# Vows not to masturbate. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2004, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212 "2004-06-02T05:09:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Clancy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Clancy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clancy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/1 "2004-06-02T05:09:07Z")
I am sure that at one point in your life, some of you felt that you were masturbating too much and tried to stop. The question here is how long this drought last until you failed miserably. If possible you can also explain the reason for your failure. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/2 "2004-06-02T05:15:48Z")
Honestly, the only time I stopped for a long duration was due to illness/fatigue. There’s been times when I’ve stopped completely for a month or so, but once I feel better, I always make up for lost time 😉 I don’t know how long I could voluntarily abstain. I mean, I think I have a pretty high sex drive, yet at the same time I am a single guy so it is the simplest alternative. Why would I hold out on my sole sexual outlet, huh? ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/3 "2004-06-02T05:33:05Z")
Y’know, I have two guy friends who swear up and down on their mother’s grave and Baby Jesus’s ears that they don’t masturbate. They say it is a willpower thing. :smack: BTW, I don’t masturbate anymore since I moved in with my boyfriend. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/4 "2004-06-02T05:39:47Z")
I had a vow like that. Well, vows, in that I made a vow many times. And failed all the time…heehee. I was a really religious teen and thought it was a sin, so I kept asking for forgiveness and said I’d never do it again. And I was sincere. But I always ended up doing it again. Of course now I know it’s not a sin and don’t care. I do it when I want to. I don’t do it much anymore because I get regular sex. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Too\_Saxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@Just\_Too\_Saxy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Too_Saxy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/5 "2004-06-02T05:49:53Z")
Well, I’m a single chick who’s just rarely interested. So not doing it for stretches at a time just doesn’t bother me much. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/6 "2004-06-02T05:52:37Z")
I haven’t even been able to make it this far in the thread! ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/7 "2004-06-02T06:38:27Z")
Why on earth would you do that? I went for about two days without right before my girlfriend got back into town so I would be even more into sex, but on a regular basis? Hell no. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/8 "2004-06-02T06:49:03Z")
TMI post be warned. I made that vow early in my _ahem_ career. in less then a week I woke up humping my hand on the verge of…arrival. I couldn’t resist taking it all the way in. Since then I figure what’s the point of trying to stop if all it means is I can’t sleep very well and I wake up molesting whatever is handy. ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/9 "2004-06-02T12:04:09Z")
Why would anyone make this vow? What’s the point? BTW, I seem to remember an article about that study saying that male masturbation prevents prostate cancer said that guys who ejaculated 21 or more times a month had 50% the risk. So that works out to what, 5 or more times a week? But who’s got that sort of time on their, uh, hands? ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/10 "2004-06-02T12:40:06Z")
I do have memories of making such vows, but I can’t remember how long I actually kept them for. Probably a few days at most. A question for those of you who do remember making and breaking such vows: When you broke the vow, was the, ahh, droughtbreaker more enjoyable than usual? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/11 "2004-06-02T13:42:29Z")
> [@Already in Use](#): > > BTW, I seem to remember an article about that study saying that male masturbation prevents prostate cancer said that guys who ejaculated 21 or more times a month had 50% the risk. So that works out to what, 5 or more times a week? But who’s got that sort of time on their, uh, hands? In my prime I could be cancer free by halfway through the second week of each month! You MAKE time for such things! As it is now, I still feel pretty safe, although it is not only masturbation these days. ---
**Author:** ![P\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a587f6/32.png) [@P\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P_T)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/12 "2004-06-02T13:57:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Y’know, I have two guy friends who swear up and down on their mother’s grave and Baby Jesus’s ears that they don’t masturbate. They say it is a willpower thing They’re lying. I’ve gone for a week or two, don’t have much desire to quit completely. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/13 "2004-06-02T13:58:11Z")
Never made a ‘vow’ to stop, but occasionally stopped just for the hell of it, to see how long I could. My longest voluntary pause was two weeks, involuntary (I was in the hospital with a catheter and a roommate) about 18 days. And yep, the ‘droughtbreaker’ felt exceptionally nice. ---
**Author:** ![misstee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@misstee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misstee)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/14 "2004-06-02T14:04:31Z")
I never made a vow not to do it, nor would I make one. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/15 "2004-06-02T14:19:50Z")
[Kramer] (slamming money on table) I’m out! [/Kramer] ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/16 "2004-06-02T14:32:28Z")
> [@torie](#): > > Y’know, I have two guy friends who swear up and down on their mother’s grave and Baby Jesus’s ears that they don’t masturbate. They say it is a willpower thing. And a stupidity thing. Why wouldn’t you masturbate? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/17 "2004-06-02T14:59:35Z")
"So I was talking with my grandmother about Joycelyn Elders, and she’s like, ‘Nooo. That woman shouldn’t be there, teaching kids to masturbate.’ And I said, ‘Aw, c’mon, Grandma, didn’t you ever masturbate when you were a kid?’ And she says, ‘No. Never.’ 'Well, your kids must have, you had nine of ‘em!’ ‘No, my kids didn’t masturbate.’ And then she looks at me and says, ‘Don’t tell me you masturbated when you were a kid!’ I said, ‘Grandmaaaaa! Remember that big old teddy bear you sent me when I was about nine? There’s no fur left on the right leg!!’ " - Karen Ripley ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/18 "2004-06-02T15:05:27Z")
When I was a lot younger, I made a vow not to masturbate. Mostly because I’m a girl, and was told that boys can’t help themselves and it’s normal for them, but girls “just don’t do that” because it’s filthy, but only if you’re a girl (my mom is a huge prude, and a southern bell to boot - she’s got a lot of ideas about what you “just don’t do”). After thinking about it for a while, I decided that such reasoning just didn’t have anything to do with logic, so I reneged on my vow “right quick.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/19 "2004-06-02T15:06:27Z")
If you’ve made a vow to give up masturbation, then its gotten out of hand. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212/20 "2004-06-02T15:10:19Z")
We still laugh about the line a doctor provided us with after a friend went to see him. He took one look at my friend’s penis and said _“Son, please, just give it a rest.”_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vows-not-to-masturbate/248212.md?page=2)