Does masturbation decrease testosterone? What the research actually shows

Short answer

No: in the studies that measured it, masturbation did not decrease testosterone. When researchers drew blood continuously before, during and after masturbation to orgasm, testosterone stayed flat, while prolactin rose and stayed raised afterward (100007-9), 2). One small study found testosterone higher after three weeks without sex, but orgasm itself still left it unchanged (3). The often-quoted "testosterone peaks on day 7 of abstinence" study was retracted in 2021 (4).

If you have been worrying that a normal habit is draining your hormones, your muscles or your drive, you are not alone, and it is not a moral failing to ask. Masturbation is common across adult life (5), and a sexual medicine review panel raised concerns about the belief that masturbation is "unhealthy" sexual behavior (6). What does lower testosterone looks much more ordinary: short sleep, weight gain, age, certain medicines and some medical conditions.

Note: this article explains what research and clinical guidelines say and is not medical advice. It covers health questions only, not moral or religious ones. It cannot tell you your testosterone level; only a blood test can. An erection lasting four hours or more needs an emergency room, and new erection problems need a doctor, not a diary.

Does masturbation decrease testosterone?

No. The best direct evidence comes from a small set of lab studies by one research group, and none of them found a drop.

In 1998, researchers monitored ten healthy men continuously while blood was drawn before, during and after masturbation to orgasm. Heart rate, blood pressure and noradrenaline rose briefly, and prolactin rose during orgasm and stayed raised 30 minutes later. In contrast, "none of the other endocrine variables were significantly affected by sexual arousal and orgasm", and testosterone was one of them (100007-9)). A 2003 follow-up in another ten men sampled blood every two minutes, which is fine enough to catch a short dip. Testosterone, LH and FSH "remained unaltered during sexual arousal and orgasm" (2).

These are small lab studies of healthy volunteers, measuring the hour around orgasm rather than years of life. Still, they point the same way: orgasm through masturbation does not lower testosterone.

Does masturbation affect testosterone levels?

Not in any measurable way in these studies. What does change is prolactin. Across the same research group's work on film, masturbation and intercourse, prolactin was "substantially increased for over 1h following orgasm" in both men and women, and unchanged after arousal without orgasm (700036-7)). The authors propose that this prolactin rise helps switch off sexual arousal after orgasm, which may be part of why desire dips for a while afterward. That is a hypothesis about the refractory period, not evidence of hormone loss, and it is a different hormone from testosterone.

Does masturbation increase testosterone?

There is no good evidence that it does. In the lab studies above, testosterone stayed flat through arousal and orgasm (100007-9), 2). Masturbation is neither a testosterone booster nor a testosterone drain, as far as the measurements go.

Does masturbation cause low testosterone?

We found no study linking masturbation to low testosterone, and the clinical definitions of low testosterone do not mention it. Low testosterone is a medical diagnosis, not a feeling after a weekend. The Endocrine Society recommends diagnosing it "only in men with symptoms and signs consistent with testosterone (T) deficiency and unequivocally and consistently low serum T concentrations," confirmed by repeating a fasting morning blood test (8). The American Urological Association (AUA) uses a total testosterone below 300 ng/dL as "a reasonable cut-off," and asks for two early-morning measurements on separate occasions before making the diagnosis (9).

When the AUA's patient foundation lists causes, masturbation is not among them. It names conditions present from birth, testicle injury, cancer treatment and pituitary disease, plus factors linked to low levels: aging, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and medications "such as antidepressants and narcotic pain medications" (10).

Signs of low testosterone that are worth a blood test

The Urology Care Foundation lists low sex drive, fatigue, reduced lean muscle mass, irritability, erectile dysfunction and depression as symptoms that may accompany low testosterone (10). Notice how much that list overlaps with what poor sleep, stress or low mood also do. That overlap is why guidelines insist on repeated morning blood tests rather than symptoms alone (8), and why guessing the cause from your habits does not work.

One symptom on that list needs a doctor regardless of hormones. New erection problems are worth an appointment because erectile dysfunction can come before heart disease. A systematic review in European Urology concluded that ED "usually precedes CVD onset, and it might be considered an early marker of symptomatic CVD" (11). Our article on whether erectile dysfunction is a sign of heart disease covers what that means in practice.

Does masturbation lower testosterone if you do it every day?

We found no study comparing testosterone in men grouped by how often they masturbate, so nobody can give a frequency number. What exists are the single-session lab studies, where orgasm did not move testosterone (100007-9), 2), and large surveys showing masturbation is common throughout adult life (5). If daily masturbation were steadily lowering testosterone, the clinical lists of causes would be a natural place to find it, and it is absent (10).

The more useful question is what the habit does to the rest of your day: late-night sessions that cut into sleep matter more, because sleep loss has measured effects on testosterone (see below).

Does ejaculation lower testosterone?

Not in the studies that measured it. In the lab work above, the orgasms were ejaculatory, and testosterone did not drop (100007-9), 3). For testosterone, ejaculation and masturbation are the same question.

Does sex increase testosterone?

Possibly a little, in the short term, but the evidence is thin. In a 1992 study of four heterosexual couples, salivary testosterone was measured on 11 evenings with intercourse and 11 without. Testosterone "increased across the evening when there was intercourse and decreased when there was none," in both men and women (1290453-9)). Four couples cannot settle anything, but the finding sits badly with the idea that sexual activity drains testosterone.

Does porn lower testosterone?

There is no good evidence that it does. In the lab studies, testosterone did not change during sexual arousal or orgasm (100007-9), 2). The research questions about pornography are mostly about erections, covered further down.

Does not ejaculating for 7 days increase testosterone?

The study behind this claim no longer stands. Published in 2003, it followed 28 volunteers and reported that testosterone barely moved on days 2 to 5 of abstinence, then peaked on day 7 at 145.7% of baseline, with "no regular fluctuation" after that (4). That single number is still widely repeated in NoFap and semen-retention discussions online.

In December 2021, the journal retracted the paper. According to the retraction note, the editor retracted it because it "significantly overlaps with a previously published article in Chinese" (Jiang, 2002) (13). The note concerns duplicate publication; it does not say the measurements were wrong. But a retracted paper should not be relied on as evidence, and we could not find an independent replication of the day-7 peak.

What remains is one small study. In ten healthy men, testosterone was higher after three weeks of sexual abstinence than before it, while orgasm itself still did not change testosterone (3). The abstract does not report how large the difference was, and ten men cannot tell you whether the effect is meaningful, lasting or the same in everyone.

So the fair summary is: a short break from ejaculation may nudge testosterone up a little for a while, based on very limited data. No study we found shows that this helps your health, muscles, mood or sex drive.

NoFap benefits: what the evidence shows

There is little controlled research on NoFap, and none that we found measuring testosterone, muscle or confidence as outcomes. Most of what is known comes from surveys of people who choose to abstain, plus one short abstinence experiment on pornography rather than masturbation.

Why people try it. In a survey of 1,063 participants recruited through Reddit, most said they had tried abstaining from masturbation. Motivation to abstain was "mostly associated with attitudinal correlates, specifically the perception of masturbation as unhealthy," and was linked to conservatism, religiosity and lower trust in science, not to behavioral markers such as the maximum number of orgasms (14). The authors open their paper by noting "the lack of evidence for negative health effects of masturbation."

What one controlled study found. In a randomized study, 176 undergraduate students who regularly used pornography were assigned to abstain from pornography for seven days or carry on as usual. The researchers found "no evidence of withdrawal-related symptoms" in the abstaining group. An exploratory analysis suggested more craving only among people who used pornography daily and rated their use as highly problematic (15). This study was about pornography, about two-thirds of participants were women, and it did not measure hormones.

Why "feeling addicted" is not always about the behavior. A systematic review and meta-analysis proposed that many pornography-related problems, especially feeling addicted, may be "better construed as functions of discrepancies" between a person's beliefs and behavior, which the authors call moral incongruence (16). An International Society for Sexual Medicine panel raised the same concern and said it opposes treatment approaches that unilaterally prohibit masturbation or apply "an addiction model with notions of abstinence" (6).

If you abstain for personal, religious or relationship reasons, that is your decision, and this article does not argue with it. If you abstain because you were told it will fix your testosterone, the evidence does not support that promise.

Does semen retention increase testosterone?

Semen retention means avoiding ejaculation for long periods, and the testosterone claims behind it rest on the same two sources: the retracted 7-day study (4) and the three-week study in ten men (3). Online claims also stretch that paper: even before its retraction, it described no rise continuing past day 7. No study we found shows a lasting rise, or a health benefit from one.

Does masturbation affect muscle growth or gym gains?

There is no evidence that it does. We found no study testing masturbation and muscle growth directly, but two lines of research answer the question well enough.

Sex before exercise did not change fitness test results. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled nine crossover studies (133 participants, 99% men). Sexual activity "within 30 min to 24 h before exercise does not appear to affect aerobic fitness, musculoskeletal endurance, or strength/power" (17). The authors rated the studies as having some concerns about bias, and the studies measured fitness tests rather than competition.

Short-term testosterone wiggles do not predict gains anyway. In 56 young men who did 12 weeks of resistance training, the post-workout rise in free testosterone was not correlated with gains in lean body mass or leg press strength (18). Even if masturbation moved testosterone a little, which the lab studies did not find, a brief change within your own normal range is not what drives muscle growth.

Is masturbation before a workout a bad idea?

Based on the same meta-analysis, it does not appear to matter for strength, power or endurance when sexual activity happens 30 minutes to 24 hours before exercise. The review counted both intercourse and masturbation as sexual activity (17). The trials were small crossover studies, so treat this as the best evidence available rather than a final word.

Does masturbation make you weaker?

Not in any study that measured strength. Strength and power did not differ after recent sexual activity in the pooled crossover trials (17). Feeling drowsy afterward is a different thing from losing strength. In a survey of 778 adults, orgasm through masturbation was associated with perceived better sleep quality and falling asleep faster (19). That was self-report, not a sleep study.

What actually lowers testosterone

Sleep, body weight, age, some medicines and some medical conditions have a much better evidence base than masturbation does.

Short sleep. In ten young men who spent eight nights with five hours in bed, "daytime testosterone levels were decreased by 10% to 15%." The authors note that normal aging is associated with a fall of 1% to 2% per year (20). It was a small lab study, but a week of short nights moved testosterone more than anything measured around masturbation.

Body weight. In a meta-analysis of 24 studies in men with obesity, weight loss was "associated with an increase in both bound and unbound testosterone levels," and more weight lost went with a bigger rise (21).

Age, medicines and medical causes. Aging, obesity, metabolic syndrome, antidepressants and narcotic pain medicines are all on the Urology Care Foundation's list, alongside pituitary disease, testicle injury and cancer treatment (10). If a medicine might be involved, raise it with whoever prescribed it rather than stopping it yourself.

Our articles on testosterone after 40 and lifestyle changes for erectile dysfunction go further into what changes with age and habits. If low desire is the real worry, how stress lowers your sex drive and how libido changes with age are better places to start than your testosterone.

How often should a man ejaculate?

There is no medically correct number. Masturbation is "common throughout the lifespan" in US national survey data (5).

The figure people sometimes quote comes from prostate cancer research. In 31,925 men followed for about 18 years, reporting 21 or more ejaculations a month was associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer than 4 to 7 a month (hazard ratio 0.81 for frequency in men's twenties and 0.78 in their forties) (22). The association was driven by low-risk disease, the data were self-reported, and men who ejaculated more often also differed in other ways. It is an association worth knowing about, not a target.

When does masturbation become a problem?

When it stops feeling like a choice and starts costing you, not when it passes a number. "Porn addiction" and "sex addiction" are not diagnoses in the DSM: the American Psychiatric Association decided not to include hypersexual disorder in DSM-5 or its 2022 text revision (6). The World Health Organization's ICD-11 does include compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (6C72), defined as "a persistent pattern of failure to control intense, repetitive sexual impulses or urges resulting in repetitive sexual behaviour," lasting months and causing marked distress or impairment. ICD-11 adds that distress "entirely related to moral judgments and disapproval" is not enough on its own (23).

If you recognize that pattern, or if guilt about masturbation is taking over your days, a licensed therapist, ideally one with sexual health training, is the right person to see. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (24).

Living with testosterone worries: the questions people ask next

Does masturbation cause erectile dysfunction?

The evidence on masturbation and erections is reassuring, and the evidence on pornography is mixed. In a web survey of 3,419 men aged 18 to 35, masturbation frequency "seemed not to be a significant factor" for erectile dysfunction, while higher scores for problematic pornography use were associated with more ED (25). Analyses of four large European samples found "little evidence" linking pornography use to younger men's sexual difficulties (26). Both were cross-sectional surveys and cannot show cause. New erection problems deserve a doctor's visit regardless, because ED can come before heart disease (11). Performance worries have their own article: sexual performance anxiety.

Does masturbation cause hair loss?

There is no evidence that it does. The American Academy of Dermatology names hereditary hair loss, called male pattern hair loss in men, as "the most common cause of hair loss worldwide." Its list of other causes includes aging, alopecia areata, major stress or illness, certain medications, thyroid disease and low iron, among others. Masturbation and ejaculation are not on it (27). If you are losing hair faster than expected, a dermatologist can look at the pattern and the causes on that list.

Does gooning lower testosterone?

"Gooning" is internet slang for very long masturbation sessions, often with pornography. We found no study that measured testosterone during sessions like that. The studies that exist found testosterone unchanged during sexual arousal and orgasm (100007-9), 2), so there is no evidence that long sessions lower it. A more plausible cost is indirect: sessions that run into the night shorten sleep, and a week of short nights was linked to 10–15% lower daytime testosterone (20). If sessions feel hard to stop despite trying, that fits the ICD-11 description of a control problem worth discussing with a therapist (23).

Does edging increase testosterone?

There is no evidence that edging, which means prolonging arousal before orgasm, raises testosterone. In the lab, sexual arousal did not change testosterone (100007-9), 2), and arousal without orgasm did not raise prolactin either (700036-7)). We found no measurements behind claims that edging works as a hormone booster. One limit applies to any kind of arousal: for an erection that lasts four hours or more, the Urology Care Foundation says to go to the emergency room (28).

What happens when you stop masturbating?

For testosterone, possibly a modest rise after a few weeks: in one study of ten men, levels were higher after three weeks of abstinence (3). In a seven-day randomized study of stopping pornography, participants showed no withdrawal-like symptoms (15). A sexual medicine review notes that abstaining from pornography can bring more intrusive sexual thoughts and arousal in people who see their use as a problem (6). Online reports of more energy and confidence are self-reported, uncontrolled, and hard to separate from everything else people change at the same time.

Will masturbating before a testosterone blood test skew the result?

Orgasm did not change blood testosterone in the lab studies, so there is no evidence that it would (100007-9), 2). Time of day matters far more. The Urology Care Foundation notes that "testosterone levels are lower later in the day" and that the test should be done at two different times on samples taken before noon (10). The Endocrine Society recommends fasting morning samples (8). Follow whatever preparation instructions your lab or clinician gives you.

What if masturbation hurts or something looks wrong?

Pain, bleeding, swelling or bruising after sexual activity are reasons to see a clinician promptly, not to wait. The Urology Care Foundation notes that blood at the tip of the penis or in the urine "is a sign of a serious injury to the urethra," and that most minor penile wounds heal without problems "if treated at once" (29). And an erection that lasts four hours or more is an emergency: go to the emergency room or call 911 (28).

When to see a doctor about low testosterone

See a doctor if you have symptoms such as low sex drive, fatigue, erection problems, loss of muscle or low mood that have lasted weeks and do not fit an obvious cause like a run of short nights (10). Masturbation is not a reason to get tested, and stopping it is not a test.

Say it in one sentence first: "For the last few months I've had low energy and low sex drive, and I'd like to know whether my testosterone is part of it." That names the symptoms and the question without assuming the answer.

Bring a short written record. How long the symptoms have lasted, your usual sleep, any weight change, alcohol, all medicines and supplements (including anything bought online), and any recent illness. One page.

Ask about the test itself. Guidelines call for fasting, early-morning blood samples, repeated on a separate day to confirm a low result (8, 9). Useful questions: "When should the blood be drawn?", "Will you repeat it if it comes back low?", and "What else could explain these symptoms?"

Ask about fertility if it matters to you. The Endocrine Society recommends against starting testosterone therapy in men who are planning fertility in the near term (8). Whether any treatment is right for you is a decision for you and your clinician; this article does not recommend one.

Do not wait for an appointment for these:

• An erection lasting four hours or more: go to the emergency room or call 911. The Urology Care Foundation warns that immediate treatment matters to prevent tissue damage and ED (28).

• Pain, bleeding or injury to the penis: see a clinician promptly (29).

• New erection problems: book a doctor's visit, because ED can be an early sign of heart disease (11).

• Distress about sexual behavior, or a pattern you cannot control: a licensed therapist (23).

• Thoughts of self-harm: call or text 988 (24).

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How Welltory helps — and what it cannot do

The limits first. Welltory is a general wellness product, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, detect, predict, monitor, prevent, treat or mitigate low testosterone, erectile dysfunction or any other condition. It cannot measure testosterone or any hormone, and nothing on a wearable can tell you whether masturbation, abstinence or anything else changed your levels. Only a blood test can. What it offers is a dated record of your days.

You note the evening; the app is already recording stress and sleep. When a stress stretch appears on your Today screen with the question "What happened?", you can tap a suggested tag, type a few words, or just talk: "short night", "late screen time", "workout", "drinks", "deadline", "argument". If you are running your own experiment, such as a NoFap streak, you can tag it in words only you need to understand. You know what happened; you are the one putting it on the record.

Then look at the two together. Stress minutes, sleep analysis, Battery, resting heart rate and HRV are recorded the same way every day. Put your tags beside them and you have dated pairs: what you did, and what was recorded that night and the next day. These are your own numbers next to your own history, not a population range and not a line marked normal. Stress minutes, sleep analysis and Battery need a supported wearable; with the morning phone-camera reading alone, you have your spot measurements.

After two to three weeks of tagging, My Patterns has something to work with. My Patterns collects the tags you add to stress and rest stretches on the Today screen, so it needs iOS with an Apple Watch or Oura. Patterns appear at around seven tagged events in the current month, with some history from the month before. It shows which tagged situations tend to come alongside stressful stretches, which tags do not happen often but hit your body hard, trends by day of week, heart-rate data, and every time a tag occurred.

That record is what you take to the appointment. The Journal (Premium) keeps your measurements, tags and notes, and from the Welltory web app you can export a CSV (Dashboard → choose a chart → Export). It is a record you made, not a conclusion the app reached. Any pattern in it is an association to discuss with your doctor, not proof of a cause and not a verdict on your hormones.

The red flags belong here too, in the same type size: an erection lasting four hours or more needs the emergency room or 911; pain, bleeding or injury needs a clinician promptly; new erection problems need a doctor; distress or a pattern you cannot control deserves a licensed therapist; and thoughts of self-harm mean calling or texting 988 (28, 29, 11, 24).

How we made it

Made with AI tools, then edited and fact-checked by the Welltory team. See our Editorial & AI policy.

Data analysis by Jane Smorodnikova, co-founder of Welltory and the person who built the methodology behind how we read physiological data.

Written by Tatsiana Yashyna.

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