Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
Topics: Health, Sex and Relationships, Life
Madison Burgess
It's that time of the year again - a slew of people around the world are taking on the challenge of No Nut November.
In case you're unfamiliar with the term, No Nut November is pretty much exactly what you'd expect, making it through the entirety of November without having sex, masturbating and orgasming.
While it began as something just for men, hence the term 'nut' being slang for ejaculation, in recent years some women have also taken on the abstinence challenge.
For some people, it's a walk in the park, but for others, refraining from any kind of sexual activity for an entire 30 days is harder than it seems, both mentally and physically.
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But are there any health benefits or hindrances? Now, three days in to this year's run, a doctor has broken down what partaking in No Nut November, or NNN, can do to a man's manhood.
Erectile dysfunction expert Dr Alexis Missick, from pharmaceutical company UK Meds, has weighed in on the debate to point out that masturbation is actually good for you, which means that abstaining isn't actually doing men any favours, except bragging points, maybe?
She told the Daily Star: "Masturbation actually has beneficial effects on testosterone levels and libido, almost like a positive advocate loop. By masturbating, it can delay the time to ejaculation, almost like building stamina and routine."
The doctor added: "It can also reduce some of the psychological issues such as low self-esteem and performance anxiety, that would increase the chance of erectile dysfunction.
"The reverse in true - refraining from masturbating could worsen premature ejaculation and indirectly erectile dysfunction."
Meanwhile, urologist and sexual health expert Dr Rena Malik is also in agreement, struggling to find much of a concrete reason for refraining from masturbation for 30 days.
On her YouTube channel, she explained that while there's no clear benefits, there's also no clear negatives - you're just missing out on pleasure and the positives that come with it.
Dr Malik said: "There's a number of benefits to masturbation. Including better sleep, decreased heart rate, decreased stress and a lot of increase in feel good hormones. People can get a lot of pain and discomfort in their pelvic floor, or their testicles. A lot of you guys have heard of 'blue balls'."
There's also a possible lowered risk of prostate cancer in men, with some data suggesting frequent ejaculation is associated with lower risk.
A 2018 study found that ejaculating two to four times per week had associations with a lower risk of prostate cancer.
According to another Harvard study, which involved 29,342 men (ages 46–81), and tracked health and lifestyle data from 1986–2000, men who reported having 21 or more ejaculations per month had a 31 percent lower risk of prostate cancer compared to those with 4-7 ejaculations monthly.
Of course, further research is needed to understand this, and one month away from masturbating likely won't do you any harm, but it's interesting to know nevertheless!