the influence of ejaculation
and abstinence on urinary flow
rates
luca cindolo cosimo de nunzio petros sountoulides
athanasios bantis andrea tubaro luigi schips
background
• uroflowmetry : the commonest tool to
evaluate LUTS
• reliability and sensitivity questionable
• possible confounders
recent
catheterization
level of stress
and anxiety
menstrual
phase
patients coffee sexual
position intake activity
question?
Does the ejaculation
improve the urinary
flow rate in young
healthy men?
methods
young men, healthy, volounteers
pvr, iief, ipss, suprapubic prostate US
+
daily uroflowmetry for 22 consecutive days
!!!!
ejaculations only at days 0, 6 and 22 (T0, T6
and T22)
(flow measured 2-6 hours after ej)
methods
• adherence to the protocol: self-reported
• sexual intercourse vs masturbation : not investigated
• comparison of the changes before and after
ejaculation and during the period of sexual
abstinence
• all uroflowmetry charts were checked by LC, blinded
to the subject’s real sexual status
• all subjects were instructed to freely void without
abdominal pressure and to repeat if <150 ml
results
• 18 evaluable volounteers (9 excluded)
• age 27.4 y
ipss 0.1
iief 64
• prostatic volume 24.7ml; 0ml pvr
• flows collected: 414
results
Distribution of Q max values over the time
results
conclusions
• Q max increases after ejaculation (about ~3
ml/sec!!! ~15%)
• … decreases during the abstinence
• In the future men with LUTS should be studied
in order to undestand if the ejaculation is a
confounder especially in evaluating the results
of therapies (PDE5i, alpha blockers)