Is Masturbation Healthy? How Often Is Too Much, and the Myths Men Still Believe

In this guide

• Why this question still causes so much shame
• What the health services actually say
• The myths: blindness, hair, weakness, infertility
• The 7-day testosterone study, and why you should read the small print
• Semen retention: what is claimed, what is proven
• Possible benefits: sleep, stress, the prostate, self-knowledge
• How often is too much? The real warning signs
• How to make masturbation work for your sex life, not against it

Men will ask me about anything. Positions, stamina, size, how a scene is shot. But the question they ask with the most embarrassment is the simplest one: is it OK that I masturbate this much?

Before I answer, a disclaimer I mean seriously: this is not medical advice. I am an adult performer with 14 years in the industry, not a doctor. My work requires me to understand my body very well, and I have spent a lot of time reading what doctors and researchers say. I will give you that, with sources, and my honest opinion on top.

Where the shame comes from

For a long time, masturbation was treated as a disease. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century doctors and moralists blamed it for blindness, madness, weakness and early death. None of that was true, but the fear survived. Today it has new clothes: instead of “you will go blind”, the internet says “you are draining your testosterone” or “you are wasting your energy”.

The result is the same. Men feel guilty about something almost every man does.

And it really is almost everyone. In the US National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, one of the largest representative surveys of sexual behaviour, masturbation was common across the entire lifespan, and more common than partnered sex among teenagers and adults over 70 (Herbenick et al., 2010). If you masturbate, you are not the exception. You are the rule.

What the health services say

The NHS’s guide to masturbation put it plainly: masturbation is normal, and it is safe. It “doesn’t cause blindness, insanity, or acne and won’t make hair grow on your palms” (NHS Choices: Masturbation, archived). The same guide noted something useful for men: masturbation can help you learn what you like and learn how to control your orgasms.

The only physical risks it mentioned were the obvious ones: soreness, small cuts or bruising if you are too rough, or injury from using an object that can hurt you. Sharing sex toys without cleaning them, or touching someone else’s genitals and then your own, can pass on infections. That is about it.

Masturbation does not cause blindness, madness, acne or hairy palms. The real risks are soreness, injury if you are rough, and habits that do not serve your sex life.

The myths, one by one

“It makes you go blind / crazy / weak.” No. These ideas come from moral campaigns, not medicine, and modern health services reject them, as above.

“It will make you infertile or use up your sperm.” No. Your body produces sperm continuously. In fact, the NHS’s general advice for couples trying to conceive is regular unprotected sex every two or three days, not saving it up for weeks (NHS: Infertility).

“It shrinks or damages your penis.” No. The rare injuries that do happen to an erect penis, like a penile fracture, come from sudden violent bending, mostly during partnered sex, not from normal masturbation.

“It kills your gains at the gym.” There is no good evidence for this. I train most days because it is part of my job, and I have looked for this evidence. It is not there.

“It lowers your testosterone.” This one deserves its own section.

The 7-day testosterone study: read the small print

If you have spent time on fitness forums or abstinence communities, you have seen the claim: don’t ejaculate for seven days and your testosterone jumps by 45%.

That number comes from a real study. In 2002, a Chinese researcher, Jiang Ming, measured blood testosterone every day in 28 men after ejaculation. Levels barely changed on days 2 to 5, then on day 7 there was a peak of about 145.7% of baseline, after which there was no regular pattern (Jiang, 2002).

Now the small print:

• It was 28 men, measured over a short time. That is a small study.
• It was a temporary peak, not a new, permanently higher level. After day 7 the pattern faded.
• The English-language version was retracted. A version of the study was published in English in the Journal of Zhejiang University Science in 2003. It was later retracted because it significantly overlapped with the earlier Chinese article; PubMed now marks it as a retracted publication (Jiang, 2003, retracted).
• Nobody showed a health benefit. A short bump in blood testosterone is not the same as more muscle, more confidence or better sex.

A German study points the same way. Exton and colleagues looked at only ten healthy men before and after three weeks of abstinence (Exton et al., 2001). Orgasm itself did not change testosterone, but testosterone was somewhat higher after the abstinence period. Orgasm did raise prolactin, a hormone linked to the feeling of satisfaction and to the recovery time after sex that I cover in my piece on the refractory period.

So: abstaining may cause a small, short-lived rise in blood testosterone in some men. There is no good evidence that regular masturbation lowers it in a way that matters. If you are worried about testosterone, sleep, body fat, training and alcohol will move the needle far more. I explain what really affects it in testosterone and sex drive.

Semen retention: what is claimed, what is proven

“Semen retention” goes further than taking a break. The idea is that semen contains some kind of life force, so keeping it in gives you energy, focus, magnetism and success with women.

I am not going to mock anyone who practises it. Some men say it helps them feel disciplined, and discipline is good. But the honest scientific answer is short: I could not find controlled studies showing that semen retention improves energy, muscle, confidence or attractiveness. The claims come mainly from online communities and testimonials.

There is also research suggesting that what drives many men to abstain is belief rather than a measurable problem. A 2020 study of more than 1,000 men recruited online found that the strongest predictor of wanting to stop masturbating was believing that masturbation is unhealthy, with weaker links to actual hypersexuality (Zimmer & Imhoff, 2020).

If you feel better abstaining, that is your decision. Just do not do it because someone online told you that you are poisoning yourself.

The possible benefits

I want to be careful here too, because the internet exaggerates in both directions.

• Stress and sleep. Many men find orgasm relaxing, and it is reasonable that it helps them fall asleep. The hormonal changes after orgasm, including the rise in prolactin, are real (Exton et al., 2001). But this is mostly experience, not strong clinical evidence.
• The prostate. This is the best-known health finding. In a Harvard cohort of 31,925 men followed for nearly two decades, men who reported 21 or more ejaculations a month had a lower risk of prostate cancer than men who reported four to seven (Rider et al., 2016). It is an association, and the authors say it was driven by low-risk disease. I go deeper in ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer.
• Knowing your body. This is the benefit I believe in most. As the NHS guide said, masturbation can help you learn what you like and how to control your orgasm. That is a skill, and it carries into partnered sex.

How often is too much?

There is no medical number. Once a week, once a day or more can all be normal. What matters is not the count, it is the effect on your life.

Here are the real warning signs, based on the NHS guidance on physical risks and Mayo Clinic’s description of compulsive sexual behaviour (Mayo Clinic: Compulsive sexual behavior):

1. Your body is telling you. Soreness, chafing, skin damage or pain. Ease off and be gentler.
2. It feels out of your control. You have tried to cut down and cannot, and it takes up a lot of your time.
3. It is pushing out your life. You are late for work, skipping plans, staying up until 3 a.m., or avoiding your partner.
4. You use it to escape. Every time you feel lonely, anxious or bored, this is the only tool you have.
5. It is hurting your partnered sex. You only finish with one very specific grip or type of video, or you finish very quickly every time.

If one or more of those sounds like you, it does not mean you are broken. It means it is time to change something, and possibly to talk to a GP or a therapist with experience in this area. Mayo Clinic notes that such professionals are trained not to judge.

Making it work for your sex life, not against it

This is where my professional experience is genuinely useful. Masturbation is practice, and practice shapes performance. The NHS explains that early habits can matter: for example, a teenager who trains himself to ejaculate quickly to avoid being caught may find it hard to break that habit later (NHS: Ejaculation problems).

So if you are going to do it anyway, do it in a way that helps you:

• Slow down. Use it to practise the stop-start method: get close, stop, let the urge drop, start again. I explain it in detail in how to last longer in bed.
• Use a lighter touch sometimes. A death grip is not what a partner feels like.
• Breathe low and slow instead of holding your breath and tensing everything.
• Train your pelvic floor separately. It helps with control and erections, as I describe in my Kegel exercises guide.
• Do not always need a screen. Imagination and attention to your own body are skills too.

What I want you to take away

Masturbation is normal, common and, for most men, healthy. It does not blind you, it does not empty you, and there is no good evidence that it ruins your testosterone. The famous 7-day study is tiny, the effect was temporary, and the English version was retracted. Semen retention is a belief, not a treatment.

What matters is how you do it and what role it plays in your life. Use it to learn your body and your control, not to escape everything. And if it ever feels like it is running you, that is the moment to ask for help, without shame.

If you want to know who I am and what I do, everything official is on maximogarciaworld.com, and the explicit side of my work lives on fuckingpornstars.net (18+ only). For the human stories behind the industry, read the latest columns on House of Maximo.

Sources

1. Herbenick D et al. Sexual behavior in the United States: results from a national probability sample of men and women ages 14-94. J Sex Med, 2010.
2. NHS Choices. Masturbation (Live Well, archived 2016).
3. NHS. Infertility.
4. NHS. Ejaculation problems.
5. Jiang M. Periodic changes in serum testosterone levels after ejaculation in men. Sheng Li Xue Bao (Acta Physiologica Sinica), 2002.
6. Jiang M. A research on the relationship between ejaculation and serum testosterone level in men. J Zhejiang Univ Sci, 2003 (retracted).
7. Exton MS et al. Endocrine response to masturbation-induced orgasm in healthy men following a 3-week sexual abstinence. World J Urol, 2001.
8. Zimmer F, Imhoff R. Abstinence from masturbation and hypersexuality. Arch Sex Behav, 2020.
9. Rider JR et al. Ejaculation frequency and risk of prostate cancer: updated results with an additional decade of follow-up. Eur Urol, 2016.
10. Mayo Clinic. Compulsive sexual behavior: symptoms and causes.