Study reveals men who ejaculate this infrequently each month could face higher prostate cancer risk
A study has revealed men who ejaculate this infrequently every month could face a higher risk of prostate cancer.
The American Cancer Society states that one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, with more than 35,000 men in the US estimated to die from the disease this year.
Men aged 65 or older account for six in 10 diagnoses, while the risk is believed to be higher among African American men and in Caribbean men of African ancestry.
Prostate cancer is also the second-leading cause of cancer death in men, behind only lung cancer, as per the American Cancer Society.
Advert
As a result, doctors and experts are regularly issuing warnings over how men can help reduce the risk of contracting the disease with new studies illuminating a possible link with frequent, or infrequent, ejaculation.
According to one study, ejaculating more often on a monthly basis may actually lower the risk of prostate cancer, though the reasons why aren't fully known, according to the Urology Care Foundation.
The study examined 32,000 men for a period of 18 years and found men who ejaculated the most, at least 21 times per month, had a whopping 20 percent lower chance of prostate cancer.
This was compared to those on the other end who ejaculated just four to seven times a month.
Researchers at Harvard University made the discovery after studying 31,925 men who filled out three questionnaires about ejaculation frequency between 1992 and 2010.
The survey, published in European Urology in 2016, stated: "We evaluated whether ejaculation frequency throughout adulthood is related to prostate cancer risk in a large US-based study.
"We found that men reporting higher compared to lower ejaculatory frequency in adulthood were less likely to be subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"These findings provide additional evidence of a beneficial role of more frequent ejaculation throughout adult life in the aetiology of PCa [prostate cancer], particularly for low-risk disease."
It revealed the more times a man managed to orgasm, whether through sexual intercourse or masturbation, lowered their risk of the deadly disease.
However, other studies have suggested ejaculation figures bear little impact on prostate cancer rates - instead posing that men who ejaculate more could have healthier lifestyle habits that ward off the disease.
Still, doctors say frequent ejaculation could be protecting the prostate by flushing out harmful chemicals that build up in semen, though this may only apply to men in certain age groups.
Dr Anne Calvaresi, chair of the Urology Care Foundation's Prostate Health Committee, said: "The bottom line is more research is needed before we know for sure whether more ejaculation reduces the risk of prostate cancer."
Liv Bridge