Table 2.
Reasons for not masturbating in the past year by gender
| Reasons | Women (N = 821) % (n) |
Men (N = 412) % (n) |
p-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| I’m just not interested | 68.7 (564) | 49.1 (202) | < 0.001 |
| I’m in a committed relationship | 12.6 (104) | 20.2 (83) | 0.002 |
| It’s against my morals or values | 11.3 (93) | 13.8 (57) | 0.160 |
| It’s against my religion | 8.0 (66) | 9.4 (39) | 0.221 |
| I haven’t had enough privacy | 4.0 (33) | 4.1 (17) | 0.331 |
| I feel bad about myself afterwards | 4.2 (34) | 4.8 (20) | 0.262 |
| I feel uncomfortable with my body | 4.4 (36) | 1.3 (6) | 0.021 |
| I feel like I’m cheating on my partner | 3.1 (26) | 3.6 (15) | 0.260 |
| It would bother my partner or spouse if they knew I masturbated | 1.5 (13) | 6.6 (27) | < 0.001 |
| My partner doesn’t want me to masturbate | 0.7 (6) | 4.5 (18) | < 0.001 |
| It’s bad for my health | 0.7 (6) | 3.8 (16) | 0.003 |
| I can only experience orgasm from watching porn, and I’m trying to stop watching porn | 0.7 (5) | 0.7 (3) | 0.318 |
| Other reasons | 9.3 (76) | 15.0 (62) | 0.008 |
Note “Other” reasons include old age, satisfied by partner, have no need to, too tired, various health issues, erection problems (among men), spouse passed away, can experience pleasure from fantasy alone, and prefer partnered sex