What Happens If You Have Your Prostate Removed

What Kind Of Treatment Will I Need

There are many ways to treat prostate cancer. The main kinds of treatment are observation, active surveillance, surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, and chemo. Sometimes more than one kind of treatment is used.

The treatment thats best for you will depend on:

• Your age
• Any other health problems you might have
• The stage and grade of the cancer
• Your feelings about the need to treat the cancer
• The chance that treatment will cure the cancer or help in some way
• Your feelings about the side effects that might come with treatment

Elevated Psa After Prostate Removal What Influences The Predictions

As previously noted, elevated PSA after prostate removal can mean many different things in terms of the status of prostate cancer. These different prognoses are based on several different factors, outlined below:

• Gleason Score of Prostate Cancer: The Gleason score is a measure of how aggressive the cells of prostate cancer are. The higher the score, the more aggressive cancer. Men with higher Gleason scores who experience PSA recurrence are at greater risk for metastasis of prostate cancer than those men with lower Gleason scores. Is the Gleason Score 7 or less or is it 8 or higher?

• Time from Surgery: How soon after surgery the PSA reappears is one indicator specialists use to determine the aggressiveness of cancer. Generally, the longer the time between surgery and PSA recurrence, the less likely cancer is aggressive and going to spread. In turn, the better rate of survival will be. Is the time greater or less than 2 years?

• PSA Doubling Time: The term refers to the time it takes for the PSA to double in value. The value measures the rate at which the PSA rises, and can be a very significant indicator of the aggressiveness of cancer. Men with a shorter PSA doubling time postoperatively are more likely to have more aggressive disease. In these cases, a more aggressive secondary treatment plan may be advised. Is the PSA doubling in less or greater than 10 months?

What To Expect At Home

You may be tired and need more rest for 3 to 4 weeks after you go home. You may have pain or discomfort in your belly or the area between your scrotum and anus for 2 to 3 weeks.

You will go home with a catheter to drain urine from your bladder. This will be removed after 1 to 3 weeks.

You may go home with an additional drain . You will be taught how to empty it and care for it.

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Caring For Your Incision

The incision runs from above the base of the pubic area to below the navel. It is important to keep it clean and dry. Showering once a day should be sufficient. If you notice extreme or increasing tenderness, progressive swelling, more than a small amount of drainage or any pus or redness, notify your doctor right away.

Can You Live Without A Prostate

You can live without a prostate, though there are some side-effects.

The prostate is removed to prevent the spread of prostate cancer, while it might also be removed because it has enlarged through normal ageing and is putting pressure on the uretha .

A prostatectomy is the removal of all or part of a prostate, with the most common procedure being the transurethral resection of the prostate .

Laser prostatectomies are also performed which is the least invasive type of removal.

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Things That Can Happen When You Live Without A Prostate

Beyond the oft-reported effects of urinary incontinence and impotence following surgery, there are a number of less widely known possible side effects of prostate removal.

Fun fact number one: Half of all men who die in this country this year will be killed by heart disease, stroke, or cancer. Fun fact number two: Half of all doctors seem to have different ideas about how to prevent the biggest killers of men. We spoke to the best of them, and we’ve simplified, clarified, and prioritized their advice on minimizing the risks of dying before your time. For more tips, . Reporting by Sarah Z. Wexler.

As more men deemed to be at genetic risk of prostate cancer opt to have the organ removed preemptively, lesser-known side-effects of the procedure are coming to the fore. In addition to the oft-reported effects of urinary incontinence and impotence following surgery, here are some symptoms more rarely accounted for:

Shrunken penises. As many men are prescribed antiandrogen treatments to block testosterone effects on advanced prostate-cancer tissue, Dr. Celestia Higano of the University of Washington reports that up to 68 percent of men experience penile shortening after radical prostatectomy surgery.

“Dry orgasm”or, rather, orgasm without ejaculation, which occurs after surgery when retrograde ejaculation sends semen back into the bladder instead of out the penis.

This article originally appeared in Esquire‘s November issue.

How Radical Prostatectomy Affects A Relationship

A 2011 study of 63 men that had undergone a radical prostatectomy found that about 75 percent of them sought treatment for erectile dysfunction. Additionally, more than 50 percent reported having less sexual desire, and roughly an additional 40 percent were unable to have a satisfying orgasm.

The mental health effects of these symptoms were worse in highly sexually motivated participants. 52 percent reported that this had affected their self-esteem, and 36 percent said having performance anxiety.

Additionally, the last three items on the list above can be show-stoppers for a relationship. Few women can tolerate a high degree of urine leakage during sexual activity, and few men can handle the pain during intercourse.

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Other Possible Side Effects

Anorgasmia is the inability to achieve orgasm regardless of the level of stimulation.

2) Penile shrinkage

Removal of the prostate seems to initiate a phase of penile shrinkage that varies between 2 to 3 cm. For men with large organs, this may have little effect. But a man that starts on the small side might be very dismayed about it.

Early penile rehabilitation may avoid structural endothelial and smooth muscle damage by improving penile oxygenation.

3) Urine leakage or pain during intercourse

4) Urine leakage at orgasm

5) Pain or discomfort at orgasm

What Necessitates Prostate Removal

Prostate cancer and sometimes benign prostatic hyperplasia can necessitate the removal of prostate gland. However, the most common cause is prostatic cancer as BPH can nowadays be managed with other treatment options. The prostate gland removal surgery is known as prostatectomy. The risks, benefits and side-effects of prostatectomy should be discussed with the patient, before making the decision to get prostate gland removed.

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Dry Orgasms After Radical Prostatectomy

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.

Types Of Prostate Surgery

There are several ways of removing the prostate keyhole surgery either by hand or robot-assisted, and open surgery.

Although robot-assisted keyhole surgery is the newest technique, the most recent research suggests all three techniques are as good as each other for treating prostate cancer, as long as the surgeon is experienced. They also have similar rates of side effects.

The advantages of keyhole surgery, both by hand and robot-assisted, are that you are likely to lose less blood, have less pain, spend less time in hospital, and heal more quickly than with open surgery.

Keyhole surgery

Keyhole surgery .

• Robot-assisted keyhole surgery Your surgeon makes five or six small cuts in your lower abdomen and a slightly bigger cut near your belly button, and removes the prostate using special surgical tools. These include a thin, lighted tube with a small camera on the tip. The image will appear on a screen so the surgeon can see what theyre doing. Your surgeon controls the tools from a console in the operating room via four or five robotic arms. Although its called robot-assisted, its still a surgeon who does the operation. You may hear the equipment called the da Vinci® Robot.
• Keyhole surgery by hand As with robot-assisted keyhole surgery, the surgeon will make four or five small cuts in your abdomen. But they will hold the surgical tools in their hands, rather than using robotic arms.

Open surgery

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How Fast Will I Become Totally Continent After Prostate Surgery

During surgery for prostate cancer, the urethra is also affected and, depending on the experience of the surgeon, more or less of the continence function will be preserved. Due to the high precision of robotic surgery, the patient will have a catheter for roughly one week and the trauma to the urinary function will be minimum.

The discomfort that patients feel during this time is minimum, but you should expect the removal to make you feel uneasy. The catheter will be removed during a visit to your doctor, so do not try to do this at home, as it could cause infections. The degree of which the urinary function will be affected depends on how normal the function was before surgery, age and weight.

It is worth noting that most men will experience some degree of incontinence after prostate surgery, but control can be regained within several weeks or months to a year.

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An Increased Psa Level

A biochemical relapse is when your PSA level rises after having treatment that aims to cure your cancer.

You might not need to start treatment straight away. Your doctor will continue to monitor your PSA levels regularly to see if your PSA rises quickly or stabilises. You might have a scan if your PSA rises quickly.

The choice about whether to have treatment and what treatment to have will depend on:

• the treatment you have already had
• your general health

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How Serious Is My Cancer

If you have prostate cancer, the doctor will want to find out how far it has spread. This is called the stage of the cancer. You may have heard other people say that their cancer was stage 1 or stage 2. Your doctor will want to find out the stage of your cancer to help decide what types of treatment might be best for you.

The stage is based on the growth or spread of the cancer through the prostate, and if it has spread to other parts of your body. It also includes your blood PSA level and the grade of the cancer. The prostate cancer cells are given a grade, based on how they look under a microscope. Those that look very different from normal cells are given a higher grade and are likely to grow faster. The grade of your cancer might be given as a Gleason score or a Grade Group . Ask your doctor to explain the grade of your cancer. The grade also can helpdecide which treatments might be best for you.

Your cancer can be stage 1, 2, 3, or 4. The lower the number, the less the cancer has spread. A higher number, like stage 4, means a more serious cancer that has spread outside the prostate.

If your cancer hasn’t spread to other parts of the body, it might also be given a risk group. The risk group is based on the extent of the cancer in the prostate, your PSA level, and the results of the prostate biopsy. The risk group can help tell if other tests should be done, and what the best treatment options might be.

When Can I Return To Sexual Activity

Let the surgery heal for three to four weeks before attempting anything. After one month after the robotic prostatectomy, it is recommended that you resume sexual activity. Stimulation of the nerves is thought to be a first step on the journey back to potency. Remember that you can still experience the pleasures of orgasm and other sensual stimulations without full erections. The average time to recovery for erections adequate for intercourse is 6-12 months, but in some men it is even longer. You should also be performing kegel exercises regularly to help your return to potency.

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Open Radical Prostatectomy Vs Minimally Invasive Radical Prostatectomy

In 2003, only 9.2% of radical prostatectomies were done using a minimally invasive procedure. By 2007, that number had jumped to 43.2%. In 2009, researchers in Boston reported on a study that compared outcomes, benefits, and complications of open surgery vs. minimally invasive surgery:

• No difference was found in deaths or in the need for additional cancer therapy between the two approaches.
• The median hospital stay was two days for minimally invasive surgery and three days for open surgery.
• 2.7% of men having laparoscopic surgery required a blood transfusion compared with 20.8% of men having open surgery.
• There was more anastomotic stricture — narrowing of the suture where internal body parts are rejoined — for open surgery than for minimally invasive surgery .
• There were fewer respiratory complications with minimally invasive surgery than with open surgery .
• There were lower rates of incontinence and erectile dysfunction with open surgery. The overall rate was 4.7% for laparoscopic surgery and 2.1% for open surgery.

What Happens If Prostate Cancer Comes Back

The prostate is a small gland about the size of a walnut that helps make seminal fluid. Its intertwined with your urinary tract system, resting below your bladder and surrounding the urethra. As you age, this gland continues to grow, sometimes resulting in benign prostatic hyperplasia. While this growth is normal, cancerous growth is not. Cancer occurs when the cells in your prostate gland begin to grow out of control.

While prostate cancer is common, especially among older men, its got a fairly positive outcome. When caught early and treated, most men survive and continue on with remission after five years. Unfortunately, for a small percentage of men, the cancer returns. To give you some clarity on this situation, heres what happens if prostate cancer comes back.

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Basic Skin Care With A Urostomy

If you have a pouch, youâll need to pay attention to the skin around the stoma to keep it from getting sore. To avoid skin problems:

• Be gentle when you remove the pouch.
• Change your pouch as often as your nurse tells you to. Doing it too often or not enough can cause skin problems.
• Donât use more tape than you need.
• Make sure your pouch fits your bodyâs shape.
• Measure your stoma carefully so you can cut your pouchâs skin barrier to fit closely.

Can Anything Be Done For Erectile Dysfunction Caused By Prostate Cancer Treatment

Yes, there are things you can try if you have erectile dysfunction after your prostate cancer treatment. You should keep in mind that the following things will affect your ability to have an erection after your prostate cancer treatment:

• How good your erections were before your treatment
• Other medical conditions you have like high blood pressure or diabetes
• Some types of medicines you may take such as medicines for high blood pressure or antidepressants
• Things you do in your life such as drinking or smoking
• Your age
• The type of prostate cancer treatment you had

It is important that you and your partner speak with your doctor or healthcare team about what you can do. Your doctor or healthcare team will speak with you about what might work best for you if you have erectile dysfunction. It is important that you speak with them since some treatments for erectile dysfunction can affect other medical problems you may have.

Types of treatment for erectile dysfunction include:

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What About Other Treatments I Hear About

When you have cancer you might hear about other ways to treat the cancer or treat your symptoms. These may not always be standard medical treatments. These treatments may be vitamins, herbs, special diets, and other things. You may wonder about these treatments.

Some of these are known to help, but many have not been tested. Some have been shown not to help. A few have even been found to be harmful. Talk to your doctor about anything youre thinking about using, whether its a vitamin, a diet, or anything else.

If Your Prostate Cancer Has Spread

If cancer has spread to other parts of your body it cant be cured. This is advanced prostate cancer. Treatment can help to control the cancer and your symptoms. This might be:

• hormone treatment to lower your testosterone levels
• bisphosphonates to help with bone pain
• radiotherapy to particular parts of the skeleton
• radioactive liquid treatment radiotherapy , such as radium-223

If hormone therapy is no longer working for you, you might have:

• chemotherapy

• Find out about treatments for advanced prostate cancer

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