Wendy Zukerman

So both when studies look at whether your prolactin, oxytocin, testosterone levels rise after sex versus after masturbating, they all see the same pattern.

That like oxytocin goes up, prolactin goes up, testosterone goes up.

So that was the closest I could find.

Probably on a psychological level, it does make a difference.

I would imagine that people feel differently after...

Just after sex with someone else.

Yeah.

And just quickly, I also looked at whether abstinence can boost your mood.

People talk about how it can help with depression, anxiety.

And studies have looked into this.

So one study compared 44 men who didn't masturbate for three weeks with guys that did.

No difference in mood.

But the nofappers did feel more self-control on average.

There is this other study that looked at guys who were on a forum for trying to break pornography addiction.

And in doing this, a bunch of them also tried to stop masturbating or orgasming at all.

And they wrote these abstinence diaries that researchers then analyzed.

And some men, they did really value this activity.

So one 21-year-old said he did feel more happiness.

And another wrote, I just feel on a deeper level.

With work, friends, pastimes, there have been waves of emotion, good and bad, but it's a great thing.