Both have there pros and cons. I believe if you want to breed your frogs that the female requires it to produce the eggs. During hibernation there is a chance that your frog could die, I had two die this year during hibernation but I think that I let the soil dry out too much. But not letting your frog hibernate will not decrease its lifespan from my experience. My oldest male has hibernated maybe twice in 8 years and one of those times was for 5 months in my garage during summer in Myrtle beach sc(I forgot about him after moving) and he was just fine after letting him soak a while.