“Frequent ejaculation lowers prostate cancer risk.”
Men reporting more frequent ejaculation are diagnosed with prostate cancer less often, but the gap is small and not shown to be caused by it.
You do not need to track how often you ejaculate to protect your prostate. There is no frequency target that has been shown to prevent prostate cancer, and the cancers it is linked with are mostly the low-risk kind.
No change needed. If prostate cancer is on your mind, the useful step is a talk with your doctor about whether screening fits you.
Safety note: Ejaculation frequency is not a substitute for assessing symptoms or discussing appropriate screening.
Talk to a healthcare professional if: you have urinary problems or other symptoms that worry you, or you want help deciding whether prostate cancer screening is right for you.
Men who report ejaculating more often are diagnosed with prostate cancer somewhat less often, but the drop is modest, is seen mainly in low-risk cancers, and comes from men's own recall rather than trials, so it is not shown that ejaculation is the cause. Confidence is limited because the evidence rests on one large US cohort and mostly case-control studies, some of which found no link or the opposite.
Men reporting more frequent ejaculation are diagnosed with prostate cancer less often, but the gap is small and not shown to be caused by it. The difference is mostly in slow-growing, low-risk cancers. In the largest study, men reporting 21 or more ejaculations a month had about 20% fewer diagnoses than men reporting 4 to 7, which worked out to about 2 fewer diagnoses per 1,000 men each year.
Nobody has been assigned to ejaculate more or less, so these studies show links, not cause. In the largest study, men reported in 1992 how often they ejaculated in their 20s and 40s, and the men who reported more also differed in other ways, such as activity, alcohol and divorce. Low-risk cancers are often found through PSA testing, so screening habits could explain part of the link, although testing rates were similar across groups. A 2025 pooled analysis of 29 studies found higher ejaculation frequency linked with 17% lower odds of prostate cancer, while a UK study of men diagnosed young found frequent sexual activity in their 20s linked with higher risk.
The link was clearest for low-risk prostate cancer. In the largest study, ejaculation frequency was not clearly linked with high-risk cancer or cancer that had spread. An Australian study of men with aggressive cancer found only a weak link, and only for one age range (the 30s).
- Rider JR, Wilson KM, Sinnott JA, Kelly RS, Mucci LA, Giovannucci EL. Ejaculation frequency and risk of prostate cancer: updated results with an additional decade of follow-up. European Urology. 2016;70(6):974-982. DOI: 10.1016/j.eururo.2016.03.027. PMID: 27033442
- Giles GG, Severi G, English DR, McCredie MR, Borland R, Boyle P, Hopper JL. Sexual factors and prostate cancer. BJU International. 2003;92(3):211-216. DOI: 10.1046/j.1464-410x.2003.04319.x. PMID: 12887469
- Dimitropoulou P, Lophatananon A, Easton D, et al.; UK Genetic Prostate Cancer Study Collaborators. Sexual activity and prostate cancer risk in men diagnosed at a younger age. BJU International. 2009;103(2):178-185. DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2008.08030.x. PMID: 19016689
- Papa NP, MacInnis RJ, English DR, et al. Ejaculatory frequency and the risk of aggressive prostate cancer: findings from a case-control study. Urologic Oncology. 2017;35(8):530.e7-530.e13. DOI: 10.1016/j.urolonc.2017.03.007. PMID: 28359743
- Raeisvandi A, Omidi S, Javaheri M, Moradi H, Poorolajal J. Updated dose-response meta-analysis of sexual activity and prostate cancer risk. BMC Cancer. 2025;26(1):47. DOI: 10.1186/s12885-025-15410-3. PMID: 41345847