by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress
A
team of researchers led by Alexandra Dubinskaya, of Cedar-Sinai Medical
Center has found that the medical benefits of women using vibrators are
strong enough to warrant doctors prescribing their use to female
patients on a regular basis. In their paper published in The Journal of Urology,
the group describes their metastudy of research into the health impacts
of vibrator use by women and why they believe the time may have come
for them to be considered medical therapy devices.
Prior
research has suggested that frequent masturbation by women can have
positive health impacts, both physical and mental. In this new effort,
the researchers noted that little work has been done on the use of
vibrators as a masturbation aid and whether they have positive health
impacts. They reviewed research databases for studies that involved use
of vibrators for medical benefits and found 558 papers, which they
whittled down to 21.
In
their analysis, the researchers found evidence of a host of benefits of
regular vibrator use, noting that it improved the health of the pelvic
floor, reduced vulvar pain and led to improvements in overall sexual
health. They also found instances of regular vibrator use leading to
improvements in incontinence along with pelvic floor muscle strength.
The
researchers note that use of a vibrator during masturbation reduces the
time it takes for a woman to achieve an orgasm, and also helps with
achieving multiple orgasms. Other prior research associates experiencing
regular orgasms with stress reduction and an improvement in overall
sexual health. They suggest that adding a vibrator to masturbatory experiences leads to better outcomes.
The
researchers conclude that vibrators can and should be considered not
just sex toys, but therapeutic devices. And that, they point out,
suggests that it is time that female pelvic medicine and reconstructive
surgery specialists, and perhaps doctors in general, begin prescribing
vibrators to their female patients. The team will be presenting their findings at this year's Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association.
Explore further