Married people – or people in committed, long-term relationships – tend to have more partner-based sensual activity than people not in such a relationship, according to a number of surveys and reports. But that does not mean that self-pleasuring goes out the window when a person gets married. Since self-gratification plays a role in maintaining male organ health (and female organ health as well), that’s a good thing. But do married men and women view self-pleasuring the same way? A recent study suggests they do not.

Coming to terms

For the purposes of this article, “married” is going to refer to a couple in a long-term, committed relationship, even if they are not officially married. And “self-pleasuring” will refer to the act of engaging in self-stimulation of a person’s own genitals in a private setting. (In other words, mutual self-pleasuring, which might be considered as part of partner-based coupling, will not be counted as self-pleasuring.)

Study

Most of the information in this piece is drawn from a recent study published by the Archives of Sensual Behavior and entitled “Self-pleasuring and Partnered Sensual Activity: Substitutes or Complements?” This study was conducted by doctors at the University of Texas at Austin and Brigham Young University. It has a large sample size – 7648 men and 8090 women, all from the United States. As the scientists state in their summary, “we explored the association between sensual frequency and self-pleasuring, evaluating the evidence for whether self-pleasuring compensates for unavailable sensual activity, complements (or augments) existing paired sensual activity, or bears little association with it.”

In other words, they wanted to look at whether people in a relationship who had more or less coupling were more or less likely to self-stimulate, and what might be the reason for the self-pleasuring.

Results

Not surprisingly, men reported self-gratifying more frequently than did women (a reflection of reports from other studies on the frequency of self-pleasuring reported by the genders). But sensual contentment seemed to play a strong role in a person’s self-stimulatory frequency.

For example, 79% of sensually discontented men who had not had sensual activity recently reported that they self-stimulated. But 60% of sensually discontented men who had had sensual activity four or more times recently also reported self-gratifying. Men who were sensually content (which was only 42% of the sample) reported significantly less self-pleasuring – even if they had NOT had sensual activity recently.

Interestingly, women were who sensually content (57%) and had had sensual activity 4 or more times recently were more likely to self-stimulate than the sensually content women who had NOT had sensual activity – 33% vs. 21%.

One theory that this data suggests is that married men often self-stimulate to make up for the fact that they are discontented sensually, whereas women who are sensually content may self-stimulate more as a way of complementing their sensual satisfaction.

The fact that only a minority of married men report sensual satisfaction seems significant, and it’s worth exploring what causes that discontent. Is it the quality of the sensual activity, the frequency, or some other factor(s)?

None of this is to say that self-pleasuring among married people is necessarily negative. Many individuals in a relationship self-stimulate quite happily and contentedly. But there is clearly more to learn about this aspect of married life.

Whether married or single, self-pleasuring is usually a big part of a man’s life, and he will self-stimulate more happily if his manhood is in prime health. Regular application of a superior male organ health crème (health professionals recommend Man1 Man Oil, which is clinically proven mild and safe for skin) helps maintain that health. Since self-pleasuring-based friction often causes some raw skin damage, using a crème that can rehydrate the manhood skin. For this purpose, a crème with both a natural moisturizer (such as vitamin E) and a high-end emollient (such as Shea butter) is required. Ideally, the crème should also include L-carnitine. Frequent male member use often leads to a loss of sensation due to peripheral nerve damage, and L-carnitine is an effective agent to help with this issue.

Visit http://www.menshealthfirst.com for additional information on most common male organ health issues, tips on improving member sensitivity and what to do to maintain a healthy manhood. John Dugan is a professional writer who specializes in men's health issues and is an ongoing contributing writer to numerous websites.