Impotence Is Not Inevitable After Prostate Cancer Treatment

Extract

Men who have undergone radical prostatectomies for prostate cancer don't necessarily have to give up their sex lives.

With the type of nerve-sparing surgery now commonly practiced around the country, many men regain their potency, especially if nerves on both sides of the prostate can be spared and if the man is relatively young, according to D. Karl Montague, M.D., program director of urology and head of prosthetic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Montague chaired a panel of experts for the American Urological Association, which recently reported new guidelines for the treatment of impotence, or, as urologists prefer to call the problem, “erectile dysfunction.” The guidelines were presented at the World Meeting on Impotence, held in San Francisco late last year.

The number of patients who can recover sexual function after nerve-sparing surgery varies by age, the extent of the cancer, and the surgical technique, Montague said. Nerve-sparing surgery pioneer Patrick C. Walsh, M.D., professor of urology at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School, agreed.