According to a study of more than 800 men published in the January issue of BJU International, men who are more sexually active in their 20s and 30s may run a higher risk of prostate cancer.
The study suggests that men with frequent sexual activities in their forties appear to have little effect and even small levels of activity in a man’s fifties could increase protection from the disease. The majority of the differences were attributed to masturbation rather than sexual intercourse.
The researchers suggest that higher levels of sex hormones might lead to a bigger sex drive and prostate cancer.
Over 431 men were looked at who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer before the age of 60, according to the study lead by the University of Nottingham.
The men were asked about all the aspects of their sex life from their twenties and on, including how old they were when they became sexually active, how often they masturbated and had intercourse, how many partners they had and whether they had any sexually transmitted disease.
“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” says lead author Dr 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. 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.”
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the U.K., and there are over 30,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The cancer affects the prostate gland, which is found close to the bladder and makes a component of semen.
According to the study, 59% of the men said that they had engaged in sexual activity 12 times a month or more in their 20s, falling to 48% in their 30s, 28% in their 40s and 13% in their 50s.
Close to two-fifths of the prostate cancer group had six female partners or more, compared with less than a third of the non-cancer group.
There were differences among men who masturbated or had sex the most often as well. About 40% of men in the cancer group being sexually active 20 times a month or more in their 20s, compared with 32% in the non-cancer group.
The gap between the two groups narrowed as the men aged, which shows that the difference was strongest at a younger age.
“What makes our study stand out from previous research is that we focused on a younger age group than normal and included both intercourse and masturbation at various stages in the participants’ lives” says Dr Dimitropoulou.
He added, “Overall we found a significant association between prostate cancer and sexual activity in a man’s twenties and between masturbation and prostate cancer in the twenties and thirties. However there was no significant association between sexual activity and prostate cancer in a man’s forties.”
“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. This theory has, however, not been firmly established and further research is necessary,” Dimitropoulou concluded.
Chief executive of The Prostate Cancer Charity, John Neate, said that while the study was useful, its findings would need to be backed by more evidence before they could be accepted.
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