Side Effect # 5
Getting All Psyched Out
(retrograde ejaculation & all the *sex related* stuff)
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 .......
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 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.)"
OK, let's go to....