About 90% of men that undergo prostate cancer treatment, and almost 50% of men treated for different kinds of cancer suffer a degree of sexual dysfunction or erectile challenges. Most hardly ever open up about these issues and they suffer in silence. This needn’t be so, because there are many ways through which sexual challenges can be addressed for men with cancer.
Cancer treatment is taxing on the body. For example, radiation and chemotherapy can leave patients feeling nauseous and fatigued, which can affect sexual performance. Surgical procedures like those undertaken to manage prostate cancer can also damage nerves, causing sexual problems to arise.
Most men don’t receive adequate sexual education while growing up, so it is common for them to find it hard to bring up any sexual challenges they may be facing during or after their cancer treatment. It is therefore important for health care workers to bring up this topic at different stages of the patient’s treatment journey so that they can take the cue and raise any concerns they may have.
Depending on what stage of the treatment journey a patient is at, several interventions can be taken to preserve or restore sexual function.
For example, surgical approaches that minimize nerve damage exist and these can be used to prevent sexual challenges arising from undergoing surgery to remove a tumor. Several medications can also be prescribed to treat erectile dysfunction. Other patients may require a vacuum pump to drive blood into the penis, while others could be recommended for penile implants or penile injections to address the challenge they are having.
Discussing sexual challenges at every stage is important because no treatment approach for these issues works for all patients. Talking openly with your clinician can help them to tweak your treatment or recommend another approach in case a particular treatment hasn’t addressed your sexual health issues adequately.
For example, the dosage of erectile dysfunction medication can be adjusted or you could switch to an injectable in case the oral medication isn’t having the desired effect. Solutions are available, so men shouldn’t resign to the sexual challenges that come with their cancer treatment. Health care workers don’t need to have all the answers and they can refer you to other specialists, such as sexual therapists or psychotherapists as the need arises.
As the quest for better cancer treatments that have minimal side effects progresses at companies like Calidi Biotherapeutics Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI), there is hope that novel treatments that don’t trigger sexual health issues could soon become available to all men.
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