Queensland authorities surprised their Facebook followers with some “pleasurable” health advice on Thursday.
On its official Facebook page, Queensland Health shared a post about masturbation, which was accompanied by brightly coloured infographics detailing its health benefits.
“Give yourself a hand,” the post began, with a hand and winking emojis.
“Masturbation is a normal and healthy part of a person’s sexual experience and a great way to discover what you are comfortable with. The best part is, it’s for everyone – and also offers a wealth of health and sexual health benefits!”
“It’s important for us all to work towards normalising sex-positive messages about masturbation to reduce associated feelings of shame and fear, and improve overall sexual health and literacy.”
Humorous comments in response to the post came thick and fast: “In these hard times we need to all pull together,” someone wrote. “Someone’s left the work experience kid by himself at Qld Health,” another comment read.
“Gives the slogan ‘arm yourself’ a new meaning,” said another, a reference to the federal government’s “arm yourself against Covid-19” vaccination campaign.
Another: “Just brilliant! I wonder when all the funny comments will reach a climax?”
An article accompanying the Facebook post linked to peer-reviewed research that has found a correlation between masturbation and positive body image in women, and that orgasms may help reduce menstrual cramping.
It also provided recommendations for how to broach the subject with young people.
A Queensland Health spokesperson told Guardian Australia the aim of the post was to reduce the stigma associated with masturbation, communicate the health benefits, and share advice to parents on how to talk to their children.
“Since masturbation is often considered a taboo subject and this is the first time we have spoken about it on social media, our team was prepared for the large public response and for people to be shocked.”
“It’s been great to see that the majority of responses have been positive, and that it is generating healthy conversation,” the spokesperson said.
“We also wanted to encourage healthy conversations between our younger followers because we know talking about masturbation naturally flows into conversations on sexual health, self-care and consent.”
“Research shows the majority of young people get their sexual health information from online sources and feel shame and embarrassment when talking about masturbation and sex with friends and family. Unfortunately, many of these online sources are unreliable and aren’t reviewed or created by experts clinicians.”
According to 2014 data from the Australian Study of Health and Relationships, conducted once a decade, 72% of men and 42% of women reported masturbating in the previous year.
The study’s lead author, Prof Juliet Richters, said the sex differences in masturbation prevalence and frequency were consistent across many studies.
The research found masturbation was relatively uncommon among younger women, a “disappointing” finding “as it is generally agreed to have benefits for women in learning about their own bodies and negotiating more rewarding sexual practice with partners.”
Richters, an honorary professor in sexual health at the University of New South Wales, said: “The idea that masturbation is in some way wrong or bad for you – it’s decades since that has no longer been thought by anyone in health or medicine.”
