My Experience
When I first became curious about sex toys, I was not thinking about data or peer-reviewed journals. I was thinking about my body. I wanted to understand what felt good in a way that was private, intentional, and free from performance.
At that time it felt personal. It did not feel scientific.
Later, while reading new publications in sexual medicine, I came across a 2025 study that changed how I understood the experience.
In April 2025, researchers published a paper in the Journal of Sexual Medicine titled “Toys in the bedroom: use of sexual devices in partnered sexual activity is associated with higher female orgasmic intensity, arousal and sexual satisfaction and is not related to psychopathologies.” The study included 361 women aged 18 to 35 in heterosexual relationships and examined how incorporating sexual devices into partnered sex related to sexual and psychological outcomes.
The findings were clear.
Women who used sexual devices during partnered intimacy reported higher levels of arousal, greater orgasmic intensity, and overall higher sexual satisfaction compared to those who did not. Importantly, the researchers found no association between sex toy use and measures of anxiety, depression, or broader psychopathology. The presence of a device did not correlate with emotional instability or psychological distress.
For me, that last part mattered more than I expected.
Culturally, sex toys are often framed as either novelty items or signs of dissatisfaction. The data did not support that narrative. Instead, the study suggested that sexual devices can be integrated into healthy, satisfying relationships without negative psychological consequences.
Reading this research shifted something subtle in me.
When I first explored sex toys, I was simply trying to understand my own pleasure. Over time, I noticed I felt more grounded in my body. I experienced less confusion about what I needed and less reliance on external validation to guide my sexual experience. I did not label it as empowerment. I just felt more at ease.
The 2025 study does not claim that sex toys improve mental health directly, and it is important to note that the design was cross-sectional, meaning it cannot establish causation. However, the absence of psychological harm combined with increased sexual satisfaction is meaningful. Sexual wellbeing and mental wellbeing are closely connected.
Higher sexual satisfaction is often associated with improved relationship quality, stronger communication, and greater emotional intimacy. When people feel more confident in their sexual responses, that confidence can extend into how they inhabit their bodies more generally.
Body confidence rarely arrives in dramatic moments. It builds gradually through repeated experiences of safety and clarity. When a person understands their own arousal patterns and pleasure responses, their relationship to their body can soften. Shame tends to decrease when knowledge increases.
For many people, especially women who have internalized mixed messages about sexuality, intentional sexual exploration can be a form of reclaiming bodily autonomy. The 2025 findings support the idea that incorporating sexual devices does not undermine psychological health. In fact, it is associated with enhanced sexual satisfaction.
What changed for me after reading the research was not how often I engaged in pleasure, but how I interpreted it. I stopped seeing it as something frivolous and began seeing it as part of a broader sexual health framework. If higher arousal and orgasmic intensity are linked with positive relational and emotional experiences, then pleasure becomes part of wellbeing rather than separate from it.
Sexual health is not a side topic. It is woven into mental health, relational stability, and self-perception. Studies like the one published in 2025 help normalize that connection.
Understanding the science did not remove the intimacy of the experience. It gave it context. And context can be powerful.
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