There are people who would swear that masturbation causes acne. To others who either masturbate frequently, have pimples, or both, there is no correlation between the two.
If you are wondering whether masturbation causes acne or not, here is what you may need to know.
The link between masturbation and acne
First of all, acne is caused by many different things none of which is masturbation. To put it another way, masturbation does not in any way cause pimples since masturbation is not on the list of the causes of acne.
The causes of acne include:
- The clogging of hair follicles by dead skin cells and oil
- The excessive activities of hormones mainly androgens
- The production of excessive oil on the skin
- The presence of bacteria on the skin
Secondly, while there are men who believe that fapping does cause acne, the case has never been recorded in women.
Masturbation may trigger pimples; not cause them
There are many different things that can trigger acne and leave you with dark pimple marks all over your face. Strange enough, different people have different triggers for their specific kind of pimples. Among the triggers of acne include:
- Fatty food
- Stress
- Chemicals
- Medicine
- Weather conditions
- Dirt
- Changes in blood sugar
- Hormonal changes (hormonal acne)
While none of these reasons is sex or masturbation, these activities are marked by a rash of various chemicals in the body.
For this reason, masturbation is likely to lead to acne breakouts as a trigger and not as a cause. If you are convinced that masturbation is triggering your pimples, try keeping off masturbation for a while then take note of the frequency of the eruption.
Effects of fapping on the body
When you become aroused, you will release hormones some of which are androgens. These androgens may cause your acne to flare up since, it should be remembered, androgens are among the causes of pimples.
The most common androgen is testosterone which is generated during most physically exerting activities.
In people who work out heavily such as weightlifters, acne has been known to increase after each workout. While masturbation is not as exerting physically, it may still generate enough testosterone to trigger acne breakouts.
Another reason that may cause acne to flare after masturbation is the depletion of nutrients from the body. First, nutrient deficiency is strongly linked to the occurrence of pimples. When you ejaculate, semen will be lost.
Semen is made up of nutrients such as Zinc, Magnesium, Selenium, Vitamins B6, B12 and E. These nutrients play a major role in the health of your skin hence their loss can trigger acne.
It ought to be known that the effect masturbation has on acne as far as nutrients are concerned is very much indirect.
The theory is that, after losing the nutrients, the body will quickly start making more of the semen to replace what you lost. As it takes the nutrients from the rest of the body to make semen, deficiencies may occur leading to a flare up of acne.
What to do
If you are among those whose sexual activity triggers acne and you have proved the theory on yourself, you have a few options you can put to use.
First of all, you can reduce the frequency of your sexual activities. Sex (or masturbation) twice a week is all you need to have an active sexual life.
Reducing it to a few times a week will not prevent the breakout of acne each time you do it, but at least it will reduce the number of times you have the flare-ups.
Secondly, you can practice holding back during sex. While ejaculation is the climax in any sexual activity, it may be the only reason causing the acne to break out. Although it is hard, you can try exercising how to avoid ejaculating.
Lastly, you can choose to go for supplements for the nutrients lost during ejaculation. Supplements for Zinc, Selenium, Magnesium, Vitamins B6, B12 and E are in plenty in pharmacies and other shops. You can then have the supplements a few moments before engaging in sex. This, theoretically, will prevent the sudden nutrient deficiency that occurs after ejaculating.
The last two solutions will work only when the cause of the acne breakout is the loss of nutrients in ejaculation.
However, when the issue is the increase in androgens due to sexual activity, the only solution is reducing the number of times you have sex and thus the number of times you have acne breakouts.
Before reaching these conclusions, however, you will need to put various things into perspective. It may not be the sex or masturbation causing the acne flare-up but something else you do during the activities.
Check whether you have any other routines before, during, or after each session. Among the things you should look out for include:
- Whether you use a specific lubricant for your sexual activities. Some lubricants may have chemicals which can trigger your acne. That is why it is always advisable to go for water-based lubricants.
- The condoms you use could also have chemicals that may flare up your acne. Try changing the condoms to see whether the acne breakout changes.
- The conditions from which you carry out your activities. For example, if you are always doing it in a poorly aerated room, the lack of fresh air can easily flare up acne for most people.
These and many other aspects can lead to the breakout of acne.
Conclusion
Masturbation does not cause acne. However, it can trigger the same due to various aspects among them the loss of nutrients with the ejaculation process.
Another reason could be due to the increase in androgynous hormones such as testosterone when masturbating or carrying out other sexual activities.
It can also be other aspects that accompany the sexual activity such as the lubricant, condom or environment in which the activity is carried out.
You thus need to try changing each suspected aspect before you come to any conclusion. After that, you can follow the guidelines above to remedy the issue.
