Sex saves lives

I read with interest your recent excellent study of sexual activity and mortality in heart disease patients by Cohen et al.¹

Sexual activity prevents death

This study of 495 heart attack patients reported that having sex at least 52 times a year/weekly was associated with a marginal 10% drop in heart disease mortality (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.53–1.51) and a very significant 44% drop in non-heart disease mortality (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.36–0.85).¹ These data were corrected for many factors including age, gender, income, education, partner status, smoking, and nine health status factors.¹

Other studies have reported that sexual activity can reduce rates of mortality and cancer morbidity. A huge 2020 prospective analysis of 15 629 US adults reported significantly lower death rates in subjects having sex more than 52 times a year versus 0–1 times per year.² Comparing subjects who have sex more than 52 times a year versus those who have sex 0–1 times per year the sexually active people have 49% lower mortality (OR −0.51, 95% CI 0.34–0.76), 21% lower heart disease mortality (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.19–3.21), 69% lower cancer mortality (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.11–0.84), and other cause mortality (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.28–0.96).² A 10-year follow-up study of 918 men in South Wales reported that risk of death was 50% lower in men who ejaculated an average of two or more times weekly as compared with less than once a month (P = 0.02).³ A meta-analysis of 22 studies involving 55 490 men reported that ejaculation frequency of between two and four times per week was associated with a significantly reduced risk of prostate cancer (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.87–0.96) as compared to little or no ejaculation frequency.⁴

Sexual activity may treat depression and may prevent suicide

Legleye et al.⁵ in 2010 reported that in a large group of 1842 French men reported that lack of sex was associated with a significant almost three times greater risk of suicidal ideation (OR 2.82, 95% CI 1.80–4.44). A large US study of 2596 adults aged 57–85 reported that regular sexual activities were associated with significantly lower levels of depression in both women and men and both married and unmarried people.⁶ This study was large, statistically robust, and corrected for such factors as age, health status, and socioeconomic status.⁶A questionnaire study of about 16 000 US adults reported that having sex once of more week was associated with a happiness level equivalent to earning about $50 000 per year.⁷

More research is needed

Much more research is needed to examine the effects of frequent sexual activity in both treating and preventing cancer, heart disease, depression and other diseases. Hopefully, such studies should consider cofactors like age, marital status, economic status, and initial health status and also be large enough to have strong statistical power.