When you’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer, treatment is required to keep cancerous cells from spreading to other areas. Unfortunately, many of these cancer treatments, including radiation therapy and a radical prostatectomy, can affect future erectile function.
Some men get full erectile function back within a year or two of completing cancer treatments. However, for others, erectile dysfunction (ED) turns into a long-term struggle.
At our practices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Paul Chung, MD, FACS, and our team offer penile rehabilitation to restore erectile function after beating prostate cancer.
In this month’s blog, we discuss how cancer treatments affect erectile function and how penile rehabilitation can improve your sexual wellness.
Your prostate is a gland in your pelvis region, located close to your penis and your rectum. On either side of your prostate are bundles of nerves and blood vessels that regulate your erections.
Radiation therapy can often damage the nerves in your prostate, even if extensive measures to protect those nerves are taken.
Within six months of undergoing radiation therapy, you may notice that your erections are less frequent. Unfortunately, this type of ED after cancer treatment typically doesn’t resolve on its own.
A radical prostatectomy is a surgery that removes your prostate gland, which can disrupt nerve signals that allow you to get an erection. If you struggle with erectile function after undergoing a radical prostatectomy, penile rehabilitation may provide some assistance. .
Studies tell us that up to 80% of men report struggling with ED after going through treatments for prostate cancer. So, if getting and maintaining an erection satisfactory for sex is a regular issue, you’re not alone, and help is available.
Penile rehabilitation is a term that encompasses several interventions and treatment methods designed to preserve or improve erectile function after completing cancer treatments. Let’s look at a few that Dr. Chung offers at his practices:
Oral medications help increase blood flow to your penis for better erections. For optimal results, you need to take them about 30 minutes before having sex, and you need to be sexually stimulated.
A penile injection is a medication that you inject into the base of your penis. You should get an erection within 10 minutes, even without sexual stimulation. The erection should last about an hour.
A vacuum erection device is made of a plastic cylinder and a handheld pump that pumps necessary blood flow to your penis, giving you an erection. After using the device, you place a band around the base of your penis to maintain the erection.
Penile implants are surgically placed devices that boost erectile function.
To learn more about any of our penile rehabilitation methods or to start building your customized treatment plan, schedule an appointment with Dr. Chung and our team by calling your nearest office location today.
