Last updated on October 6, 2020
Question:
Hello,
Will masturbation make my voice break more quickly? I am nearly fourteen and sing in a choir at a big church. I want to keep my voice until Christmas so that I can do a big solo, and my choirmaster says ‘pure’ boys always last longer and that I must avoid sinful thoughts and actions so that I don’t encourage my hormones. I really want to do the solo, and I have been good so far, but is he right? Some of my friends have started and I feel like I’m missing out.
Thank you.
Answer:
When two events happen in relative sequence it is easy to blame the first for causing the second, never looking at the third thing that causes both.
When a boy develops a number of changes take place in his body. One is that his vocal cords get longer, causing his voice to become deeper. This generally takes place in stage 4 of development. Another change is that his seminal vesicles start producing semen, which causes boys to want ejaculate because the seminal vesicles can only hold a certain amount of semen. This change either starts in stage 2 or stage 4. Either wet dreams will start happening or boys start masturbating. Thus, notice that it isn’t the masturbating that causes the development, but the other way around — development causes an impulse to masturbate.
What you do won’t speed up or slow down your development, that is governed by the genes in your body. If you are not close to stage 4, you won’t have to worry about your voice shifting by December. Each development stage lasts about 2 years. You can get an estimate on where you are at with the Tanner Stage Calculator for Boys.