Ejaculate away!

Given that sexual activity is common and that prostate cancer risk is high, any association between these factors would have clinical relevance.

A study in the April 7 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has shown that ejaculation frequency, a measure of sexual activity, is not associated with a higher risk for prostate cancer, but rather to a decreased risk because sexual activity has been hypothesized to play a role in the development of prostate cancer.

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Given that sexual activity is common and that prostate cancer risk is high, any association between these factors would have clinical and public health relevance.

Michael F. Leitzmann of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, and colleagues examined the association between ejaculation frequency and risk of prostate cancer. The study used follow-up data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (February 1, 1992, through January 31, 2000) of 29,342 men in the U.S., aged 46 to 81 years, who provided information on history of ejaculation frequency on a self-administered questionnaire in 1992 and responded to follow-up questionnaires every 2 years to 2000.

Ejaculation frequency was assessed by asking participants to report the average number of ejaculations they had per month during the ages of 20 to 29 years, 40 to 49 years, and in 1991.

Among the participants, there were 1,449 new cases of total prostate cancer, 953 organ-confined cases, and 147 advanced cases of prostate cancer.

"In this prospective cohort study among predominantly white men, higher ejaculation frequency was not related to increased risk of prostate cancer. Our results suggest that high ejaculation frequency possibly may be associated with a lower risk of total and organ-confined prostate cancer," the researchers said.

"These associations were not explained by potential risk factors for prostate cancer, such as age, family history of prostate cancer, history of syphilis or gonorrhea, smoking, and diet," researchers concluded.