Men less aware about sexual health risk post prostate surgery

Prostate cancer surgery may rob men of the ability to ejaculate but most men appear to be unaware of this sexual dysfunction risk, new research has found.

Patients who have undergone a type of surgery called radical prostatectomy (RP) to remove the prostate gland often have largely unrealistic expectations with regard to their postoperative sexual function, the findings showed.

This study by Serkan Deveci from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, and colleagues was undertaken to assess the understanding of patients who had previously undergone RP with regard to their postoperative sexual function.

Within three months of their surgery, 336 patients were questioned regarding the sexual function information that they had received pre-operatively as well as their erectile function and penile changes following the operation.

Among the patients, 216 underwent traditional open surgery and 120 underwent robotic surgery.

Robotic surgery patients expected shorter erectile function recovery time, a higher likelihood of recovery back to normal erectile function, and lower potential need for therapy to achieve an erection.

Almost half of all patients were unaware that they were rendered unable to ejaculate by their surgery, the study said.

None of the robotic surgery patients and only 10 percent of open surgery patients recalled being informed of the potential for penile length loss.

The findings were published in the journal BJU International.