Risks:

Although there are no harmful side effects of masturbation, some people report feeling guilty about masturbating and have negative feelings associated with masturbation. Rarely, people can become psychologically addicted to masturbation, it is notably deemed an issue if masturbating interferes with the social, work and school life, or hinders your daily responsibilities.

Misconceptions:

However, masturbating will not make you go insane, in fact there are many myths surrounding female and male self-pleasure. For instance, a common misconception is that solo masturbation can cause infection or diseases. Self-pleasure cannot cause diseases, infections, unplanned pregnancy or STIs (sexually transmitted infections) as long as you remain hygienic and keep sexual aids sanitary.

Culturally, losing your virginity is deemed an important, sexual experience and what defines the loss of virginity is down to personal opinion. For females, scientifically, the diminishing of the vaginal corona/hymen results to the loss of virginity, yet this muscus tissue can easily wear away through inserting objects (tampons, menstural cups, fingers or sex toys). As losing your virginity doesn’t always have to be through sexual intercourse, there is no right or wrong. So for some of you, you may consider losing your virginity as your first sexual experience, with either yourself or someone else!

Other misconceptions about masturbating is the idea that only men do it! While it is much more common to hear about male masturbation in the media and in pop culture, we know that this is simply not the case! Women, trans and gender non-conforming people all masturbate too! And why wouldn’t we? Just because you don’t hear about it as often doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen - which is exactly why BLOOM is trying to raise not only our, but our audience’s voices as well on the wonders of self pleasuring!

Another myth about masturbating is that there is only one right way to do it. Newsflash! But everyone is different and everyone likes self pleasuring in different ways! Whether that’s with your hands, or your favorite toy, with a partner or all on your own - masturbate however you like! And don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed if you do it a little bit differently to others. Masturbating is YOU time, and is all about pleasing yourself.

Tesema, M. 2018. 7 Common Misconceptions About Masturbation. [Online]. [Accessed 25 April 2020]. Available from: https://mashable.com/2018/05/12/masturbation-myths/