Can your nerves be spared? As you can see from the wonderful diagram below, the prostate gland is in a very inconvenient position when it comes to removal. Getting that gland out without utterly destroying those precious nerve bundles is a seriously tricky task. Nerve sparing refers to the technique designed to protect …
Did these guys get support? What do I have in common with Ben Stiller, Sam Newman and Wayne Swan? We have all had prostate cancer. And I’m the best looking, right? I wonder whether Ben, Sam and Wayne knew about Prostate Cancer Support Groups. For more than ten years, I have been the Convenor for …
Could menopause be the problem? If you’ve had treatment for prostate cancer, you probably know it can be hard to get hard (or stay hard). Assuming that you want to have sex, what do you do if your partner isn’t interested? If your partner is female, perhaps her reluctance has something to do with menopause …
How do partners experience sex & intimacy after prostate cancer? Following surgical removal of the prostate gland, men and their partners experience a “new normal”. Firstly, they need to deal with urinary incontinence, which can last from a short period of time to a considerably longer period of time (how long is a piece of …
What is the patient experience? It’s great to notice improvements in healthcare and medicine – new techniques, new equipment, new medications, in particular for prostate cancer. It’s especially wonderful to see changes that focus on the patient and the “patient experience”. Talk about “your healthcare team” has been around for quite a while. Unfortunately, often …
What about my sex life? This is the most frequently asked question and the thought uppermost in many men’s minds when they are first diagnosed with prostate cancer. There is no straightforward answer, because it depends on the stage of the cancer and the treatment that the man undergoes. It also depends on your definition …
Choosing the “right” treatment When men get a prostate cancer diagnosis, the next discussion is usually about treatment. The stage of the cancer will determine the type of treatments on offer. Generally, with a diagnosis of low-risk, low-grade prostate cancer, men will often have several options to choose from. Depending on a range of criteria, …
New technology Technology is certainly moving quickly in the field of prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. Biopsies can now be made more accurate by utilising specific MRI scanning and ultrasound together to target the cancer cells. I’m sure you’re familiar with the old “shotgun approach” where multiple needles are inserted and you just hope that …
