Frequent Ejaculation vs Prostate Cancer

For men who want to take prostate health into their own hands, have we got news for you! Studies indicate the more you ejaculate, the lower is your risk of prostate cancer.

Men aged 20 to 29 who ejaculate more than 20 times per month are less likely to be diagnosed with the disease compared to those who ejaculate between four and seven times monthly. Older men enjoyed an even greater benefit: If you're between 40 and 49 and ejaculate at least 21 times per month your risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer drops by 22 percent.

Want even better news? The relationship between ejaculation and prostate cancer is what the biochemists call “dose dependent,” meaning the more you do it, the lower your risk. Sounds like a plan!

Over 31,900 men in the prospective Health Professionals Follow-up Study were tracked from 1992 to 2010. The average age of the men at the start of the study was about 59 years. Researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health examined the dataset, in which 3,839 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 384 of those cases were lethal.

What's the science? More research is required before we know for sure (and really, association does not necessarily mean causation) but Jennifer R. Rider, ScD, MPH, a cancer epidemiologist and author of the study, has a theory. She believes that more frequent clearing of the prostate through ejaculation might cut the chances that tumor-triggering infections will develop there.

"This large prospective study provides the strongest evidence to date of a beneficial role of ejaculation in prevention of prostate cancer," the researchers summed up.

The study was published in JAMA.