Dear Dr. Milrod:

I have had an enlarged prostate for about 10 years, not due to cancer, and it does not seem to affect my sex life in any way. I’ve been interested in the discussions about non-ejaculating orgasms and pursuing the practice of such, but I’m concerned about possible negative consequences. Thank you for any insights or recommendations you may have.

Mr. Free Love

Dear Mr. Free Love:

In my opinion, anyone with a prostate – enlarged or not – should ejaculate as much as possible. It’s good for the plumbing, period. Of course, if you speak to some urologists, they’ll tell you that there is no “scientific evidence” for this BPH (benign prostate hyperplasia) recommendation, so the jury is still out. But holistic practitioners recommend ejaculating as much as possible…and, it certainly is the most natural way of penile functioning. Now this:

JAMA reported on a 2004 study by the National Cancer Institute that followed 30,000 middle-aged or elderly white men over a period of eight years. The Institue found that higher ejaculation frequency during the men’s early adulthood correlated with a significantly reduced risk of prostate cancer after middle age. Men who had ejaculated 21 times per month were found to be 33% less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who had ejaculated four to seven times per month. The reported benefit appeared when the ejaculation frequency exceeded 12 per month, or approximately ever other day, and increased to the maximum of 33% when the frequency reached 21 per month – or almost daily. The benefit was also more associated with ejaculations before the age of forty. The scientists involved stated that the benefit was clear with the slow-growing, organ-confined types of prostate cancer but less clear with the aggressive metastasizing forms.

It is believed that the benefit comes from three factors associated with ejaculation: reducing stress, reducing toxins in the tissues of the prostate, and clearing microdeposits from the ducts in the prostate gland. So now you know why I think it’s really, really important to get your juices going!

Christine Milrod, Ph.D.