Frequent sex doesn’t reduce prostate cancer, experts warn
Medical experts have raised the alarm over the increasing cases of prostate cancer across the country, advising Nigerians to always seek medical attention on time.
The experts, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH at a recently concluded 29th Annual General Meeting and Scientific conference of the Association of Urological Surgeons, Nigeria, held in Enugu, dispelled the notion that frequent sex reduces prostate cancer or prostate enlargement in males, describing it as a fallacy.
Though a Consultant Urologist and Head of Surgery Department at the Lagos State University College of Medicine, Prof Omisanjo Oluwafunmilade, encouraged men to be sexually active as much as they can, however, noted that “it is a fallacy to assume that you are able to have sex these number of times in a week, in a month or in a year, you will not develop prostate cancer”.
He noted, “There are studies that are suggesting that men who have frequent ejaculations have a slightly lower risk of developing prostate cancer compared to men who have less frequent ejaculations. But we also know that some other studies have found this not to be true.”
He emphasised that even if there’s any benefit in whatever protective effect one may get by frequent ejaculation, it could always be ruined by other factors, including genetics.
“So we encourage men to be sexually active in a healthy relationship as much as they can but it is not correct that once you have a particular amount of ejaculations or sexual exposure, you will not develop prostate cancer.
“Data has not consistently shown that. There are studies that suggest it may be protective; other studies have not confirmed that,” Oluwafunmilade stated.
He said that the number of prostate cancer cases that have been diagnosed in Nigeria has increased in all regions across the country. “Prostate cancer is more common or to correctly put, it is diagnosed more commonly now compared to before,” he disclosed.
Similarly, a Consultant Urologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dr Oseni Ismaila, stated that prostate issues could be treated more especially when the patients present themselves in the hospital early.
He said it was not true that frequent sex prevents prostate cancer or prostate enlargement because there was no confirmed scientific basis for that.
“There’s a presupposition that it is either as a result of family lineage or some ongoing changes in the body. All men are at risk of developing an enlarged prostate – whether just an enlarged prostate or prostate cancer all men are at risk.
“The only man that is not at risk is the one who is castrated when he is a small boy, otherwise anybody that has two balls is at risk of developing an enlarged prostate at any time,” he stated.
