If you’re in the market for a sex toy, buy one made of nontoxic materials, and know how to clean it.

Healthy secret: Sex toys can be health boosters.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Can sex toys make us happier? Healthier? A pair of studies from Indiana University’s Center for Sexual Health Promotion suggests that both men and women who use vibrators report better sexual satisfaction, and are more proactive about their sexual health, than those who don’t use vibrators.

THE DETAILS: Researchers used data from online surveys after about 1,050 men and 2,056 women 18 to 60 years old answered questions regarding current and past vibrator use (with themselves or a partner) and sexual function. More than 52 percent of women said they had used a vibrator, with about a quarter of them having used one in the past month. Vibrator users scored highest on the sexual function questions, which included desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, pain, and overall function. Women who used vibrators were significantly more likely to have had a gynecologic exam during the past year, and to have performed a genital self-examination during the previous month.

Of the men questioned, nearly 45 percent said they had incorporated a vibrator into their sexual activities, with no significant difference in use by heterosexual men and gay and bisexual men. Men who reported using vibrators alone or with their partner were more likely to have participated in sexual-health-promoting behaviors, such as testicular self-exams.

WHAT IT MEANS: “It may be that women who use vibrators are more interested in, or attentive to, their sexual health both in terms of pleasure or in terms of care seeking,” says Debby Herbenick, PhD, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion. “It may also be that women who use vibrators are women who simply are more comfortable touching their genitals or having them seen by a healthcare provider, and that they happen to be more comfortable talking about their bodies and seeking such personal health care,” adds Herbenick, who’s the author of the upcoming book Because It Feels Good: A Woman's Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction (Rodale, 2009).