, or dangerous, or unhealthy, or otherwise not good. And it’s just plain not true – masturbation has no health risks.

So we’re thinking about starting a collection of the wackiest and most totally untrue myths about masturbation. So far our favorite is the mistaken idea that masturbating too much will somehow “ruin you” for sex. As if learning what you like and how to have an orgasm won’t make you a smarter sexual partner!?! Have any silly masturbation falsehoods to contribute? Reblog and add yours!

Tagged: masturbationmythssextotally normal

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