I just stumbled upon this reddit post, I think it might be interesting for all of you. When my father asked last week what I was doing on my phone, I told him that I'm writing on NoFap and told him that I am being abstinent. He immediately said "well, but it's good to prevent prostata cancer". So when I saw this post I was all ears. Check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/comments/cggbe6/an_urologist_take_on_abstinence_and_prostate/
Well, yea, it's definetly not enough to be able to say it's true or not, but it's nice to hear a doctor say it anyways. Whoever really wants to know for sure what the colleration is and if there is causation should check out research and wait for more studies eventually.
@SirWanksalot, In that original post (here) I wonder what the urologist meant when he said The studies I quoted in this thread suggest otherwise: Ejaculation Frequency and Risk of Prostate Cancer. It looks like a small effect, but it does show up in the more recent studies (unless you've seen more recent ones).
@kropo82 Aye good sir, but I think you mispelled his name. Anywho, even though you did not ask me I would give my unscientific opinion on the matter. As far as I understand how the human body works it responds and adapts to stresses of all kinds and tries to keep up homeostasis as much as possible. Overuse of any organs or tissues (joints) etc. lead to overuse injuries. Underuse has a similar effect in regard to injuries/deterioration of the tissues. Therefore, in my opinion(!) the key lies in the proper balance of healthy doses of stress (at least to keep the tissue active if not even growing/rebuilding) and adequate recovery on a physical level. It becomes even more interersting if you add the psychosomatic effects of your emotions and what not into the mix. Let's suppose a certain level of "stress" or "action" may be required for healthy prostate tissue. But feeling super conflicted internally about masturbating or ejaculating would lead to cortisol etc. flodding the body, increase inflammation again, lower immune system function, etc. And again the opposite is true for when you honestly believe that you are doing something good for yourself. I think that would mean that not only the objective data but also your personal beliefs and interpretation of it have a significant effect on the question whether masturbation is actually healthy for you or not. Blissful ignorance may be an advantage sometimes haha I know that you are very much aware of this (which greatly adds to the probabilistic nature of scientific studies) but just generally I wanted to state that this means it becomes a very individualized issue for each and everyone of us. Studies only work over large quantities of people and then still can only give a general direction for each individual in any given environment. Similar to how the half-life of any radioactive material gives you a precise measurement for when half of all particles are gone yet you have no clue when one single particle that you are currently looking at may be changing. Intersting discussion for sure and thanks for linking me in ;-)