I’ve been seeing a significant number of posts recently with fear-mongering around prone masturbation, often citing that it causes "Traumatic Masturbatory Syndrome" (TMS).
I dug into the actual literature on this, and I’ve seen a disconnect between the online narrative and the medical consensus.
From what I’ve found:
1. The evidence is incredibly weak: The specific term "Traumatic Masturbatory Syndrome" is not recognized by major urological guidelines (like the AUA or EAU). The primary paper that coined the term appears to be from 1998 with a sample size of only n=4.
2. Conditioning vs. Damage: There seems to be a confusion between "nerve damage" (permanent pathology) and "conditioning" (habituation). While prone masturbation can lead to difficulties with partner sex because of the specific pressure required (DE), this is a habituated response that can be reversed with retraining, not a permanent injury to the vasculature.
3. Correlation issues: The few studies often cited (like some data on ED correlation) rarely prove causation—i.e., men with performance anxiety might switch to prone techniques to get more stimulation, rather than the technique causing the ED.
I feel the fear-mongering around this is implicitly normative. It assumes that because the technique is "atypical" for compared to standard intercourse, it must be medically dangerous.
Has anyone here actually found robust, modern clinical evidence that this causes organic damage or are we just perpetuating
a myth because the style doesn't fit the "norm"?