Embarrassed when doing sports

[Otter8]

Lately when I have been doing any sort of sport I seem to get hard and feel a bit achy down there. Why does this happen and is there a way I can stop it?

[Urna]

Hi otter8,

This isn't uncommon! I would chalk it up to the adrenaline, and to certain muscles flexing. In some contact sports, like wrestling, this is quite normal, and is usually completely non-sexual. Also, you're currently going through puberty, right? Random and frequent erections are quite common during that stage, and they can often happen for no particular reason, as this article says: "many people associate getting an erection with being ready for sex or ready to feel sexual pleasure. Truth is, erections can and often do happen quite a few times every day for no particular reason, and certainly not because anything sexual is going on. It just happens. If you're not interested in any kind of sex at the moment, including masturbation, you can just ignore it, and it'll go away". Also, strenuous physical activity like sports, when carried on for longer than a few minutes, usually makes erections go down, because the blood has to flow to your other muscles that you're using. If possible, it's best to just push through and keep playing until that happens. Is that feasible for you?

[Otter8]

I am going through puberty yeah I am 13. I do get random erections quite a lot but they do happen more when doing sports. When they happen I usually do start to think about sexual things but I also then have embarrassment that someone will notice. I also do a contact sport which makes the chance of that more I guess. Sometimes it does hurt a bit too

[Urna]

I hear you about the embarrassment that someone will notice. Unfortunately, the best remedy is to slowly train yourself to stop thinking about sexual things when you get hard in a non-sexual situation like sports. Try thinking about gross things, or about really mundane things like times tables or something?

Is there any way to excuse yourself when it starts hurting, so that you can maybe take a break, and not have to continue playing?

[Otter8]

I’m not really sure how I could excuse myself because I couldn’t really think of an excuse if somebody asked me. I think I could think about something boring to help. When it happens I think it hurts because the skin on my willy is a bit tight and I’m being moved around a lot

[Urna]

I understand. Try thinking about boring things, yeah, there really isn't much else one can do to fix this. Sorry!