Scientists have found that masturbation has a different purpose for men and women

It has always been believed that masturbation is necessary in order to compensate for the lack of sex. But everything turned out to be much more complicated — men and women, satisfying themselves, pursue different goals. Men masturbate to make up for the lack of sex, and women complement their sex life in this way.

Over the past two decades, science has learned a lot about masturbation. Numerous studies have refuted its negative effect and found a lot of positive aspects. Masturbation allows you to quickly and easily relieve sexual tension without exposing yourself to the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection or HIV. It is also a good way to protect yourself from unwanted pregnancy.

But self—satisfaction is not easy at all. Like any other manifestation of sexual life, masturbation is surrounded by many conventions, taboos and social regulations. Among them there are both vowels and hidden moments. All this complicates her perception, so the relationship between masturbation and sexual satisfaction has so far been poorly studied.

Scientists from At the University of Oslo, Nantje Fischer and Bente Træen decided to study the controversial points and finally find out why men and women masturbate. Psychologists have taken the analytical company Norsk Gallup as their assistants. 40 thousand people have registered in its database and it was they who became participants in the study.

The researchers developed a questionnaire that was sent in March 2020 by e-mail to 11 thousand men and women. Some of the questions were general: gender, education, attitude to religion, place of residence, social and marital status, sexual orientation, body sensation, health status, body mass index and others.

There were also questions about sexual life: views on sex, sexual activity, satisfaction, the use of contraceptives, the use of pornography, sexting, and so on. There were also items in the questionnaire concerning masturbation.

4160 people (2181 men and 1967 women) responded to the call of scientists. They were urban and rural residents, farmers and engineers, believers and atheists, students and pensioners. The age was no less different, from 18 to 89 years. Of these, 84 admitted to having masturbated over the past month.

Statistical analysis has shown that the frequency of self-satisfaction sessions in women is associated with age, general sexual satisfaction, the use of pornography and sexual practices. Dissatisfaction played an important role in men, including during life in a couple, as well as a negative attitude towards their own body or genitals.

Men who often had sex were less likely to resort to self-satisfaction. The use of pornography indicates that a man is dissatisfied with his sex life. We can say that masturbation plays a compensatory role for guys. With regular and high-quality sex with a partner, the need for masturbation decreases. Although there are exceptions to the rule.

For women, everything turned out to be different. More often, those who had no shortage of sex masturbated, and sex life was diverse. It turns out that for the fair sex, self-satisfaction has a complementary function. It complements sexual life and is especially characteristic of sexualized persons.