Sunday, March 17, 2024

Can A Man Have Sex If His Prostate Is Removed

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Dry Orgasms After Radical Prostatectomy

3 days after prostate surgery

A male may need prostate surgery because of the expansion of the prostate gland or to address prostate cancer.

Some treatments, for example, transurethral resection of the prostate , will just remove a part of the prostate organ. Nevertheless, radical prostatectomy removes the whole prostate and the seminal vesicles, and the pelvic lymph nodes.

After this surgery, a man can experience sex life problems such as the inability to ejaculate. This is because of removing the seminal vesicles and prostate gland, which make the liquid in semen. Other prostate treatments, like TURP, do not usually influence ejaculation.

The absence of ejaculation does not imply that a man can no longer orgasm. On the contrary, many will begin to have dry orgasms, which are climaxes without ejaculation.

Some may observe that they build a small quantity of fluid previously or during orgasm. This fluid is liquid from the urethra. It will be a lot more modest amount than a regular ejaculation produces.

Sexual Life After Prostate Removal

This post is for all the men who have prostate cancer or are worried about prostate cancer. One of the most feared side effects of therapy for prostate cancer is the impact on sexual health.

Hopefully this will give men a better idea of what to expect and take some of the fear of the unknown away.

The prostate makes the liquid in the ejaculate. This is necessary for the sperm to work and therefore to have children. Other than having children, the prostate is of little use later in life and only causes problems with urination and is a leading cause of cancer.

The nerves that go to the penis course very close to the prostate. They are only a few millimeters from the prostate and can be affected by surgery or radiation. These nerves are solely responsible for erections, or the ability of the penis to get hard.

The net effect of someone having his prostate removed is:

  • He will lose the ability to have an ejaculate, and will be sterile. You can still have children with your own sperm by artificial means.
  • He will maintain full sensation of the penis. With masturbation or other stimulation, he will still have the ability to have an orgasm.
  • He will probably lose the ability to get a firm erection after surgery. I have had many patients who kept their erections with robotic surgery, but this is not the rule. With time he will hopefully get his erections back normally.
  • Factors that are responsible for the ability to get erections are:

    Can I Have An Orgasm Without An Erection

    Yes. An erection is not necessary for orgasm or ejaculation. Even if a man cannot have an erection or can only get or keep a partial erection, with the right sexual stimulation you can experience an orgasm. Your orgasm has little to do with your prostate gland. As long as you have normal skin sensation, you can have an orgasm.

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    The Importance Of Quality Of Life

    Its only normal to want to drive into the practicalities. Before you go any further, I want you to understand a key metric, which is particularly challenging to standardize.

    Its called Quality of Life, usually shortened to QoL in the medical literature.

    With Prostate Cancer, its a particularly important one, due to the high rates of survival for those with localized prostate cancer .

    Thats why its so important to understand the impact that various surgeries or treatments will have on you.

    Quality of Life is how they assess the suitability of any treatment.

    Those sort of difficult questions is why QoL is a factor. If youre a sexually active man in your sixties or seventies and they are offering you preventative surgery after a biopsy, you need to ask yourself about the impact it will have, what alternatives are available to treat prostate cancer.

    Furthermore, you should always ask what the quality of life after that surgery or treatment will be like.

    Thats why we put together this quick guide to erectile function, mens health and sex after prostate surgery.

    Its not exhaustive by any means, but should certainly give you a jumping off point to better make these decisions that will have a serious impact on a really key aspect of your life.

    One last note before we get into it. If the cancer is malignant, surgeons will always push you for a radical prostatectomy, to prevent the cancer from spreading to your lymph nodes.

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

    Can A Man With Prostate Cancer Get A Woman Pregnant?

    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.

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    Sex When You’re Single

    Being sexually active and feeling attractive can be just as important if you are a single man. All the treatments described here are available to you if you’re single – whether you want to be able to masturbate, have sex, or want to start a new relationship.

    If you are starting a new relationship, sexual problems and other side effects like urinary or bowel problems could be a worry. Some men worry that having problems with erections will affect their chances of having a new relationship. Fear of rejection is natural, and everyone has their own worries, whether or not they’ve had cancer. If you’re single, you may want time to come to terms with any changes prostate cancer has caused before you start having sex or dating.

    Try talking over your worries with someone you feel comfortable with, such as a friend. Counselling or sex therapy may also help if you would prefer to talk to someone you don’t know.

    Changes In Penis Size

    Some men notice that their penis is shorter after surgery . Some men notice other changes such as a curve in their penis or a narrower area. We don’t know for certain why these changes happen, but it could be because of low oxygen levels in the penis, caused by not having erections. Other treatments such as hormone therapy with radiotherapy may also cause changes to the size of your penis.

    Encouraging blood flow to the penis after surgery may help prevent this. In particular, using a vacuum pump, either on its own or with PDE5 inhibitor tablets could help maintain your penis size and improve erections.

    Keeping your penis active after surgery

    Although you may not be ready or recovered enough for sex, you can still start treatment for erection problems in the weeks immediately after surgery. It could be taking a low-dose PDE5 tablet once a day or using a vacuum pump, or sometimes both together. The treatment along with masturbation encourages blood flow to the penis. This can help keep your penis healthy. You may hear this called penile rehabilitation. Think of it in the same way as having physiotherapy if you had injured your arm or leg. Starting treatment soon after surgery may help improve your chance of getting and keeping an erection. But it may not work for every man.

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    How Cancer Can Affect Ejaculation

    This information is for adult males with cancer. If you are a transgender person, please talk to your cancer care team about any needs that are not addressed here.

    Cancer treatment can interfere with ejaculation by damaging the nerves that control the prostate, seminal vesicles, and the opening to the bladder. It can also stop semen from being made in the prostate and seminal vesicles, or it can cut off the path that semen normally takes out of the body. Despite this, a man can still feel the sensation of pleasure that makes an orgasm. The difference is that, at the moment of orgasm, little or no semen comes out. This is referred to as a dry orgasm.

    Over time, many men adjust to having an orgasm without semen. Some others say the orgasm does not feel as strong, while others report that the orgasm is stronger and feels more pleasurable. Men might worry that their partners may notice a change since there is no actual fluid release during sex.

    Some men are most concerned that their orgasms are less satisfying than before. Others are upset by dry orgasms because they want to father a child. If a man knows before treatment that he may want to have a child after treatment, he may be able to bank sperm for future use.

    A mild decrease in the intensity of orgasm is normal with aging, but it can be more severe in men whose cancer treatments interfere with ejaculation. See Treating Sexual Problems for Men With Cancer.

    Are These Erections Lost For Good

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    Theres pretty good evidence to show that men can continue to recover erectile function up to two years after prostatectomy surgery , which we believe is partly because it takes time for the bruising and scar tissue after surgery to settle down. But if spontaneous erections do not recover by this point then it is unlikely that they will do so thereafter. Conversely, there is good evidence that drugs such as Viagra can be used to enhance erections after surgery and that, even if such drugs do not work for example if the nerves have been removed to maximise cancer clearance mechanical devices such as vacuum pumps, cavaject injections into the side of the penis or MUSE therapy are effective.

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    How Soon After Prostate Cancer Treatment Can You Be Sexually Active Again

    Different Prostate Cancer treatments have various periods before one can resume sexual activity. Its also down to an individuals recovery time, which has to factor in age.

    A man who has had a prostatectomy in his eighties will find that it will take him a lot longer to resume any sexual activity than a man in his fifties who has had external beam therapy.

    The individuals general health and genetics all play a part in the healing process. With a prostatectomy, studies tend to show that it is at least several months before erectile function returns, but it can be up to a year.

    For more limited surgery, such as TURPs, one can expect to be sexually active again within 4 6 weeks if that is the only surgery and treatment. Often it happens in conjunction with other treatments, such as hormone or radiotherapy, which have much longer recovery times.

    There are still options that are open to men before that. If a man still feels sexual desire, then sexual activity is still possible.

    There are three parts to orgasm, and while the sensation of fullness or ejaculate may no longer be present, the mental part of orgasm which takes place in the brain is just as possible as before surgery. Plus theres absolutely nothing stopping a man from being more focused on his partners sexual pleasure.

    Physical And Psychological Effects Of Prostate Biopsy And Cancer Diagnosis

    The incorporation of prostate-specific antigen measurement and the transrectal ultrasound biopsy probe into standard urologic practice had a dramatic impact on the incidence of prostate cancer in the United States and resulted in a trend toward earlier-stage disease at presentation. No longer were men presenting with late-stage disease or undergoing painful perineal biopsies. The biopsy no longer required an anesthetic or a hospitalization. Within a 7-year period , the annual number of cases diagnosed doubled. Most cases are now detected by PSA elevation, rather than by digital rectal examination.

    Though generally well-tolerated when done under a local anesthetic, the TRUS biopsy is not without side effects or complications. In a prospective study of 211 men undergoing prostate biopsies, intraoperative pain was considered severe in 20% of the biopsy events. Preoperative anxiety was reported in 64% of biopsy events and was predictive of intraoperative pain. Anxiety continued post-biopsy and peaked before result disclosure. ED attributed to anxiety in anticipation of biopsy was reported in 7% of cases. The ED incidence doubled to 15% at days 7 and 30 after the biopsy, well after the anxiety associated with the biopsy resolved.

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    Pain During Erection Or Ejaculation

    Some men find that erections and ejaculating is painful after surgery, or during and after their course of radiotherapy.

    Painful erections following surgery could be due to internal bruising caused by the operation. The tube which carries urine from the bladder to the outside of the body gets inflamed by the radiotherapy treatment.

    This side effect should disappear a few weeks after you finish radiotherapy or as you recover from surgery. Talk to your specialist nurse for specific advice. If masturbation and sex is important to you, its important to keep stimulating the penis to keep it healthy. On the other hand, if erections are very painful, you might need to avoid ejaculation for a while and try again later.

    The penile injections to stimulate an erection can cause painful erections in some men. This pain might lessen with continued treatment.

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    Three Common Prostate Problems

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    Growing older increases the danger of prostate problems. The three most common problems in the prostate gland are prostatitis, benign prostatic hypertrophy, and prostate cancer.

    One change does not prompt another. For instance, having prostatitis or benign prostatic hypertrophy does not raise your risk of prostate cancer. Also, you can have more than one issue simultaneously.

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    How To Maintain Your Sex Life After Prostate Surgery

    Although prostate surgery can affect your sexual experience and performance, getting surgery to remove part or all of your prostate doesnt mean that you can no longer have sex or enjoy a satisfying sexual life.

    However, it does mean that you may need to make some changes to how you and your partner have sex. These may include using ED medications, erection-promoting devices or engaging in penile rehabilitation exercises to keep your penis stimulated and healthy.

    If youve recently had prostate surgery, its important to talk to your healthcare provider before you make any changes to your health habits. Theyll be able to inform you about what you can do to restore and improve your sexual function after surgery.

    What Is The Problem

    Some 6,500 radical prostatectomies are performed every year in the UK . While approximately half of these men have pre-existing erectile dysfunction, over 50% of the other half can expect to lose natural erections after prostatectomy surgery, especially if their cancers are locally advanced and require wide clearance to ensure removal of the whole tumour.

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    Erection After Prostate Cancer Treatment

    Following prostate cancer treatment of any kind, it is a possibility that you will no longer be able to have an erection. If you are unable to have an erection following treatment, this condition may last only for a short time or could be permanent.

    All of the currently available, potentially curative treatment options for prostate cancer can result in temporary or permanent erectile dysfunction , though many men who undergo treatment for prostate cancer see little or no ill effects to their erectile function. Radiation therapy, prostate surgery, cryotherapy, hormone therapy, and others can all result in ED.

    Unfortunately, there is no definitive way to determine which men will have ED following treatment. In general, men with vascular conditions, diabetes, obesity, or pre-existing erectile problems are at greater risk for ED.

    Studies that have sought to determine the chance of men having ED following prostatectomy, radiation, and other prostate cancer treatments have resulted in widely varying numbers. Some studies seem to show that only a small percentage of men have long-standing issues with ED, while others have shown much higher numbers.

    For men who have undergone prostatectomy, long-term ED has been seen in up to 67% percent of men, but some studies have shown that using medications such as Viagra may help to achieve erectile functioning.

    Additionally, for men being treated with hormone deprivation therapy, the symptoms of ED often end after stopping the treatment.

    Stressed Out With Life How Long Does Erectile Dysfunction Last After Prostate Surgery

    Treatment Strategies for Men Who Have Advanced Prostate Cancer

    Its difficult to enter the mood when youre bewildered by obligations at work as well as house. There are various parts of your body that are impacted by anxiety, including your penis.

    Tension can be lowered by transforming your lifestyle so you can really feel far better and also unwind. Exercise on a regular basis, obtain plenty of sleep, and seek the support of a professional if necessary.

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    Changes In The Prostate As You Age

    Since the prostate gland tends to become bigger as you age, it might crush the urethra and cause issues in passing urine. At times, men in their 30s and 40s may start to have these urinary manifestations and need medical consideration. For other people, indications are not observable until much later in life. A tumor or an infection can likewise make the prostate bigger. Make sure to inform your doctor if you have any urinary issues listed below.

    • Fewer urine flows
    • Passing urine more during the day
    • Feel burning when you pee
    • Have an urgent need to urinate
    • The need to get up many times during the night to pee

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