How Much Do You Know About Sexual Health?
For this September’s Sexual Health month, iroha wanted to spread awareness regarding self-pleasure being a part of sexual health. We wanted to encourage more people to take steps to look after their sexual health and start conversations around sexual health and self-pleasure. But that wasn’t all, we also wanted to know more about our followers and understand what iroha can do for our fans, whether it is normalizing self-pleasure, more in depth sex education, or better overall sexual wellness.
So we had our ‘Putting the Pleasure into Sexual Health’ campaign, where we had blogs and posts on our social media to help educate and spread awareness of self-pleasure and sexual health. On top of that, we held a special survey where we asked our followers about what they think sexual health is.
In this blog, we will be sharing some interesting results we found through the survey. Furthermore, we will be sharing what we’ve learnt; how we hope to achieve our mission of helping people feel comfortable with their bodies and redefining pleasure.
*Please note, the sample of the survey is from our newsletter subscribers and regular iroha USA store shoppers, with 72.4% identifying as cisgender female, 6.9% cisgender male, 6.9% agender, 6.9% nonbinary, 3.4% genderqueer, and 3.4% bigender.
Contents
Survey: Putting the Pleasure in Sexual Health
Over the month of September, we encouraged our followers to participate in our ‘Putting the Pleasure in Sexual Health’ Survey, where we asked our followers questions regarding their knowledge and experience with sexual health and sex education. In addition, we asked them about what they think of self-pleasure and sexual health overall.
Through the survey, we hoped to understand our fans more, and also get an insight into what are some common opinions regarding sexual health and self-pleasure. The survey had two topics: sexual health and self-pleasure, and we asked the participants their thoughts, their knowledge, and their experiences on each. Keep on reading to find out what we discovered.
How Much Do You Know About Sexual Health?
Most participants stated that they are not sure if their knowledge of sexual health is enough.
33.3% stated that they think their knowledge of sexual health is not enough, and up to 25.9% responded that maybe it is enough. The participants were then asked if they have received any sort of sex education. 85.2% of participants responded yes, and the remainder were not sure (maybe). While many had some form of sex education, it seems that many people are not confident in their knowledge of sexual health.
The participants were then asked which topics were covered in their sex ed. The three most common topics were’ STIs (75.9%), contraception (79.3%), and human anatomy including puberty, pregnancy, and menstruation (82.8%). While 48.3% of the participants stated the topic of consent was covered and 37.9% were taught about relationships. 34.5% of the participants also said the topic of masturbation was covered in their sex ed and 27.6% have received education regarding the pleasure aspects of sexuality.
The participants were then asked “What does sexual health mean to you?” and here are the common answers they gave:
- Doing what feels good to their body and having fun
- Having a healthy relationship with their sexual self and overall health and wellness
- Being comfortable with themselves in terms of their body, sex, and sexuality
- Safe sex and protection against STIs and pregnancies
- Communicating with partners
- Understanding pleasure: being able to give/receive pleasure
- Having the freedom and rights to their own body
- Able to acquire knowledge regarding sex and sexuality
- Learning about your body and yourself
- Open to sexual wants and desires
While many do not feel confident in their knowledge regarding sexual health, it seems like many does have a general idea of what it should be. 
Another interesting discovery is that many of the participants felt comfortable discussing their sexual health with close friends and their partners.
These are the replies, when asked who they speak to/get help from regarding sexual health’
- 37% from professionals
- 29.6 % from their partners
- 18.5% from friends
- 7.4% would self-educate through the internet including social media
When asked what actions they took to improve their sexual health, they answered:
- 92.6% would self-pleasure to improve their sexual health
- 82.6% would try to understand their own bodies
- 81.5% would educate themselves regarding sexual health and sexuality
- 62.1% would communicate with their partner regarding their sexual health
- 44.4% would conduct STI Checks
- 29.6% would consult doctors/other professionals
Surprisingly, most people already see self-pleasure as something that is part of sexual health, despite self-pleasure not being talked about in general conversations and media. It seems that there’s an understanding that self-pleasure is more than just masturbation, there are many benefits including affecting your sexual health.
How Does Self-Pleasure Affect Sexual Health? 
Our goal for ‘Putting the Pleasure in Sexual Health’ campaign was also to raise awareness for self-pleasure. To share, educate, and hopefully encourage more people to take action for their sexual health, with one way being to self-pleasure. In the survey, we asked the participants what are some ways self-pleasure has affected their sexual health.
Here were their answers:
- 41.4% responded that self-pleasure helped them understand themselves and pleasure.
- 20.7% claimed self-pleasure makes them feel happier, more positive regarding their sexual health, and just better overall.
- 20.7% stated it helps them satisfy their needs.
- 20.7% responded that self-pleasure helps manage their stress and is part of self-love and relaxation.
- 10.3% claimed that masturbation helped them increase their confidence and allowed them to feel more empowered.
- 6.9% stated self-pleasure helped maintain their sexual health.
- 3.4% stated self-pleasure had improved their orgasms
- 3.4% said through self-pleasure they could identify possible health issues (such as the inability to orgasm).
- 3.4% claimed it strengthens their relationship.
- Lastly, 3.4% responded that self-pleasure could also cause feelings of guilt and lead to mental stress.
With a majority of the participants knowing the positive effects of self-pleasure to their sexual and overall health, it was also interesting to see a small portion of the participants note the possible stress that self-pleasure can cause to individuals. In cases similar to these, it is important to consult professionals or people you trust. Talking to someone can help elevate the stress and help you understand that self-pleasure is natural and healthy. In order to break the stigma, it is important for iroha to know that such issues exist, and how we can help others overcome them.
When asked what were the some of the reasons that they decided to start masturbating;
- One of the most common reasons was to learn and explore their own bodies (82.8%).
- The second most common reasons were to destress and relieve sexual urges (69%).
- 65.9% wanted to maintain or have a healthier sexual life.
- 58.6% did it for better orgasms.
- 55.2% were just curious about self-pleasure and decided to give it a go.
- Last but not least, around 48.3% did it because they were bored.
At the very end of the survey, we asked the participants if they knew self-pleasure is beneficial to sexual health, would they do it more?
86.2% said yes and the remaining 13.8% said maybe. By looking at this, it can be assumed that being educated or having the knowledge regarding self-pleasure and sexual health can encourage people to try masturbating or even just take it into consideration.
iroha’s Next Steps
Based on the results, we see a lot of positive insight regarding people’s opinions and perceptions towards self-pleasure and sexuality as a whole. People are much more open to try or consider masturbating if they know the benefits. Many already knew that self-pleasure has a positive effect on their sexual and overall health. Also, the fact that people are quite open to communicate and talk to their close friends and partners regarding sexuality is definitely a good sign. On top of that, many are interested and are open to acquire more knowledge regarding sexual health and self-pleasure. iroha hopes to help more people feel comfortable about their bodies and sexuality by learning more about sexual wellness. To provide information and knowledge that are useful to our fans, where our fans can learn more about their bodies, their health, and have the ability to improve it.
We hope you enjoyed our survey and results. iroha will continue to spread awareness regarding self-pleasure and sexuality and we aim to create an environment where people can feel comfortable with themselves and the topic of sexuality. To do so, we need your help, so let’s talk more about self-pleasure and sexuality!
Check out our other blogs, such as how to spice up your sexual health with mutual masturbation or 10 Orgasm Myths You Should Stop Believing.