Week Sex: 6 myths about sexual health

They are abundant and fascinating. Myths, fun facts and jokes. But which of the many beliefs, myths and assertions about sexual health are actually true or false?

Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan, who is a medical doctor and a PhD student at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, has agreed to take a closer look at some of the myths you are likely to have come across at one point or another. According to Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan, it is important to avoid misunderstandings and taboos:

“Practising medicine, I have come across a lot of alternative beliefs and strange stories. For instance, pregnant women from a number of different cultures will avoid eating pineapple for fear of miscarriage, especially in the first and second trimesters,” Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan says and adds:

“The enzyme bromelain is said to be the cause, but aside from giving some pregnant women heartburn, there is nothing to suggest that pineapples are bad for pregnant women. As a ‘newbie’ in science, I think it is fun and important to keep an open mind and address some of these stories and myths by checking the facts.”

 1. Frequent ejaculations reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men.

“Yes, there is evidence to suggest that this is in fact the case. For instance, the Harvard Ejaculation Study has been collecting data on men of different ages for a number of years. Their questionnaire-based surveys show that adult men who ejaculate 21 or more times a month appear to have a lower risk of prostate cancer. This includes both sexual intercourse, masturbation and nocturnal emissions,” Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan explains. “However, a similar study conducted in Australia did not arrive at the same conclusion, so there may be more to it than that.”

Sources: Rider JR et al, Ejaculation Frequency and Risk of Prostate Cancer: Updated Results with an Additional Decade of Follow-up, 2016. Papa NP et al, Ejaculatory frequency and the risk of aggressive prostate cancer: Findings from a case-control study, 2017. Dall'Era MA et al, New Insights into Ejaculatory Frequency and Prostate Cancer Risk: Association, Causation, or What Do We Have to Lose? 2018.

 2. A circumcised penis is more hygienic than an uncircumcised penis.

“No. A man who has been circumcised is not by definition more hygienic than a man who still has his foreskin intact. A penis with foreskin does require more frequent cleaning, though. The foreskin is pulled back and the penis cleaned to avoid secretion accumulation or infection,” Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan explains.

Source: UpToDate: Circumcision in baby boys (Beyond the Basics)

 3. Long-term use of contraceptive pills negatively affects fertility in women.

“No. Long-term use of contraceptive pills does not affect women’s chances of getting pregnant. This was the conclusion of a large-scale Danish study from 2013. Some women may experience a temporary delay in fertility after they stop taking the pill, but there was no evidence that it reduced their overall chances of getting pregnant,” Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan says.

Source: EM Mikkelsen et al, Pre-gravid oral contraceptives use and time to pregnancy: a Danish prospective cohort study.

 4. Genital herpes is only contagious during outbreaks in the form of sores.

“No. Unfortunately, you can transmit genital herpes, that is, herpes on the genitals, even if you do not have any symptoms and you use a condom. This is due to a process known as viral shedding, where the virus is shed from skin and mucosa not covered by a condom. Some studies have found that treatment with antiviral drugs can reduce viral shedding and thus transmission to partners, but at the moment medication is not prescribed to lower transmission between partners in Denmark yet. And vaccination against genital herpes is still not an option – despite the huge potential,” Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan says.

Source: Gupta R, Warren T, Wald A. Genital herpes. Lancet. 2007.

5. Victorian doctors treated ’hysteria’ in women with orgasm.

“No. This is a myth propagated by the book The Technology of Orgasm by Rachel P. Maines published in 1999. Here, Maines claims that orgasm was central to Western doctors’ treatment of women suffering from hysteria up until the beginning of the 20th century. This was disproved by Hallie Lieberman and Eric Scatzberg in the article ‘A Failure of Academic Quality Control: The Technology of Orgasm’ from 2018, which stresses the importance of critical peer review processes and fact-checking to limit the spread of false historical narratives,” Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan explains.

6. Orgasm works decongesting on a blocked nose.

“Yes. According to the study “Can Sex Improve Nasal Function? – An Exploration of the Link Between Sex and Nasal Function” by Olcay Bulut, MD, from 2021 sexual intercourse with climax can clear the nasal passage just as effectively as nasal decongestant up to one hour after orgasm. Scientists have long suspected the existence of a physiological naso-genital relationship, and this study tested the relationship between sexual activity and nasal airflow. It won the IG Nobel Prize in 2021 for studies that ‘first making people laugh, then think’,” Sedrah Butt Balaganeshan concludes.