Health: Does ejaculating frequently help prevent prostate cancer?

When it comes to men’s health, prostate cancer occupies a prominent place. It is the second most diagnosed type of cancer among men worldwide — closely followed by lung cancer. In Brazil, every hour, eight men are diagnosed with the disease.

Because the prostate is a reproductive organ whose main function is to help produce semen — the fluid that transports sperm in ejaculate — researchers have long wondered about the effect of sexual factors on prostate cancer risk.

More specifically, does ejaculation protect against the risk of prostate cancer?

Interestingly, there is some evidence to support this idea. A recent review that looked at all relevant medical research conducted over the past 33 years showed that seven of 11 studies revealed some beneficial effect of ejaculation frequency on prostate cancer risk.

Although the mechanisms behind are not completely understood, these studies support the idea that ejaculation may reduce the risk of prostate cancer by decreasing the concentration of toxins and crystal-like structures that can accumulate in the prostate and potentially cause tumors. .

Likewise, ejaculation can alter the immune response in the prostate, reducing inflammation — a known risk factor for the development of cancer — or increasing the immune defense against tumor cells.

Alternatively, by reducing psychological tension, ejaculation may decrease nervous system activity, which prevents certain prostate cells from dividing too quickly, increasing the chance of them becoming cancerous.

Despite these suggested mechanisms, in the research indicating that ejaculation is protective, it appears that the details are important.

Age plays a role in this. Ejaculation frequency was often protective only at ages 20 to 29, or 30 to 39—and sometimes only later (50 or older). And, in fact, the risk increased among younger people (20 years old).

Other times, ejaculation in adolescence (when the prostate is still developing and maturing) has had the biggest impact on prostate cancer risk decades later.

But how often is often? We can say very often in some cases.

A study from Harvard University in the USA showed that men who ejaculated 21 or more times a month had a 31% lower risk of prostate cancer compared to men who reported ejaculating four to seven times a month throughout their lives.

Similar findings were made in Australia, where prostate cancer was 36% less likely to be diagnosed before the age of 70 in men who ejaculated, on average, five to seven times a week, compared with men who ejaculated less than two times a week. three times a week.

Other research has a much more modest view, with more than four ejaculations per month being the frequency that provides protective effects in some age groups and patients.

It is difficult to draw global conclusions from this research, especially when the studies differ so much in how they were conducted.

Factors such as the varying populations of men who participated in the research, the number of men included in the analyses, and differences in how ejaculation frequency is measured (whether this includes sexual intercourse, masturbation, and nocturnal emission) can cloud the picture.

In fact, measuring ejaculation frequency relies on self-reports — and often goes back many years and decades. Therefore, this is an estimate at best, and can be biased by both personal and societal attitudes toward sexual activity and masturbation, potentially leading to both exaggerated self-reporting and underreporting.

There may also be a bias in the detection of prostate tumors, with men who are highly sexually active delaying or not going to hospital for fear that cancer treatment may disrupt their sexual activity. These men with a high ejaculation frequency may therefore have prostate cancer, which ends up not being recorded in these studies.

It is also possible that ejaculation does not protect against prostate cancer, and the relationships found may be due to other factors. For example, men who ejaculate more frequently may have healthier lifestyles, which reduces the chances of being diagnosed with cancer.

Reduced ejaculation frequency is linked to increased body mass index (BMI), reduced physical activity, and divorce — all factors associated with poorer overall health, which in turn can contribute to the development of cancer.

Testosterone, the main male sex hormone, is also a crucial part of this equation.

It is well known that it increases sexual desire, so a man with low testosterone levels may not have the same desire for sexual activity that leads to ejaculation as a man with higher levels.

Unlike early opinions that suggested that high testosterone levels in men increase the risk of prostate cancer, the current view suggests that not only does it not increase this risk, but that it is actually low testosterone concentrations that increase the risk. This is particularly true for men with existing prostate cancer who have worse disease development when testosterone is low.

Therefore, it may be that testosterone reduces the risk of prostate cancer among men and, in addition, increases their motivation for sexual activity.

Despite this, most studies do not measure testosterone levels and, at best, only recognize it as a possible influencing factor. A study that measured the male sex hormone showed that men who ejaculated frequently had higher testosterone levels. And it was these men who also had a reduced risk of prostate cancer.

There are benefits of sexual activity and ejaculation beyond the prostate, including positive effects on the heart, brain, immune system, sleep, and mood. So, although the relationship between ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer is not fully understood — and there is a real need for more studies — frequent ejaculation (within reasonable limits) certainly won’t hurt, it will probably do some good, and It should, therefore, be part of a man’s healthy lifestyle.

* Daniel Kelly is professor of biochemistry at Sheffield Hallam University, in the United Kingdom.