Key Points
- No Nut November is an online challenge to abstain from sex, masturbation and porn for a month.
- Participants claim it improves confidence and overcomes sexual compulsion.
- Health experts say there is little risk to participating in the challenge but the benefits are questionable.
Melbourne GP Dr Vyom Sharma became aware of an anti-masturbation challenge after initially seeing memes about it on social media.
The trend, dubbed ‘No Nut November’, asks people to abstain from ejaculating for the month of November.
This means completely avoiding masturbation and sex for 30 days.
No Nut November is linked to ‘NoFap’, an anti-porn community on social media platform Reddit.
The group describes itself as "a porn addiction and compulsive sexual behaviour recovery peer support forum" and has one million members.
Many of the posts appear to be from young men sharing their progress and encouraging their "brothers" to stay strong.
Notably, masturbation and pornogrpahy abstinence has also been co-opted by far-right groups such as the Proud Boys in the US.
"It gets young men off the couch and talking to women and it gets married men away from their computers and back into bed with their significant other," the Proud Boys website read.
While it started as a joke, participants who are sharing their experiences on social media claim it has health benefits such as increased testosterone, energy, confidence and productivity.
Claims which Dr Sharma says are ‘dubious’. There is no evidence to back up the alleged health benefits.
“The possible health benefits of not ejaculating for an entire month are pretty dubious and even if they're present are going to be pretty mildly transitory,” Dr Sharma said.
Dr Vyom Sharma said there is little to no health risk of participating in No Nut November but health benefits are also questionable.
“There are some mild risks, things like 'blue balls', otherwise called epididymal hypertension. That just causes a bit of discomfort. If you're getting that, I say fix it. The one way we know how [masturbation], but it's not really likely to do any kind of damage,” he said.
Dr Sharma has concerns about commentary he has seen on social media that suggest fulfilling the challenge could cause cancer.
“A lot of people are saying that there's possible risks of things like cancer from not ejaculating for a month, I think this is total nonsense. This is a pretty mild intervention.” he said.
Dr Sharma said one potential benefit of the challenge is that it could help some people gain control over their masturbation habits or “problematic” use of pornography.
One 2017 study, A Profile of Pornography Users in Australia: Findings From the Second , found that pornography addiction was low in Australia but half of those that say they were addicted also reported that using pornography ‘had a bad effect on them’.
“If it helps you achieve a sense of control, then by all means, go for it. But the idea is to have a healthy relationship with masturbation with pornography or with sex, not to have an all-or-nothing permanent relationship with any of these domains,” Dr Sharma said.
How much masturbation and pornography is 'normal'?
Sex therapist Heide McConkey treats people with addictions to masturbation and pornography.
Ms McConkey said there is no formal definition of masturbation or pornography addiction, which makes it difficult to determine how many people struggle with it.
Researchers have not yet determined how much masturbation is "normal" and how much is "not normal", or when pornography use can be considered an addiction.
The idea is to have a healthy relationship with masturbation with pornography or with sexDr Vyom Sharma
However, Ms McConkey says when these behaviours influence other aspects of their lives, including what they do and how they treat others, it could indicate that is becoming an unhealthy ‘centrepiece’ of a person’s life.
“We're seeing a lot of falling out of relationships and family disruption because of it. And that's where it becomes obviously compulsive or addictive as a colloquial term,” she said.
Thanks to the internet and handheld devices, pornography is more accessible than ever.
Australia is in twelfth place of countries that most visit Pornhub, according to the adult website's 2021 year in review.
Ms McConkey said she counsels a number of people in their 20s who grew up with easy access to pornography via the internet, which has normalised its use.
"This is how pornography starts interfering with people's sexual development, their desires their libidos," she said.
"I'm talking to quite a few people in their 20s who grew up with the internet, who say: 'I thought it's normal'. Pornography and masturbation, we can't do one without the other. It's normal. And that kind of sex we've seen, that is also normal."
Ms McConkey said a challenge like No Nut November may not completely address sexual compulsions because she says many addictions are ultimately caused by underlying trauma.
According to Australian addiction research and education centre, Turning Point, about one in two people in addiction treatment settings have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“If people actually want to effectively deal with their sexual addictions, and that includes the pornographic addictions of course, they need to address the trauma, not the behaviour, the behaviour follows in suit,” she said.
“If you go cold turkey for one month, it simply addresses excessive behaviour. But not why the behaviour is there in the first place.”
But the sex therapist said No Nut November could still be “a good beginning” to address sexual compulsion.
Dr Sharma said if people do participate, they shouldn’t take it too seriously.
“It started off as a joke, it should stay as a bit of a joke. If people want to try it for a while to get a sense of control, go for it,” he said.
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