This post is part of Mashable's Masturbation Week. May is National Masturbation Month, so we're celebrating by exploring the many facets of self-love. So, your sexual partner just came and you didn't. I'm talking about the orgasm gap -- the inequality in men and women's sexual pleasure, which affects an alarming number of women. A whopping 95 percent of straight men always come during sex, but a mere 65 percent of heterosexual women can say the same, per a study by Chapman University.

May is National Masturbation Month, and we're celebrating with Feeling Yourself, a series exploring the finer points of self-pleasure. When it comes to getting off, we all know the quickest way to get the job done. Being intimately acquainted with the fastest route to giving yourself an orgasm can be a wonderful thing. And if it ain't broke don't fix it -- there's certainly nothing bad about masturbating the same way over and over again. As Dr Britney Blair, licensed clinical psychologist and co-founder of Lover: the Sexual Wellness App, says: "there's nothing wrong with having a go-to location, position, technique, and fantasy."

May is National Masturbation Month, and we're celebrating with Feeling Yourself, a series exploring the finer points of self-pleasure. We spent the past year in quarantine making the most of public safety-necessitated celibacy by buying up all the sex toys and turning the pandemic into a chance to reconnect with ourselves through self-love, explore what sexuality means to us when we're alone, etc, etc, etc. Despite record toy sales, data that was gathered by smart vibrator company Lioness indicates that our relationship to masturbation throughout quarantine wasn't quite as popping as many presumed. Even the shaky promise of Hot Vax Summer Horn Fest doesn't seem to be resuscitating our genitals, according to many who took our survey on post-pandemic dating feels to describe lingering fears and anxieties. Whether you spent the pandemic single or partnered (or both), masturbating right now can feel more like a confrontation or chore than the usual self-care.

Their motivations vary, but a growing number of men are gathering online in communities devoted to abstinence not only from sex, but also masturbation. It has more than 230,000 members, or about as many as forums devoted to Bitcoin and Bernie Sanders. But r/NoFap - one of the boards or "subreddits" on community-based site Reddit - is filled with men trying to avoid masturbating. And while some users claim "superpowers" and warn of the dangers of porn and sex addiction, there is little advice in the forum being offered from qualified medical professionals. The term "fap" is a relatively new onomatopoeic synonym for masturbation which cropped up in a Japanese comic strip in 1999.

Wherever there is content extolling the benefits of masturbation, so too will you find a whole onslaught of voices condemning it. The topic always comes along with conversations about frequency, namely: Doing it too much. "While anxieties and negative attitudes about sexuality can be found throughout history, masturbation has particularly been a behavior of concern," says Sarah Melancon(opens in a new tab), Ph.D, a sociologist, clinical sexologist, and resident expert at The Sex Toy Collective. Libido is built out of our reward system -- and so the more positive experiences you have, the more you want. Solo sex is a fantastic (and free!) way to de-stress, unwind, and boost positive neuro-transmitters(opens in a new tab). It can also help boost mood and self-esteem.