Prostate cancer

Hi and sorry to learn of your diagnosis and understand why you are asking questions as to which treatment is the right one. I have had both surgery and radiation. You do have time to make a decision as prostate cancer unlike other cancers is slow growing. If you decide on surgery first and your cancer returns you can do radiation as a follow up treatment. About 30% of the time cancer can return. If you reverse the treatment protocol doing radiation first the outcome is not as successful especially as it relates to life long urine control.
Both treatments work about (70%) of the time and for many men it is over and done with just one approach. Unfortunately you do not know the outcome of any treatment in advance. If you are concerned with sexual performance many men continue to have different but satisfying encounters with their partners. I had nerve sparing surgery and was able to have sex shortly after the catheter was removed. The level of success is different for all of us. There are also many aids to help men after treatment from the use of Viagra to injections to pumps and also penile implants.

You are wise to take your time and ask questions . Radiation like surgery can also impact your sexual performance it just takes a longer. My recovery from surgery was quick and I was able to be back to riding a 20+ miles a day 4 weeks after my cat was removed. Feel free to reach out with other questions. I was operated on in 2013 and needed follow up radiation in 2018 and again in 2023. Dennis (ProstateCancer.net TEAM)

I have surgery scheduled sex is important but there is other ways to please for now I guess and urine is very important I’m a contractor but my family is pushing to take a break so question? After surgery how long it took u to control ur bladder?
Sex can wait!!
I’m just worry about the control of urine and hoping to get a second opinion on radiation? Thanks

It took me about 2 months to gain full urine control at night after surgery. By 5 months I was totally dry all day long. During those 3 following months I only needed a small pad in my underwear. Again that was just my experience. There are guys in my support group who were dry in a week - others were 9+ months - you just do not know how your body will react . I actually donated a new unopened box of diapers to a local visiting nurse service

Did your MD suggest doing Kegel exercises to strengthen the pelvic muscles prior to treatment ? Mine did and it helped.

Based on feed back from my local support group ..Most (but not all) of the guys who did radiation did not have immediate issues with urine control etc.

If you are doing heavy physical work perhaps you could off load some of it to an associate until you heal - Your body will let you know if you are overdoing it. Dennis(ProstateCancer.net TEAM)