Masturbation, testosterone, libido, and erection — facts and myths

The NoFap movement and related sexual-abstinence communities have built an entire narrative around the idea that refraining from masturbation raises testosterone, libido, and erection quality, while frequent masturbation supposedly 'depletes' them. This belief gets repeated readily, partly because it's built on a fragment of genuine scientific data — pulled out of context and blown up well beyond what that data actually shows.

This article systematically works through the three main NoFap claims — about testosterone, libido, and erections — checking each one against actual research, including the studies abstinence advocates themselves cite.

The most frequently cited 'proof' of this claim is a 2003 Chinese study in which 28 men showed testosterone rising to 145.7% of baseline on the seventh day of abstinence after a prior ejaculation. The problem is that this paper was officially retracted by the journal's editors due to substantial overlap with an earlier paper by the same authors published in another language — which in practice means it shouldn't be treated as reliable scientific evidence, regardless of how often it gets cited online.

A much older, but methodologically sounder and still relevant source is a 1976 British study that actually measured testosterone and other steroid hormone levels before and after masturbation.

This study shows something exactly opposite to the NoFap belief in one important respect: it's sexual activity itself, not abstaining from it, that triggers a short-term rise in testosterone. The key word is 'short-term' — the study measured the effect immediately after the act, not a baseline level sustained over days or weeks. There's no solid, non-retracted evidence that regular abstinence permanently raises baseline testosterone above a person's individual norm — the available data instead suggest transient fluctuations around a stable reference point, not a lasting change.

This is the reverse of the first myth, equally popular in some circles — and equally poorly supported by evidence. There's no solid research showing that regular, frequent masturbation in a healthy man leads to a permanent, chronic drop in baseline testosterone. The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis is a system with numerous feedback mechanisms designed to keep the hormone level relatively stable over time, not to 'deplete' with normal physiological activity like masturbation or ejaculation.

This claim has gained additional traction over the past decade alongside the popularization of the 'porn-induced erectile dysfunction' (PIED) concept, which suggests that frequent exposure to pornographic material combined with masturbation dysregulates the response to sexual stimuli in real-life situations. Large questionnaire-based studies covering thousands of men consistently show that masturbation and pornography use frequency alone has a weak or nonexistent direct relationship to the severity of erectile dysfunction — far stronger and more consistent predictors remain age, anxiety and depression, chronic illness, low sexual interest in a partner, and low relationship satisfaction.

The picture, however, is more nuanced than a simple 'it's a myth.' Some studies show that in men without a partner, masturbation is associated with better erectile function, whereas in men in a relationship, more frequent masturbation is sometimes associated with more sexual problems and lower satisfaction — suggesting that it's not the physiological act itself that's the problem, but a possible underlying psychological factor (e.g., avoidance of intimacy, compulsive patterns) or a reverse causal relationship: low relationship satisfaction increasing masturbation frequency, rather than the other way around.

Rejecting the NoFap myths about testosterone doesn't mean masturbation habits are never a problem. Compulsive patterns — masturbation experienced as impossible to control, crowding out other activities, causing shame and distress, or continuing despite a wish to cut back — are a real clinical phenomenon, regardless of whether we call it a 'behavioral addiction' or something else. It's this pattern, not the sheer number of episodes per week, that correlates with worse psychological wellbeing in studies.

Similarly, if you notice that you respond with arousal and erection only to very specific, intense pornographic stimuli, but find it harder to become aroused in a real situation with a partner, that's a signal worth discussing with a therapist or sexologist — regardless of whether we call it 'PIED' or simply a pattern of conditioned sexual response that can gradually be changed.

None of the three main NoFap claims — about a permanent testosterone rise with abstinence, its drop with frequent masturbation, or a direct causal link with erectile dysfunction — has solid support in reliable research. What does have support is a much more modest and less sensational statement: sexual activity triggers short-term hormonal fluctuations, and what's actually worth watching isn't the number of episodes per week, but whether a given behavior pattern is causing a real problem in your life.