Prostate Surgery

By Author: Thomas Strickland
Total Articles: 102
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So here's the big dilemma. You've been having pain and problems "down there" and, finally after much argument and debate, you go see a doctor. There's prodding and even more embarrassing tests. Finally, a big gun surgeon appears and confirms your worst fears. You have prostate cancer, but it's treatable. So this surgeon is just getting into the spiel about the new advances in robotic prostatectomy and you interrupt with the most important question. "How will this affect my sex life?" There's a pause. Now does the surgeon tell you the truth or does the surgeon smile with the magic confidence that comes from having perfect teeth and tell you that all his/her patients are "fine" after the procedure?

In the midst of this, of course, there's an assumption the surgeon actually knows the truth. The reality is more likely to be that, after the surgery (which is the easiest part of the whole process), you get passed on to the urology department and our famous surgeon never follows up on what happens to you afterwards. That explains why the perfect smile of confidence is so convincing. He/she is protected by a lack of information ...
... and so can appear sincere. More importantly, there have been very few research studies looking at significant numbers of men going through the surgery. That's just changed. Now surgeons have no excuse for not knowing the "truth". But that brings us back to the dilemma.

Every year, about 240,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Suppose you're only in your 40s and have been expecting an active sex life for the next twenty or thirty years. Loss of hard erections would seriously affect your quality of life. But if you're already in your 60s and sex has become a slightly distant memory, the potential loss of erections is not going to be so troubling. The tendency among older men with active sex lives has been to refuse surgery. They apparently believe they would prefer a few more years of happiness. They hope to die of natural causes before the inconvenience and pain of the cancer comes to dominate their lives. So which is better from your friendly neighborhood surgeon? Reassuring confidence you'll be just fine, or total frankness about the risks?

There's a new research study from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that followed 1,000 men after surgery in different hospitals around the county. It confirms that, after surgery and radiation therapy, less than 50% of men have "normal" erections. The sensations change and the mechanics work less well. Earlier research suggests that men who are prepared for the worst and who receive positive treatment for the erectile dysfunction following surgery do better in the longer term. In several studies, Levitra has been shown the most effective of the three drugs in helping men get back into action. But the drug on its own is often not enough. There must be a carefully structured program for the couple to recover their mutual enjoyment of sex. This is not something the hospital or Levitra can do on its own. It's a team effort to get everything working again, reflecting the old saying, "if you don't use it, you lose it".