OUR LATEST ISSUE
Prostate cancer link to sex drive?
BJU International
Study finds possible link between sex drive and prostate cancer
"Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and there are around 32,000 new cases diagnosed each year."
A study at Nottingham University has revealed that men who are more sexually active in their 20s and 30s may have a higher risk of contracting prostate cancer.
A group of over 800 men was recruited for the research - over 400 men of which had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, combined with a further 409 men who were thought to be free of the disease.
The research, which was published in the BJU International journal, quizzed the men about their sex lives, including how often they had been sexually active since puberty, how many sexual partners they had had and whether they had ever contracted any sexually transmitted infections.
The Nottingham team, led by Dr Polyxeni Dimitropoulou, found that almost two-fifths of the group diagnosed with prostate cancer had had six sexual partners or more, compared with less than a third in the non-cancer group.
The prostate is found close to the bladder and makes a component of semen. Higher levels of semen production and sex hormones can be responsible for high sex drive in men in their 20s and 30s, and prostate cancer in later life.
Dr Dimitropoulou commented:
"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."
"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."
Previous studies have suggested that sexual activity releases toxins from the prostate gland, which would explain the link between high sexual activity and development of the cancer, but Dr Dimitropoulou stated that this wasn’t clear.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and there are around 32,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
For more information on prostate cancer, visit the official Cancer Research UK website.
