What really happens to your body if you don't masturbate for a month as challenge comes to an end today

As December approaches, it's not just the Christmas music and jumpers that will finally become socially acceptable again, as millions of men reach the end of their No Nut November.

If you're unfamiliar with the challenge, it essentially sees men abstain from ejaculation for 30 days, with the first mention of the term dating back to 2011.

However, in more recent years it's become associated with some health benefits and is lauded as something which can have huge benefits in your downstairs region, even if it does have some dodgy side effects.

Three of the main claims associated with NNN are that it can increase your testosterone and fertility and improve the quality of your semen, but considering this is a very weird and fairly new phenomenon, there haven't really been too many scientific studies to determine whether or not this is true.

While you might think you can only really take the word of those who have actually completed the whole month of November, urologist and sexual health expert Rena Malik has now explained what really happens to your body during 30 days of 'semen retention'.

Very few people go the whole 30 days (Getty Stock)

She said: "Let's start with testosterone. In all the scientific literature, there are only two small studies, one that has 10 men and another with 29 men, that looked at testosterone levels during semen retention. The first study showed testosterone increase after three weeks of abstinence."

However, she explains that there's a significant catch, which is that the men were told that they could masturbate at the end of the three weeks, with the testosterone actually just likely to be the body building up anticipation, because the brain is expecting a sexual reward.

The health benefits have been questioned (Getty Stock)

Any testosterone increase therefore will be 'extremely short-lived and likely driven just by the anticipation of being able to ejaculate, not the retention itself'.

When it comes to fertility, Dr Malik suggests that suggestions that this will improve are just a myth, and it's likely to be the opposite.

She explains: "Semen quality actually declines the longer you abstain especially after five to seven days. So after that time without ejaculation, studies have shown increased DNA fragmentation, worse shape or morphology, and reduced movement or motility.

"So if you're trying to conceive having a prolonged abstinence actually works against you."

The final claim of increased semen volume is true, although why anyone is particularly bothered about that is beyond me.

And eventually the dam will burst, because abstaining for long periods is only going to lead to staining, with wet dreams, or nocturnal emissions, far more likely if you aren't polishing your crown jewels on a semi-regular basis.

It must be said that if you're undertaking the challenge because of an addiction to pornography, rather than wanting to increase your testosterone, then it can be a great idea and help break a vicious cycle, particularly as watching porn can have severe consequences on your private parts.