A physician, Dr. Sam Adegboye, has debunked the claim that frequent sexual activity reduces the risk of prostate cancer in men.
Adegboye is the Assistant Chief Medical Officer and General Practitioner at the Federal Teaching Hospital at Ido-Ekiti in Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria. .
The physician debunked the claim in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
He said: “Most of the urological articles do not agree with that because one of the journals checked was the American Journal of urology. We discovered some bias.
“There is what we call prospective, in which you take the research from now until the future. You know, everything must be evidence-based.
“In a nutshell, I do not think it is supported by urologists; and there is no concrete evidence to support that, though some traditionalists support it.”
Adegboye said there was a test men could do, called the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, to check their prostate condition.
He said: “Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BHP) is a condition in which the prostate gland grows larger than normal. It’s also known as benign prostatic hypertrophy or an enlarged prostate.
“BPH means a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland, also commonly referred to as benign prostatic hyperplasia.”
According to him, it is a condition where the prostate grows larger than normal but the growth is not cancerous.
“It often causes urinary difficulties in older men due to the enlarged prostate pressing on the urethra.
“Benign means non-cancerous and prostate is gland in the male reproductive system surrounding the urethra, while hypertrophy is an increase in the size of cells, leading to enlargement of the prostate gland,” Adegboye said.
He added: “If the prostate gets bigger, it makes one not to pee and it is called urinary obstruction.
“A man does the test to check if there is prostate cancer. You know benign prostate hyperplasia means the prostate gets big and prevents men from urinating well.
“When the obstruction happens, a doctor has to place a rubber (catheter) into the penis of the man, which assists in bringing out the urine.
“For the PSA, if it is high, it shows a person may have prostate cancer or benign prostate hypertrophy.
“BPH does not show that an individual has (prostate cancer) because several activities can cause hormones to be raised.
“If a man goes for a test and had sex two days before the time, that hormone will give a false reading because it is going to be high; or he does something strenuous, or had surgery done, it might raise the PSA.”
Source: The Nation
