Masturbation

Does masturbating count as cheating?

People masturbate, even if they are in a committed relationship or married, and it’s perfectly okay.  The complementary theory suggests that people masturbate in order to enhance their partnered sex; and the compensatory model suggests that people masturbate to substitute sexual desires that are not met in partnered sex.  Alternatively, it has also been suggested that masturbation and partnered sex are two completely separate experiences that meet different needs. Not everyone is comfortable with their partner's self pleasure and some may consider it as cheating, particularly when masturbating to pornography, so this is something can can be discussed with your partner in order to understand that masturbation is not replacing sexual contact with them, but it is something different, self pleasure.