Many surgeons and radiation centers tout promising statistics when they talk to men about the risk of sexual side effects from prostate cancer treatment. But as I write in the Sunday Review, new research published last week finally offers men some straight talk about what to expect from treatment for prostate cancer.
The reality for many of the 240,000 men in the United States in whom prostate cancer is diagnosed each year is not all that rosy, at least when it comes to their intimate lives. After surgery and radiation treatments, many men quickly discover that sex will never be normal again. Sensations change. Many men can no longer achieve erections without pumps or pills. For some, the ability to have sex goes away entirely.
Yet, for years, men facing prostate cancer surgery have been reassured by their doctors, who could cite studies in prominent medical journals, that their sex lives would be just fine after treatment. Doctors would often boast of sexual recovery rates in excess of 90 percent, but failed to disclose that those numbers applied to a select group of patients rather than to most men who walked in the door.
To learn more, read the full story, “The Side Effects? Well, There Is One…”, and then please join the discussion below.
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