According to a recent study led by Dr Polyxeni Dimitropoulou and researchers at the University of Nottingham, men who are very sexually active in their twenties and thirties are more likely to develop prostate cancer, especially if they masturbate frequently.
The study looked at the sexual practices of more than 431 men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer before the age of 60, together with 409 controls.
In contrast to this study, another prospective study of 29 342 US men aged 46 to 81 years, who provided information on history of ejaculation frequency on a self-administered questionnaire in 1992 and responded to follow-up questionnaires every 2 years to 2000, showed that not only was ejaculation frequency unrelated to risk of prostate cancer, but high ejaculation frequency was related to a decreased risk of total prostate cancer.
In yet another study to assess whether prostate cancer might be related to differences in sexual activity, Australian researchers conducted a case-control study of 1079 men who had prostate cancer, and 1259 men who did not have prostate cancer. The results showed that ejaculatory frequency, especially in early adult life, is negatively associated with the risk of prostate cancer.
References:
1. Dimitropoulou et al. Sexual activity and prostate cancer risk in men diagnosed at a younger age. BJU International.
2. Leitzmann MF, Platz EA, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Giovannucci E. Ejaculation frequency and subsequent risk of prostate cancer. JAMA. 2004 Apr 7;291(13):1578-86. PMID: 15069045.
3. G.G. Giles, et al. Sexual factors and prostate cancer. BJU International.
4. Image by EUSKALANATO.
