cure for erectile dysfunction

so, sexual function is a very important factorin men considering prostatectomy. it is a known risk factor for having surgery and alot of it depends on several factors, first is the experience of your surgeon, secondis your age, and third is whether a nerve-sparing procedure is performed or not. i will startwith the latter. if your cancer is limited to one side or one lobe of the prostate, yoursurgeon will generally do what's called a

cure for erectile dysfunction, unilateral nerve-sparing prostatectomy. inthose cases, they will go wide taking a wide margin on the side of the prostate where thereis cancer in order not to get a positive margin and on the side where there is no cancer,they will spare the nerves. sparing the nerves involves cutting into the prostate capsulewhat is called denonvilliers' fascia and sweeping

the neurovascular bundle of the prostate.the risk of doing this on both sides is that you can leave some cancer cells behind whichdefeats the whole purpose of performing the operation, so in most cases if you have aunilateral cancer or one-sided cancer, you can undergo a unilateral nerve-sparing prostatectomy.i will quote patients that when a unilateral nerve-sparing prostatectomy is performed,in general, you have the 50% chance of keeping your erections where they are prior to havingthe surgery, so there is a 50% chance that you will end up with a significant degreeof erectile dysfunction. this does not mean you would not be able to have sex in the future,however. there are many different agents out there that can help you perform well sexuallysuch as viagra, cialis, and levitra, those

are the pills that are used. there are vacuumdevices that can be used. there is injection therapy of a drug called prostaglandin whichcan give you an erection and involves injecting your penis much like a diabetic does withinsulin. there is a suppository that can be placed in the urethra that contains prostaglandinand that is called muse. the other factors for erectile dysfunction that were associatedwith surgery are your age and it is well known that the older a man is, the greater the riskthat he will have erectile dysfunction following a radical prostatectomy. that is irrespectiveof the skills of your surgeon, so age is a significant risk factor. a patient's generalhealth and well being, obese patients or patients with coronary artery disease or high cholesterol,vascular disease, or diabetes are at a significantly

greater risk of developing erectile dysfunctionfollowing a radical prostatectomy as well. so it is a confusing topic, but what i tellthe patients is you should really sit down and discuss this risk with your surgeon aswell as the other risks that are associated with prostatectomy. some prostate cancers are high risk, aggressive,and more likely to spread. others are low risk, least likely to have bad outcomes. thebiopsy says cancer, but correct diagnostic tools provide limited information about howaggressive a man's individual disease is, so most men decide to treat prostate cancerimmediately. once treated, many men experience serious long term side effects, like incontinenceand sexual impotence. immediate treatment

is not always needed, but right now a mancannot be sure if his cancer is the kind that is likely to require treatment or if he isokay to wait for now. what if there was a test that could determine how aggressive prostatecancer is? genomic health is developing a

new test to do just that. by reviewing theunderlying biology of the tumor and using genes for multiple biologic pathways, thetest can predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer when diagnosed, allowing a man to makea more informed treatment decision with confidence, taking care of himself with more information,and greater peace of mind.