Men who enjoy an active sex life need not fret that their sexual activities will put them at risk of prostate cancer later in life, according to a study released.
A study of almost 30,000 American men found no link between frequency of ejaculation and risk of prostate cancer, contrary to much previous research on the subject.
The results of the largest epidemiological study to date on the association between ejaculation and this type of cancer found quite the reverse.
An analysis of mens’ sexual histories and the incidence of prostate cancer in the group suggested that frequent ejaculation may have some modest beneficial or protective effect in connection with prostate cancer.
“Our results suggest that high ejaculation frequency possibly may be associated with a lower risk of … prostate cancer,” said Michael Leitzmann, chief investigator and cancer researcher with the National Cancer Institute (news – web sites) in Bethesda, Maryland.
The link between ejaculation and cancer of the prostate — the most common type of cancer among men in industrialized nations — has long been a matter of dispute.
An influential study in the journal Epidemiology published in 2002, concluded that there was an increased prostate cancer risk with greater sexual activity based on a review of existing scientific data.
Scientists who support this theory point to the fact that the male hormone testosterone is known to promote the growth of prostate cancer cells.
But Leitzmann’s study, while it did not focus on the benefits of sexual activity, found that men who ejaculate 13 times a month or more, are much less likely to develop prostate cancer later in life than men who only do it four to seven times a month.
Men who reported ejaculating between 13 and 20 times a month had a 14 percent lower lifetime risk of getting the cancer than the four to seven times a month group.
The most-sexually active group surveyed for the study — men who said they ejaculated upwards of 21 times a month on average for most of their adult lives — had a 33 percent lower lifetime risk than the baseline group.
“It’s premature to recommend that men alter their sexual habits to protect their health,” said Leitzmann, “but the findings warrant further investigation.
“We need more basic science studies looking at the physiological mechanisms at work here.”
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (news – web sites), drew on data from a long-term study of predominantly white professional males called the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
The 29,342 men enrolled in the study were aged 46 to 81 years and described their sexual histories through questionnaires that preserved their anonymity.
Prostate cancer (news – web sites) typically afflicts men in their 70s and while it responds well to treatment, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men.
