Can A Man Have Intercourse After Prostate Cancer

Does Sexual Activity Improve Prostate Health

Regular ejaculation enhances the immune systems response to the presence of cancer cells.

According to a report published in JAMA, men who reported having more than 20 ejaculations per month were 33% less likely to develop prostate cancer.

These measured ejaculations included sexual intercourse, nocturnal emissions, and masturbation. Researchers evaluated nearly 30,000 patients, of whom 1,449 developed prostate cancer.

Assuming the men answered the survey questions honestly, the results indicated that active sex life is not associated with higher cancer risk in most men.

An Australian study of 2,338 men also came to a similar conclusion. This study found that men who averaged 4.6 to seven ejaculations a week were 36% less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer before the age of 70 compared to men who ejaculated less than 2.3 times a week on average.

The study found no connection between prostate cancer and the number of sex partners.

Nerve Damage From Radiation

Some men who get radiation will notice that their erections change for the worse over the first year or so after treatment. This change most often develops slowly. Some men will still have full erections but lose them before reaching climax. Others no longer get firm erections at all.

As with surgery, the older you are, the more likely it is you will have problems with erections. And men with heart or blood vessel disease, diabetes, or who have smoked heavily seem to be at greater risk for erection problems. This is because their arteries may already be damaged before radiation treatment. Doctors are looking at whether early penile rehabilitation could help after radiation therapy, too.

If You Identify As Lgbt+

If you identify as gay, bisexual, transgender or LGBT+, you may worry about being treated insensitively by your healthcare team. Many sexual difficulties caused by prostate cancer are similar whatever your sexuality, but you may have some specific questions. Having your sexual or gender identity acknowledged may help you feel better supported. It also means your healthcare team can give you the right information and advice. Prostate Cancer UK has specific information for gay and bisexual men.

Pelvic radiotherapy and brachytherapy can affect the back passage . This can cause different side effects. If you receive anal sex, it is best to wait until these side effects have improved. It is important not to injure the tissues of the rectum. Radiotherapy may cause long-term changes to the rectum that may make receiving anal sex difficult. You can talk to your doctor or nurse for more advice.

If you feel unable to talk to your healthcare team about your sexuality, the LGBT Foundation has a helpline that can give you confidential advice and support call 03453 30 30 30.

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Can You Have Sex After Prostate Removal

The good news is that sex after prostate removal is very possible and enjoyable for most men. This is due to the newest robotic technologies that are nerve-sparing and preserve the sexual function.

Dr. Samadis robotic prostate surgery, SMART Surgery, was explicitly designed to spare the tiny nerve bundles surrounding the prostate in order to preserve sexual potency.

Men who undergo Dr. Samadis robotic prostate surgery have a reasonable chance of regaining complete erectile function for sex after prostate surgery.

Even though ejaculation will cease, you will still be able to enjoy sex after prostate surgery, as it is further explained.

An Excerpt From Testosterone For Life

The oldest and most strongly held prohibition against testosterone therapy is its use in men previously diagnosed with prostate cancer. The fear has been that even in men who have been successfully treated for prostate cancer, raising testosterone levels will potentially make dormant, or sleeping, cancer cells wake up and start growing at a rapid rate. Thus, the FDA requires all testosterone products to include the warning that T therapy is contraindicated in men with a prior history of prostate cancer.

However, attitudes about this are changing and changing rapidly over just the last few years. The reasons for this are several, including the ongoing re-evaluation of the old belief that raising the concentration of testosterone is to prostate cancer like pouring gasoline on a fire or feeding a hungry tumor. In addition, there is growing recognition that T therapy can provide important benefits to a mans quality of life, so the delicate medical balancing act between potential risk and possible benefit is shifting.

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A number of physicians have told me that they have treated occasional patients with testosterone despite the fact that theyd been treated for prostate cancer in the past. The first people to publish their experience with doing this were Drs. Joel Kaufman and James Graydon, whose article appeared in the Journal of Urology in 2004.

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Prostate Cancer And Sexual Health

A prostate cancer diagnosis can leave you feeling anxious, frustrated, and depressed.

It may also leave you wondering about your ability to have sex. You may also be questioning how prostate cancer treatment can affect your sex life.

Prostate cancer rarely causes problems with sex, but the treatments for prostate cancer often affect penile function and reproduction.

Prostate surgery and radiation are the two most common treatments for prostate cancer. Both of these can affect the nerves in your penis and could cause sexual problems like erectile dysfunction .

Cryotherapy and ultrasound therapy can also cause ED. Your doctor may recommend hormone therapy or radiation therapy, as well. This therapy can lower your sex drive.

Radical prostatectomy is the most effective nerve-sparing surgery for prostate cancer. It can substantially limit the duration of post-surgical ED but requires a surgeon to be highly skilled and trained in the process.

In this type of procedure, the surgeon takes care not to damage the erectile nerves that surround the prostate as it is removed.

However, if cancer has infiltrated these nerves, it may not be possible to save them.

Preventing injury to these nerves dramatically improves the chances of a man recovering erectile function within two years of the surgery.

In addition to ED, you may also find that your orgasms are different after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

They may not feel as strong, and you will not see as much ejaculate.

How Will Prostate Cancer Affect My Sex Life

Prostate cancer can affect your sex life in three overlapping ways – your mind, body and relationships.

Mind

Finding out you have cancer can make you feel down or anxious, changing your feelings about sex.

Body

Treatment can damage the nerves and blood supply needed for erections. Hormone therapy can affect your desire for sex.

Relationships

Coping with cancer can change your close relationships, or your thoughts about starting one.

Some common worries

• You cant pass on cancer through sex.
• Having sex won’t affect how well your treatment works.
• Having sex has no effect on your cancer or the chance of it coming back after treatment.
• It’s safe to have an erection if you have a catheter in.

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S Men Can Take To Improve Or Recover Orgasms

This doesnt mean that some men dont have difficulty experiencing orgasm after radical prostatectomy. The missing sensation of fullness and the lack of ejaculate are big changes. But there are some things you can do to correct the problem, according to Dr. Kacker.

Men can achieve an orgasm on their own with manual stimulation or with a partner through manual or oral stimulation. Just remember that an erection is not needed. Using a vibrator on the head of penis is often helpful. Vibration can stimulate the nerves in the penis and increase the signals being sent to the brain.

The Basics: How An Erection Occurs

At its most basic level, an erection is a matter of hydraulics. Blood fills the penis, causing it to swell and become firm. But getting to that stage requires extraordinary orchestration of body mechanisms. Blood vessels, nerves, hormones, and, of course, the psyche must work together. Problems with any one of these elements can diminish the quality of an erection or prevent it from happening altogether.

Nerves talk to each other by releasing nitric oxide and other chemical messengers. These messengers boost the production of other important chemicals, including cyclic guanosine monophosphate, prostaglandins, and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide. These chemicals initiate the erection by relaxing the smooth muscle cells lining the tiny arteries that lead to the corpora cavernosa, a pair of flexible cylinders that run the length of the penis .

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Sex After Prostatectomy: How To Have A Healthy Sex Life After Surgery

Medically reviewed by Kristin Hall, FNP

Prostate health issues such as benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer affect hundreds of thousands of men in the United States every year.

If youve been diagnosed with a serious prostate issue, your healthcare provider may suggest a prostatectomy a surgical procedure in which your part or all of your prostate gland is surgically removed from your body.

Prostate removal surgery is usually highly effective at treating cancer and prostate enlargement , but it can potentially lead to complications.

These include some sexual performance issues, such as erectile dysfunction and difficulty ejaculating normally.

Although these effects can change your sexual experience, many men are still able to enjoy a fulfilling, satisfying sex life after prostate surgery by making certain lifestyle changes and using medication.

Below, weve talked about what to expect if youre scheduled to undergo a prostatectomy and want to maintain an active sex life after surgery.

Weve also explained how you can have a healthy sex life after a partial or complete prostate removal, whether through exercises to improve sexual functioning, medications, devices or a combination of different approaches.

What Determines Erection Recovery After Surgery

The most obvious determinant of postoperative erectile dysfunction is preoperative potency status. Some men may experience a decline in erectile function over time, as an age-dependent process. Furthermore, postoperative erectile dysfunction is compounded in some patients by preexisting risk factors that include older age, comorbid disease states , lifestyle factors , and the use of medications such as antihypertensive agents that have antierectile effects.

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Viagra Useful For Impotence Following Prostate Surgery

Nov. 30, 1999 â Men with prostate cancer who have their prostate removed are usually free of cancer, but the procedure often comes with a cost â impotence. A new study, however, shows that Viagra , the popular medication for erectile dysfunction, can restore impotency lost in surgery. Whether men respond, however, depends on how much nerve damage occurred during surgery.

Each year some 200,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and, of those, 50,000 will have to undergo surgical removal of the prostate.

âIncontinence and impotence are the two most common side effects. A large number of patients, even with nerve-sparing techniques, end up with erectile dysfunction,â Milton Lakin, MD, who leads the medical urology section at Cleveland Clinic Foundation, tells WebMD. âThe first thing want to do is a very good cancer operation. Cancers are being discovered early enough that in many cases it is possible to spare both nerves, or at least one.â

The new study, which appears in the November Journal of Urology, was completed by physicians at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. It involved about 80 men who ranged in age from 47 to 76 years old. All were prescribed Viagra following prostate removal surgery. Based on their responses to a series of questionnaires, 53% had improved erections and 40% had improved ability to have intercourse.

Can You Still Have An Erection If Your Prostate Is Removed

When you have a radical prostatectomy , you have surgery to remove your prostate gland. These nerves, blood vessels, and muscles may be weakened when you have surgery for your prostate cancer. For a period of time after surgery , many men are not able to get an erection . This time is different for each man.

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Are There Any Surgical Techniques That Have Been Developed To Improve Erectile Function Outcomes

At this time, there are several different surgical approaches to carry out the surgery, including retropubic or perineal approaches as well as laparoscopic procedures with freehand or robotic instrumentation. Much debate but no consensus exists about the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. Further study is needed before obtaining meaningful determinations of the success with different new approaches.

• You are bleeding from your rectum.
• You are urinating very little or not at all.
• You have pain from your procedure that does not get better, even after taking pain medicines.

The above information is an educational aid only. It is not intended as medical advice for individual conditions or treatments. Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist before following any medical regimen to see if it is safe and effective for you.

Can Erection Rehabilitation Be Applied To Improve Erection Recovery Rates

A relatively new strategy in clinical management after radical prostatectomy has arisen from the idea that early induced sexual stimulation and blood flow in the penis may facilitate the return of natural erectile function and resumption of medically unassisted sexual activity. There is an interest in using oral PDE5 inhibitors for this purpose, since this therapy is noninvasive, convenient, and highly tolerable. However, while the early, regular use of PDE5 inhibitors or other currently available, “on-demand” therapies is widely touted after surgery for purposes of erection rehabilitation, such therapy is mainly empiric. Evidence for its success remains limited.

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Figure : Prostate Cancer Prevalence Versus Testosterone Levels

SOURCE: Morgentaler A. Testosterone and Prostate Cancer: An Historical Perspective on a Modern Myth. European Urology 2006 50: 93539. PMID: 16875775.

Abraham Morgentaler, M.D., an associate clinical professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and the director of Mens Health Boston, specializes in treating male sexual and reproductive difficulties.* In his book, Testosterone for Life, he touts the benefits of testosterone supplementation, including improved libido, mood, cognition, muscle mass, bone density, and red blood cell production. He also argues in the book, an excerpt of which follows, that some men who have had prostate cancer can take testosterone without upping their risk of cancer recurrence.

Many well-respected experts advocate a more conservative approach: prescribing testosterone sparingly until more evidence convincingly shows a lack of harm in the long run, and until studies demonstrate which patients are most likely to reap significant benefits. One is Ian Thompson, M.D., chairman of the Department of Urology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio and a principal investigator for the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial .* He shares his views on testosterone supplementation with Harvard editors following the book excerpt.

Is Sex Good For Your Prostate

Whether or not sex is good for prostate problems is a question many men wonder, and its an important one that needs answering.

The prostate plays an active role during sexual activity.

Along with other structures, the prostate is responsible for making fluid in semen, which helps transport your sperm when you ejaculate.

The effect regular ejaculations have on the prostate should become a significant talking point, especially amongst men who are experiencing prostate problems.

This article will determine whether a healthy sex life can reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer.

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Urine Leakage During Ejaculation

Climacturia is the term used to describe the leakage of urine during orgasm. This is fairly common after prostate surgery, but it might not even be noticed. The amount of urine varies widely anywhere from a few drops to more than an ounce. It may be more common in men who also have stress incontinence.

Urine is not dangerous to the sexual partner, though it may be a bother during sex. The leakage tends to get better over time, and condoms and constriction bands can help. If you or your partner is bothered by climacturia, talk to your doctor to learn what you can do about it.

Erection Concerns After Prostate Biopsy

When his doctor mentioned the prostate biopsy, Stans heart sank. What did this mean? Did he have cancer? And if so, how would his life change?

Quietly, he listened his doctor explain. Stan had high levels of prostate-specific antigen and the doctor had found an unusual lump on his prostate during his digital rectal examination. These two factors made a biopsy necessary. Stan might have cancer and catching it early was important.

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Some men do develop ED for a time after a prostate biopsy. But not all do. Learn more hereâ¦

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Stans expression was stoic, but inside, his body was in turmoil. He was anxious about his prognosis, of course. Also, the idea of having a needle in his private parts made him nervous. He knew the biopsy was necessary. He knew it could save his life. But he had other questions, too.

For example, what would happen to his erections? Would the biopsy procedure affect his sex life?

Lots of men share Stans concerns. The anxiety of a biopsy is enough to cope with, but wondering about your erections afterward is also difficult.

Some men do develop erectile dysfunction for a time after a prostate biopsy. But not all do. Lets look at this topic more closely.

What happens during a prostate biopsy?

Typically, a prostate biopsy is done in one of three ways:

Will I have problems with erections afterward?

Resources

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