SEX with 21 women: It may wreck a man’s marriage, but could it save his prostate? New research suggests so.
A study from the University of Montreal suggests that sex really is a necessary ingredient of life for men — protecting the promiscuous from prostate cancer.
The survey found men who reported sleeping with more than 20 women had one third of the risk of developing the disease than their monogamous counterparts. And if they did get it, they were 19 per cent less likely to have the most aggressive varieties.
“It is possible that having many female sexual partners results in a higher frequency of ejaculations, whose protective effect against prostate cancer has been previously observed in cohort studies,” researcher Dr Marie-Elise Parent reports.
The study, in the Journal Cancer Epidemiology, followed 3200 men between 2005 and 2009.
Some of the results were expected. Men with prostate cancer, for example, had double the chance of having relatives with the disease.
But the sex link was something of a surprise.
Men who reported never having had sexual intercourse had almost double the risk of developing the disease.
But promiscuity does not seem to be of benefit to homosexual men, the report finds. They appear to be at almost double the risk of getting the cancer.
All explanations as to the cause of the correlations are “highly speculative”, Dr Patient says.
Other studies have highlighted the protective properties of sexual intercourse because of the way it reduces the amount of carcinogenic crystals in the prostate’s fluids.
Why the opposite effect in homosexuals? Dr Parent doesn’t know.
“It could come from greater exposure to STIs, or it could be that anal intercourse produces physical trauma to the prostate,” she says.
So, can you expect your doctor to soon be proscribing more sex to heterosexual men battle the possibility of prostate cancer?
“We’re not there yet,” Dr Parent says.
A study from the University of Montreal suggests that sex really is a necessary ingredient of life for men — protecting the promiscuous from prostate cancer.
The survey found men who reported sleeping with more than 20 women had one third of the risk of developing the disease than their monogamous counterparts. And if they did get it, they were 19 per cent less likely to have the most aggressive varieties.
“It is possible that having many female sexual partners results in a higher frequency of ejaculations, whose protective effect against prostate cancer has been previously observed in cohort studies,” researcher Dr Marie-Elise Parent reports.
The study, in the Journal Cancer Epidemiology, followed 3200 men between 2005 and 2009.
Some of the results were expected. Men with prostate cancer, for example, had double the chance of having relatives with the disease.
But the sex link was something of a surprise.
Men who reported never having had sexual intercourse had almost double the risk of developing the disease.
But promiscuity does not seem to be of benefit to homosexual men, the report finds. They appear to be at almost double the risk of getting the cancer.
All explanations as to the cause of the correlations are “highly speculative”, Dr Patient says.
Other studies have highlighted the protective properties of sexual intercourse because of the way it reduces the amount of carcinogenic crystals in the prostate’s fluids.
Why the opposite effect in homosexuals? Dr Parent doesn’t know.
“It could come from greater exposure to STIs, or it could be that anal intercourse produces physical trauma to the prostate,” she says.
So, can you expect your doctor to soon be proscribing more sex to heterosexual men battle the possibility of prostate cancer?
“We’re not there yet,” Dr Parent says.
