Why Your Doctor Wants You to Have Sex Tonight

Quick, tell your partner: If you’re not having sex at least a few times a week, your health may be in danger.

No, seriously! Compared to guys in their 20s who ejaculate just once a week, men who orgasm 21 times or more every month are about 15 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer, according to a study from the National Cancer Institute.

The prostate-protecting benefit of an orgasm is even mightier for men in their 40s: Frequent ejaculators are roughly 30 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer, the same study found.

Those cancer benefits are nothing to scoff at: Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among men, and it’s also one of the deadliest, according to stats from the American Cancer Society (ACS). This year, the ACS estimates about 29,480 guys will die from the disease.

So how do frequent orgasms keep you safe? It could be that ejaculating clears away semen and other fluids that may block or inflame parts of your prostate, says Graham Giles, Ph.D., of Australia’s Cancer Council Victoria. Letting loose may also remove fat-soluble, cancer-causing substances from your body, he adds. (Giles’s research actually found daily ejaculation provides the most protection against cancer.)

Of course, we can guess what you’re thinking: Wouldn’t masturbation offer all the same happy health consequences as sex? Not quite: A massive review study from the U.K. linked penis-vagina intercourse—but not masturbation—to improvements in mood, lower rates of depression, reduction of pain symptoms related to injury or illness, better heart function and blood flow, and a longer life. And that was for both men and women.

Stuart Brody, Ph.D., the author of that U.K. review study, lists a number of possible mechanisms that could explain these sex-specific benefits. They range from psychosocial and genetic factors to stress reduction.

But, in a nutshell, Brody says having lots of sex increases your odds of procreation. Evolution “strongly rewards” anything that increases your odds of passing on your genes to offspring, he adds. So it makes sense that sex would provide all kinds of benefits that you don’t get from going solo.

Source: Men’s Health