Sex With Animals (swa): Behavioral Characteristics And Possible Association With Penile Cancer. A Multicenter Study

Introduction. Zoophilia has been known for a long time but, underreported in the medical literature, is likely a risk factor for human urological diseases. Aim. To investigate the behavioral characteristics of sex with animals (SWA) and its associations with penile cancer (PC) in a case-control study. Methods. A questionnaire about personal and sexual habits was completed in interviews of 118 PC patients and 374 controls (healthy men) recruited between 2009 and 2010 from 16 urology and oncology centers. Main Outcome Measures. SWA rates, geographic distribution, duration, frequency, animals involved, and behavioral habits were investigated and used to estimate the odds of SWA as a PC risk factor. Results. SWA was reported by 171 (34.8%) subjects, 44.9% of PC patients and 31.6% of controls (P<0.008). The mean ages at first and last SWA episode were 13.5 years (standard deviation [SD] 4.4 years) and 17.1 years (SD 5.3 years), respectively. Subjects who reported SWA also reported more venereal diseases (P<0.001) and sex with prostitutes (P<0.001), and were more likely to have had more than 10 lifetime sexual partners (P