MONTREAL – As anti-porn group Morality in Media winds up its annual White Ribbon Against Pornography campaign—which this year runs Oct. 26 through Nov. 1—new research indicates pornography actually may be good for performers…at least the straight males.
According to researchers at the University of Montreal and the Institut Armand-Frappier, men who have had sex with 20 or more women are 28 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer. On the other hand, men who have had 20 or more male sex partners are twice as likely to develop the condition as men who have never had with another man.
The data, published in the current issue of the scientific journal Cancer Epidemiology, was gleaned from a study of 3,208 men. Researchers concluded the difference in prostate cancer risk between one-woman men and promiscuous sex fiends may be related to differences in the frequency of sex between the two groups. Presumably, the researchers noted, promiscuous men have intercourse more often.
“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,” lead researcher Dr. Marie-Elise Parent told Britain’s The Telegraph.
Parent could not explain why promiscuous homosexual (and, presumably, bisexual) men develop aggressive prostate cancer twice as often as strictly heterosexual men. She also noted homosexual men have a whopping 500 percent greater chance of developing a less-aggressive form of the disease.
“It could come from greater exposure to [sexually transmitted infections], or it could be that anal intercourse produces physical trauma to the prostate,” she told The Telegraph, adding no responsible theories could be put forth without additional investigation.
Previous studies have suggested frequent ejaculation may protect the prostate by reducing the volume of carcinogenic substances in the gland, but Parent’s study is the first to suggest the number of sexual partners also may be a significant indicator of risk.
