Male Vibrators - Say what?
What the female can have, the males can too! Male vibrators have existed in the last few decades, mainly and initially for those that have had spinal cord injuries. But first to understand the role of the vibrators, let’s take a step back and understand the anatomy involved with erectile function.
The pudendal nerve is the major nerve that originates from your spinal cord that is responsible for telling us all the sensations that are occurring around the perineal region. There are many nerve endings that branch out from this nerve. When stimulated the pudendal nerve is responsible for a few things:
- It tells us the different sensations happening in the genital region (both penile and scrotal) and those sensations range from warmth, cold, pressure, stretch or pain. These sensations feed into the part of the brain that is responsible for sexual arousal
- Innervates the pelvic floor muscle. During an orgasm, the pelvic floor is involved, where it contracts and relaxes at a quick rate contributing to an ejaculation.
- It is also involved with sexual function. Thus stimulation of the pudendal nerve initiates an erection, causes ejaculation and orgasm. A reflex arc where the pudendal nerve is stimulated encourages blood flow to the penis to encourage rigidity during the early stages of arousal, but also prevents blood flow from leaving the penis to maintain hardness.
It also comes down to the way we are stimulated as well. What gets that pudendal nerve firing? Is your arousal better with touch? Do you prefer visual stimulation?
If we wanted to delve a bit deeper, the pudendal nerve is also influenced by psychological factors. Let’s be frank, an erection wouldn’t really occur if we were stressed out of our minds would it?
Following a prostatectomy the most common changes are incontinence and erectile function. With an erection, males need two things:
- An intact nervous system
- Adequate blood flow
Let’s think now logically. We know what is needed for an erection. A vibrator could provide a means to achieve an erection.
As with all vibrators they are designed to provide sexual arousal and gratification. Heaps and heaps of studies for the females, but unfortunately the males, well unfortunately the health system has let you down a bit in this avenue!
Vibration is thought to stimulate a chain of events where the pudendal nerve is stimulated through the sensations. It provides sexual stimulation of the pudendal nerve and these messages are then relayed to the spinal cord and brain.
What also happens is that the pudendal nerve stimulation encourages blood flow to the penis. Increasing blood flow, increases skin sensitivity of the genital region, which then releases nitric oxide, to encourage rigidity. So BAM there are two requirements met already with erectile function.
Because your pudendal nerve is also responsible for the action of your pelvic floor muscles, could this be another avenue too? So let’s explore this aspect.
Theoretically the stimulation from the vibration stimulates the pudendal nerve, which then stimulates the pelvic floor muscle. So we are getting blood flow to the pelvic floor muscle which could enhance the pelvic floor contraction. A stronger pelvic floor could give us a stronger orgasm (as well as keeping you dry of course!)
Or for someone that is struggling to find their pelvic floor, vibration could lead to improved awareness of the perineal region, which for some struggling with trying to find the pelvic floor, could help initiate a contraction. So overall there is an added incentive to do your exercises!
The jury is still out about the evidence associated with male vibrators but anecdotally could improve erectile function. There are several vibrators on the market, or even sometimes the female vibrators can be used for the males too. Vibrators are usually used along the shaft of the penis, but I mean who is to say that you couldn’t use the vibrator to stimulate the scrotum too?
Or otherwise vibrators for the males may provide another avenue of sexual gratification if they feel intercourse is not possible. But in the end communication is going to be the most important part in all of this. Vibrators are all well and good, but sexual exploration through touch and feel isn’t possible unless we communicate with our partner into what we desire and what makes you feel good.
(We recommend the manta vibrator from fun factory)
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