Here is some great news for the promiscuous men out there. A new study suggests that men, who sleep with over 20 different women, are at a lower risk of developing prostate cancer.
In "Prostate cancer risk reduced by sleeping with many women, but increased with many men", a report published in the University of Montreal website, having sex with more than 20 women is associated with a 28% lower risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. The research, which is a joint effort by the researchers at the University and INRS - Institut Armand-Frappier, also found that promiscuous men are 19% less likely to develop the most aggressive form of prostate cancer.
The study looked at 3,208 men over a period of four years between 2005 and 2009 and established that men, who are more promiscuous have more sex than those in monogamous relationships, before coming to the conclusion that sexual intercourse protects men.
The study, which has been published in the Cancer Epidemiology journal also claims that virgin men were found to be twice more susceptible to prostate cancer than men who are sexually experienced.
This study by the University of Montreal scientists Marie-Elise Parent, Andrea Spence and Marie-Claude Rousseau, is the first to establish a potent link between the number of sexual partners of an individual and the risk of developing cancer.
"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," the lead researcher of the study, Dr Parent explained.
However, this golden opportunity of using sex to beat cancer is only available for straight men. According to the study, having sex with over 20 male partners in one lifetime increases the risk of getting prostate cancer twofold.
Dr Parent said that she could only formulate "highly speculative" hypotheses to explain the association. "It could come from greater exposure to STIs, or it could be that anal intercourse produces physical trauma to the prostate," she revealed.
She wouldn't advise anyone to make any hasty decisions just based on this study, though, or recommend that men sleep with as many women as possible. "We're not there yet," the lead researcher explained.
