A diagnosis of prostate cancer tends send jitters down the spine of many men. So, public health efforts continue to promote protective factors, such as diet, physical activity, and other lifestyle modifications to ward it off.
Of course, steps to reduce cancer risk often include a lot of things individuals should not do. But it may be welcoming news to learn that that regular ejaculation or masturbation, something many men find pleasurable, may help reduce possibility of having prostate cancer.
Masturbation is a nearly universal safe sexual activity that goes beyond societal boundaries and geography. But, yet it continues to be met with stigma and controversy in modern society.
Researchers don’t understand exactly why regular ejaculation or sex might offer protection against prostate cancer. One theory is that ejaculation relieves the prostate gland of cancer-causing materials, infection, and matter that can cause inflammation. Inflammation is also a known cause of cancer.
Sex protective against prostate cancer, controversial
Despite strong evidence in favour of frequent ejaculation, the theory remains controversial. And there are conflicting findings. The greatest controversy regarding these studies is about the age when ejaculation occurs.
A 2008 study determined that men were more likely to develop prostate cancer if they were very sexually active in their 20s and 30s. The study also found no conclusive evidence that masturbation provides greater risk than intercourse.
But the findings of another Harvard study were contrary. It found no increased risk of prostate cancer related to age of ejaculation, though it did show that the benefits increase as a man ages. It demonstrated a reduced risk of prostate cancer if frequent ejaculation occurred during young adulthood.
Researchers followed about 32,000 men starting in 1992 when they were in their 20s and continuing through 2010. During this period, almost 4,000 of the men were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
In the study, men who ejaculated at least 21 times a month in their 20s were 19 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than men who ejaculated no more than seven times a month.
Also, men who ejaculated more often in their 40s were 22 per cent less likely to get a prostate cancer diagnosis.
Are you at risk of prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is the second most common kind of cancer men get. Unfortunately, Professor Layi Shittu, a consultant urologist, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, stated that many factors influence a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer, including age, race, level of physical activity, obesity and exposure to infections. It also runs in families.
Men over the age of 50 are at greater risk of prostate cancer and it is commoner in black men. Also, obesity may increase the risk of getting its more advanced form.
In addition, Professor Shittu stated that urinary infection or sexually transmitted diseases could also put men at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer given its effect on the prostrate.
Frequent ejaculation protective against prostate cancer?
Although anecdotal relations have been suggested regarding masturbation practice and prostate cancer, he stated that there is no scientific evidence to prove it.
“Prostate cancer is not about how you empty your prostate gland or not. The truth is that if somebody were to remove the testicle before puberty, he will live happily forever without having prostrate issue. That is science.
“The testicles produce the male hormones, testosterone which makes the prostrate to grow. So, without growing it is not likely to grow cancerous or non-cancerous.”
Professor Shittu, however, declared that the prostate like other parts of the body such as the eye and fingers can develop problems, including prostate enlargement and cancerous and noncancerous growths.
Flushing out
Can cancer-causing chemicals build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly? According to Professor Shittu, “It is a colloquial or lame man mentality, it doesn’t matter whether one is emptying it or not. When the prostrate produces what it has to produce, it does not store it within the prostrate.
“There is something called the seminal vesicle which is behind the prostate gland; it is like a tank where the semen moves to. Of course, the more frequent sex you have, the less, you have in the tank. And that is where the thinking comes from.
“They think that if the prostrate does not continue to work all time, abnormal cells that need to be replaced at some point gets transformed either into cancerous or non-cancerous growth.
“But in the case of non-cancerous growth there is something that tends to halt the growth whereas in cancerous growth, that checks and balance factor is faulty.”
The prostate provides a fluid into semen during ejaculation that activates sperm and prevents them sticking together. The fluid has high concentrations of substances including potassium, zinc, fructose and citric acid, which are drawn from the bloodstream.
Is less sex protective?
Professor Shittu said: “Some people believe that men that have frequent sex stand a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. They liken it to the tyre of a motorcar, that when too frequently used will get damaged. But there is no scientific evidence to prove this belief, too.”
Epidemiological data on sexual activity and prostate cancer are almost entirely limited to case-control studies, which may be particularly prone to methodological bias because information on prediagnosis sexual activity is collected after the diagnosis of cancer.
But, sexual function may diminish after the diagnosis of prostate cancer and its treatment, and recall of past levels of sexual activity among individuals with prostate cancer could be distorted as a consequence of prostate cancer or ongoing therapy.
Experts have also raised concern that since factors such as diet, smoking, physical activity, and the quality of personal relationships are strong determinants of sexual function, there is the possibility that the apparently beneficial effect of greater ejaculation frequency on risk for prostate cancer was due to the existence of a healthy lifestyle.
Nevertheless, experts say that the best way to protect against prostate cancer is to regularly receive clinical examinations, especially after age 45.
But men with a have a family history of prostate cancer need to get checked earlier. Prostate cancer grows very slowly, and by catching the disease early and access treatment early, a man can substantially limit its risks to health.
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