Is there sex after cancer?

Ten years ago, I first met this patient, newly diagnosed with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. As I walked into the examination room, I was struck by the juxtaposition of his wife, crumpled in a chair and weeping silently, with the patient himself, pacing the 12′-by-4′ room with a look of either anger or frustration. This difference in response between the man and his spouse is not unusual; what was unusual was that he seemed to lack the usual shock that I anticipate seeing in the wake of those three words, “you have cancer,” recently delivered by the physician. What I thought was anger or frustration was, in reality, both. And over the following years, I witnessed variations on this theme under many different circumstances. To condense his story, he had a radical prostatectomy shortly after we first met and experienced a biochemical recurrence within months of the surgery; he had salvage radiation therapy with a good initial response, however, recently his PSA has begun to increase. But that is not the reason for this reflection. Like many men with this kind of history, he experienced profound erectile dysfunction after the surgery and had never regained any function. He tried PDE5-inhibitors early on with no success and eventually and reluctantly agreed to try intracavernosal injections. I lost touch with him for a couple of years after that; I assumed he was doing well because I had not heard from him, despite his regular attendance at our clinic for foll...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Cancer Source Type: blogs