You've been lied to about masturbation. Let's fix that.

TODAY'S BRIEF: • Why that guilt you're feeling isn't about your body • The testosterone myth that won't die • Your weekly win: One question to ask yourself

The Masturbation Myths That Need to Die

Here's the truth: your body doesn't know the difference between ejaculating during sex versus solo. An orgasm is an orgasm. Yet somehow, we've built an entire pseudoscience industry around the idea that masturbation is destroying you.

Dr. Eric Sprankle, a psychology professor who literally wrote the book on masturbation, breaks it down simply: "Your body doesn't care if it's ejaculated into a vagina or onto an iPad."

The claims you've probably heard? Lowered testosterone. Depression. Erectile dysfunction. Brain damage. Here's what the research actually shows: none of that holds up. When studies do find negative effects, they're almost always about guilt and shame, not the physical act itself.

Think about it logically. If masturbation was harmful but partnered sex wasn't, your body would need some kind of moral GPS to tell the difference. It doesn't have one.

The people making money off semen retention courses and "rebooting" programs cite studies, sure. But those studies are either misunderstood, poorly designed, or show effects so small they're clinically meaningless. One famous study showed a tiny testosterone bump after abstaining—with eight participants, results that weren't sustained, and effects that would apply to all ejaculation, not just masturbation.

The real problem? Moral incongruence. That's the fancy term for when your values say "don't do this" but your behavior says "did it anyway." That gap creates guilt, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The solution isn't to stop masturbating—it's to examine where those values came from and whether they're actually serving you.

Masturbation is something humans do in utero. It's a self-soothing behavior that's been normal for literally all of human history until religions and 18th-century doctors decided it was suddenly a problem. Spoiler: they had zero data to back that up.

If you feel terrible after masturbating, that's worth exploring. But it's probably not the act—it's your relationship to it.

No Nut November: The Meme That Went Dark

Started as a joke, turned into a movement, morphed into something actually harmful for some guys.

The original idea was funny—a silly internet challenge to see who could last the longest. But pockets of the internet took it seriously, built entire communities around it, and started preaching that abstaining would transform your life. Some guys white-knuckle it so hard their pelvic floors lock up and they develop chronic pain.

Here's the psychology: when you accomplish what you set out to do (abstaining), you feel great. But you will eventually masturbate. And when you do, that high crashes into shame, self-loathing, and in extreme corners of the internet, even suicidal ideation.

If abstaining makes you feel good and it's sustainable, fine. But if you're gritting your teeth through it, expecting magical results, you're setting yourself up for a crash that has nothing to do with your testosterone and everything to do with unrealistic expectations.

Ask yourself this: "Do I feel bad because of what I did, or because of what I believe about what I did?"

That one question separates physical effects from psychological ones. If the guilt is coming from beliefs that aren't even yours (religion you don't practice, parents' voices, internet pseudoscience), you might be carrying shame you don't need to carry.

That's your brief. Stay strong.

- The Male Brief

P.S. Post-orgasmic illness syndrome is real but exceedingly rare. If you physically feel sick after any orgasm (not just guilt—actually flu-like symptoms), see a doctor. For everyone else, you're fine.