Hey,
we're talking about our manhood here! Of course it's
natural to get a bit *psyched out* by all of these articles that say our *sex life* may be changed forever by having surgery on our
enlarged prostate!
The kind of language that appears
about an enlarged prostate all over the internet
is pretty scary when you search for web sites about:
an enlarged prostate
enlarged
prostate symptoms
enlarged prostate treatments.
The information you usually see is highly technical (written by
medical people in technical terms) like what you see in the box below.
This is similar to
what I read all over the internet! Who wouldn't be a bit
psyched out after reading something like this if you had an
enlarged prostate?
Just look at this .......
This is the language from a doctor's website:
Many men
worry about whether surgery for BPH will affect their
ability to enjoy sex. Some sources state that sexual
function is rarely affected, while others claim that it
can cause problems in up to
30 percent of all cases.
However,
most doctors say that even though it takes awhile for
sexual function to return fully, with time, most men are
able to enjoy sex again. Complete recovery of
sexual function may take up to 1 year, lagging behind a
person's general recovery.
I am 58 years old, so the idea of being infertile was no big deal ....
especially since I had a vasectomy over ten years ago. But
this whole dry / retrograde ejaculation thing just seemed ...
all
wrong.
Let's
see ... what to believe? Sexual function is
rarely effected ..... or
.....
effects up to 30% of men
who have the procedure, depending on which *unnamed source*
you believe.
The lesson I learned:
Don't
let you
mind create needless anxiety
that only adds to your stress levels. I did for a while
and I think that it made my recovery a little longer and
certainly more stressful than necessary.
As I
said earlier, your body is a magnificent creation and is capable
of healing itself in more ways than we probably understand.
You should certainly talk to your doctor about your enlarged
prostate and find out how many
of his patients actually developed this condition after prostate
surgery.
I
personally think that the discussion and estimates of all
this sexual dysfunction is way overblown based on my experience
and discussions with my doctor.
Much
of the data you read are based on discussions researchers have
with men after their surgery and there was not any questioning
before the surgery.
Just
think about this ... if you ask a 60 year old man (who just
had prostate surgery) if it impaired his sexual function
(and he is probably not as virile as he wanted to imagine
himself to be anyway) .... what a nice excuse ... the
enlarged prostate surgery
itself offers for something that is probably happening naturally
anyway.
The general advice from several websites that made the most
sense to me .... I distilled down to the following statement and ---
this
is my interpretation:
... "If you
were not
having any sexual
dysfunction
before
the surgery on your enlarged prostate, it's unlikely that you
will have any sexual dysfunction
after
your prostate surgery (TURP.)"
