Pendidikan Seks Modern

Bagi kebanyakan pria atau wanita, melakukan masturbasi adalah sebuah perilaku yang normal. Ini adalah perilaku seksual pertama yang dilakukan oleh sebagian besar dari mereka.

Dari sisi kesehatan, melakukan masturbasi secara teratur ternyata bisa mendatangkan manfaat, khususnya bagi para pria. Sebuah riset yang dipublikasikan New Scientist, menyebutkan bahwa pria yang teratur melakukan masturbasi berisiko lebih kecil mengidap penyakit kanker prostat.

Menurut penjelasan para peneliti dari Cancer Council Victoria Melbourne Australia yang menggagas riset ini, senyawa kimia penyebab kanker (zat karsinogen) akan tertimbun dalam prostat jika pria tidak melakukan ejakulasi atau mengeluarkan cairan sperma secara teratur.

Mereka juga menekankan, hubungan seks belum tentu akan memberikan efek perlindungan yang sama, karena ada kemungkinan terjadinya penularan atau infeksi penyakit seksual, yang justru dapat meningkatkan risiko terkena kanker.

Dalam risetnya, peneliti melibatkan sebanyak 1000 pria yang mengidap kanker prostat serta 1250 pria lainnya. Peneliti menemukan mereka yang sering melakukan ejakulasi antara usia 20 hingga 50 tercatat paling rendah kemungkinanya megalami kanker. Dampak atau efek proteksi terbesar menurut peneliti bisa didapat ketika pria berusia 20-an.

Riset itu juga menyebutkaan, pria yang melakukan ejakulasi lebih dari lima kali seminggu mendapat penurunan risiko hingga sepertiga kali mengidap kanker prostat di masa usia lanjut. Riset sebelumnya pernah mengungkapkan bahwa tingginya frekuensi hubungan seks di antara pasangan atau tingginya aktivitas seksual dapat meningkatkan risiko mengidap kanker prostat hingga 40 persen.

Namun begitu, peneliti Australia yang melakukan riset terbaru ini mengindikasikan bahwa penelitian sebelumnya tidak menganalisa dampak perlindungan dari aktivitas ejakulasi karena terlalu fokus pada hubungan seks yang berkaitan dengan risiko penyakit menular seksual.

Salah seorang peneliti, Graham Giles, mengindikasikan bahwa aktivitas ejakulasi dapat mencegah penimbunan zat karsinogen dalam kelenjar prostat. Prostat merupakan kelenjar yang menghasilkan cairan untuk semen ketika ejakulasi yang mengaktifkan sperma dan mencegah keduanya bercampur.

Cairan ini mengandung berbaga jenis zat yang mengandug potasium, seng, fruktosa dan asam sitrat dengan konsentrasi tinggi yang dialirkan dari pembuluh darah. Menurut Giles, dengan minimnya ejakulasi akan membuat zat-zat karsinogen ini menumpuk atau tertimbun dalam prostat. ¨Ini merupakan hipotesa stagnasi prostatik. Semakin sering anda mengurasnya keluar, semakin sedikit zat karsinogen itu akan tertahan dan merusak sel-sel yang melapisi prostat,¨ terangnya.

Masturbation is educational, prepares people for sex with partners, and allows them a safe environment in which to experiment with methods and sensations that are stimulating. The role of masturbation in one’s life can have even more dramatic psychological benefits. A new form of sex therapy has enabled people to replace harmful substance addictions by forcing themselves to masturbate daily. This act transfers the pleasure stimulus to an activity that is healthy and one that can lead to an intimate relationship with others (ESO, Extended Sexual Orgasm, by Alan Brauer, M.D. and Donna Brauer, p. 48). Evidently masturbation holds a certain cornerstone in the physiological and psychological sexual development of each person.Fundamentally, masturbation generally refers to bringing oneself to orgasm using manual stimulation and if accomplished with the assistance of a partner, masturbation is then referred to as mutual masturbation, petting, or foreplay according to Brenda Love. Psychologically, masturbation is also essential for the development of proper sexual maturity. Masturbation is considered a “normal” process in sexual development and maturity, often beginning at a young age when children begin to explore their genitalia and ‘happen’ upon the pleasures of masturbation.

Boys generally first ejaculate between the ages of 10 and 13 years and an authority on the physiological benefits of masturbation, James Weinrich states that: “experiments in primates show that if this sexual rehearsal play is interfered with, the result can be an adult who cannot or does not function sexually as well as other individuals who were permitted such play” (Sexual Landscapes, p. 244). The result of limiting masturbation or other sexual rituals compromises one’s acceptance of oneself, therefore causing those individuals to be less comfortable with expressing or acting upon their sexuality than others who were not denied this right.

Self-discovery is part of becoming accustomed to who we are as an individual. Babies begin to explore the world through touch. Naturally one of the most important and easiest parts of the world to discover is the self and investigating the plumbing, so to speak, is a normal and essential part of self discovery. Masturbation is simply an extension of self-discovery, a process that is as natural as taking biology 201 classes after biology 101. On a physiological level masturbation is pleasurable as a result of direct genital stimulation and also because masturbation stimulates the section of the brain associated with self-preservation instincts, which automatically rewards survival-affiliated activities with immense pleasure.

There are many definitions of what masturbation is. Many of these make it sound terrible (’self abuse’ ‘defile oneself sexually’), while others give restrictive definitions, usually involving hands, that have confused the issue for many. A working definition of masturbation that gets over the general meaning in a neutral way could be:

‘Stimulating ones genitals, or other erogenous zones, so as to give ones self pleasure’.

Note that no mention of ‘how’ or exactly ‘where’ is made and, importantly, orgasm is not seen as being a defining element of the act.

So masturbation can be rubbing your vulva with your fingers so as to have an orgasm or it can just as validly be stroking your nipples, squeezing your thighs together or sitting on top of a working washing machine. What it comes down to is more what is in your mind than what you are physically doing. In fact the range of activities that are really masturbation is very wide indeed and we will cover a range of them on this site. Enough to say that if you deliberately do anything that involves pampering or stimulating your body’s erogenous zones, directly or indirectly then yep that’s masturbation. (But if the word is a turn off then feel free to think of what you are doing as something else).

Who does it….

As masturbation is a private activity no one really knows who does it. All we have to go on are reported findings from surveys conducted by renowned sexologists over the last 30 to 40 years. What these findings tell us is interesting and, for those that thought they were alone, surprising. Summarized they tell us:

1. From early surveys a figure of around 60% of females of ’sexually active ages’ were reported to masturbate at some time or other.

2. More recent reports put the figure at over 80%. This may be due to changes in attitudes about admitting to doing it or it may really show that it is becoming more common.

3. Girls aged 2 and under have been known to deliberately masturbate themselves to orgasm.

4. Women in their eighties have admitted to being active masturbators. Modern hormone replacement therapy extends a woman’s active sex life/desire and so more older women are masturbating now than in the past.

5. The commonest time for a girl to discover masturbation is during her early teens though a significant number discover it later in life. As few give up after discovering it, more older women masturbate than do younger ones.

6. Among those that masturbate the frequency range is great. Some are several times each day participators while others only masturbate on rare occasions. There is no obvious link to show why some are one way and others the other.

7. Females both in and out of steady sexual relationships masturbate. It is not an indication of a failure in a relationship if a woman feels the need to continue masturbating. It just shows that she enjoys masturbating.

Why do girls masturbate? The simple answer, which is good enough for many, is that it is pleasurable, but that excludes many of the recognised and claimed benefits. Below is a short list of the more significant of these:

1. Its pleasurable – it had to be number one!

2. It helps you relax – safer than tranquillisers, cheaper than alcohol and no side effects

3. It helps you get to sleep if you are suffering from insomnia

4. It can make you feel ‘energised’ and focused, making study or concentration related tasks easier

5. It gives a degree of relief from the physical discomforts many feel during periods

6. It allows you to find out what you like so that you can share your needs with a partner and have better sex

7. It is always available when sexual tensions need releasing – not always true of partner sex

8. It allows you to have as much gratification as you want, when you want it and at your speed – partner sex cannot compete

9. It takes the pressure off your partner as he/she is not the only source of your orgasms

10. It is the one form of sex with no risk of disease, pregnancy or emotional upset

11. It fits in with your life – unlike partner sex

12. It often results in more powerful and longer orgasms than other forms of sex.

13. It allows you to fantasise and act as you want – please yourself not your partner

14. No partner/audience (usually) means you can be less inhibited in your use of toys and any other item you may personally find erotic

15. You can do it at your pace and can spread it out as long as you want. Longer periods of pre-orgasmic arousal can often result in better and more satisfying orgasms.

16. It saves time when you need an orgasm – no need to find a partner – and less risk of getting involved with a jerk just because you are desperate.

17. It’s free!

18. Masturbation to the point of orgasm appears to put less strain on the heart as measured by an increase in heart rate than does partner activity that results in orgasm.