{"id":23493,"date":"2019-05-20T10:24:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T10:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?p=23493"},"modified":"2024-08-15T05:47:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T03:47:45","slug":"masturbation-myths-decreased-sensitivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/masturbation-myths-decreased-sensitivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Masturbation Myths #3: Decreased Sensitivity"},"content":{"rendered":"

At LELO, we get asked all the time whether using a sex toy<\/a> will reduce your sensitivity over time. This should be an easy one to refute. After all, if you\u2019re ticklish, you don\u2019t get less ticklish over time, right? There isn\u2019t a mechanic by which interaction with the skin will cause the skin to stop responding. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s break down…<\/p>\n

Does Masturbation Desensitize You?<\/h2>\n

Another myth that feels like it could be true but isn\u2019t is that masturbation decreases your intimate sensitivity if you do it \u2018too much.\u2019 This is actually quite high up on LELO\u2019s List Of Things That Aren\u2019t True, right up there with \u2018penguins mate for life,\u2019 \u2018you lose most of your body heat through your head\u2019 and \u2018alcohol warms you up.\u2019 Sadly, none of these are true either.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, a little common sense is required to tackle this. The myth is that the repeated friction of masturbation causes the nerve endings<\/a> to deaden over time. That perhaps sounds reasonable: after all, heat can kill nerve endings, right? Well, technically, yes. But there\u2019s no way a human could cause the kind of friction required to burn the nerve endings. That\u2019s why we have to use sticks to start fires: if we could generate that kind of heat just with our hands, we\u2019d all be able to survive in the wild without tools.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, while it might have a kind of placebo effect if we rub our temples when we have a migraine, the effect is not physiological. If you could rub away your sensitivity during masturbation, then surely you could rub away the pain of arthritis, for example.<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth of this myth is exactly the opposite. Sexual stimulation increases healthy blood flow to your erogenous areas, <\/span>enhancing <\/span><\/i>sensitivity. While it\u2019s true we can experience some numbness after vigorous sex, the sensations will return and over time become more intense \u2013 not less intense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Myth Origins<\/h3>\n

Like all the worst of humanity\u2019s ideas, this one comes from 18th Century England. 1712 saw the emergence in London\u2019s coffee houses of a pamphlet called \u2018Onania,\u2019 which by 1723 had been expanded into a book with the weighty title, \u2018Onania; or, the heinous sin of self-pollution, and all its frightful consequences, in both sexes, considered, with spiritual and physical advice\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

This abomination of publishing is the root of most of our modern masturbatory myths, gaining traction in both the medical and theological fields of pre-industrial British learning. Everything from the rumor that masturbation causes insanity to connecting masturbation with Death By God can be traced to this book. The name itself is a reference to the biblical Onan, who was killed by God for disobeying His order to impregnate his brother\u2019s widow, and ejaculating on the ground outside her body.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s an interesting history to this book. The author was clearly a medical and spiritual man, but their identity remained unknown until almost three hundred years later, in 2002, when a Berkeley scholar traced the author to a poorly-remembered London quack called John Marten.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marten, it emerged, had previously been imprisoned for obscenity after releasing a frankly bizarre pamphlet about venereal diseases. The pamphlet was crazy, but it sold well. So he wrote more poorly researched nonsense anonymously, and laughed every time someone paid money for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, most of our masturbation myths come from an obscene London conman in the early 1700s. It even influenced Tissot, mentioned in the previous post about blindness<\/a>, which in turn influenced John Harvey Kellogg to invent a boring foodstuff, Corn Flakes, to suppress the sex drives<\/a> of the young. Look, I don\u2019t have time to explain everything, just trust me, that\u2019s true.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read about other masturbation myths:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Masturbation Myths #1: Hairy Palms<\/a><\/p>\n

Masturbation Myths #2: Blindness<\/a><\/p>\n

Masturbation Myths #4: Alopecia<\/a><\/p>\n

So what about you? What\u2019s the craziest masturbation myth you\u2019ve ever heard? Leave it in the comments…<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At LELO, we get asked all the time whether using a sex toy will reduce your sensitivity over time. This should be an easy one to refute. After all, if you\u2019re ticklish, you don\u2019t get less ticklish over time, right? There isn\u2019t a mechanic by which interaction with the skin will cause the skin to stop responding. Let’s break down… Does Masturbation Desensitize You? Another myth that feels like it could be true but isn\u2019t is that masturbation decreases your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":23495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[914],"tags":[],"coauthors":[950],"class_list":["post-23493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-masturbation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDecreased Sensitivity - Masturbusting Myths with LELO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you think masturbation can desensitize you? 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