A new report has found that men with more than 20 sexual partners over their lifetime shrink their chance of developing prostate cancer by 30 percentAuthor:
Elizabeth Kulze
Posted: 10/29/14 16:40 EDT
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among American men, leading to 233,000 new diagnoses every year. Fortunately, scientists have discovered all kinds of ways men can lower the risk—from eating less red meat to maintaining a healthy weight—but this latest finding takes the cake.
According to a
study by the University of Montreal, heterosexual men who have 20 or more sexual partners over their lifetime can lower their risk of developing prostate cancer by nearly 30 percent. More promiscuous men were also 19 percent less likely to develop the most aggressive form of the disease, which kills just under 30,000 men every year.
Talk about sexual healing!
“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,” says Dr. Marie-Elise Parent, the lead researcher.
“After I presented these findings at a scientific conference, the guys were all very excited to come over and talk to me,” Parent says. "They were like, 'What a great public health recommendation!”’
Parent is also quick to point out that this does not mean that men should have multiple sexual partners at once, but that a man who has multiple sexual partners
over his lifetime is likely more sexually active and therefore ejaculate more frequently—which is then thought to reduce the prostate’s concentration of carcinogenic substances.
“After I presented these findings at a scientific conference, the guys were all very excited to come over and talk to me,” Parent says. “They were like, ‘What a great public health recommendation!”’
Parent and her colleagues also found that celibacy actually doubled a man’s prostate cancer risk, as did having multiple sexual partners who were male. Specifically, men who had slept with more than 20 men over their lifetime were twice as likely to develop some form of prostate cancer, while men who had only one male partner experienced no increased risk.
These were novel findings—the study is among the first to look at sexual orientation as it relates to prostate cancer risk—but Parent also stresses that they are statistically insignificant, as the homosexual sample size was relatively small. So gay men out there, don’t be alarmed just yet! Parent recommends that further research be done.
However, she does have several hypotheses as to why gay men with lots of past partners could be subject to an increased risk.
One theory is that homosexuals are more likely to contract STDs, which can make them more vulnerable to developing cancer. Additionally, the possibility of developing the disease is thought to increase with physical trauma to the prostate, which anal intercourse can induce if you’re on the receiving end. (Past studies have linked physical injury to the breasts and #### with their corresponding cancers.)
These findings come as part of the University of Montreal’s PROtEuS project, which is examining how environment and lifestyle factors influence prostate cancer risk in 4,000 men. A previous study found circumcision to be protective against the disease, and future studies will examine how physical activity, drinking, stress at work and even sun exposure can influence a man’s likelihood of developing the cancer.
