Masturbation May Increase Risk of Prostate Cancer
Monday, January 26, 2009
A new study finds men who are sexually active in their 20s and 30s are more
likely to develop prostate cancer - especially if they masturbate frequently.
The message, perhaps: Hold off until middle age.
The study also found that frequent sexual activity in a man's 40s appears to
have little effect and even small levels of sexual activity in a man's 50s
could offer protection from the disease. Most of the differences were
attributed to masturbation rather than sexual intercourse.
The study, led by the University of Nottingham, 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 who do not have prostate cancer.
Among men with prostate cancer, 34 percent had masturbated frequently in their
20s, compared to 24 percent among the control group. A similar spread was found
for men in their 30s.
The results, based on questionnaires, are detailed in the journal BJU
International (the British Journal of Urology).
The prostate gland secretes a milky fluid that mixes with sperm and seminal
vesicle fluid to become semen. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of
cancer deaths among men in the United States, after lung cancer, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 30,000 die from it each
year.
"We were keen to look at the links between sexual activity and younger men as a
lot of prostate cancer studies focus on older men as the disease is more
prevalent in men over 50," said lead author Polyxeni Dimitropoulou, who is now
at the University of Cambridge.
"Hormones appear to play a key role in prostate cancer and it is very common to
treat men with therapy to reduce the hormones thought to stimulate the cancer
cells," Dimitropoulou said. "A man's sex drive is also regulated by his hormone
levels, so this study examined the theory that having a high sex drive affects
the risk of prostate cancer."
Other findings:
* 59 percent of the men in both groups said that they had engaged in sexual
activity (intercourse or masturbation) 12 times a month or more in their 20s.
This fell steadily as they got older, to 48 percent in their 30s, 28 percent in
their forties and 13 percent in their 50s.
* 39 percent of the cancer group had had six female partners or more,
compared with 31 percent of the control group.
* Men with prostate cancer were more likely to have had a sexually
transmitted disease than those without prostate cancer.
"A possible explanation for the protective effect that men in their fifties
appear to receive from overall sexual activity, and particularly masturbation,
is that the release of accumulated toxins during sexual activity reduces the
risk of developing cancer in the prostate area," Dimitropoulou said. "This
theory has, however, not been firmly established and further research is
necessary."
* Original Story: Masturbation May Increase Risk of Prostate Cancer
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