RE: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened

[Guest guest]

I’ll give an example of what happened to us.  We knew nothing of PCa.  We went to a prestigious medical facility. (We already had a high psa) We made an appointment of course with the doctor who was going to do the biopsy. (before you can see any doctors- or talk to anyone except the people making appts,  you have to make a biopsy appt.  If contained and no mets you see one doctor/team and if mets you see another doctor team.  We did not know this going in.  We filled out forms in reception.  We were escorted into an examining room.  We were told what to do to get ready for the biopsy. The doctor came in- said hello..looked over what they gave him.  The doctor did a color doplar and then the biopsy.  He had someone there he was training who he was talking to- not us. No one sat down and talked. After he finished he just said to  my husband you have PCa.  He walked over and wrote a prescription, handed it to me- while we were still in an examining room.  I naively asked if these meds would affect his liver.  He said they could, but they would do blood tests in 3 weeks and walked out of the room! His nurse assistant walked us to the lobby where my husband asked what the meds do and she said, the treatment is chemical castration.  My husband actually felt faint and we were taken into a room where he could lay down and regain some composure.  That’s the honest to God’s truth of our experience.  Nothing more, nothing less!! We never saw the doc again who did the biopsy.  When we got our results we were called and they set up an appointment with one of their oncologists on the team who deals with mets.  I had to call a retired urologist friend of my brother’s in another state to ask questions.  Casodex was prescribed to be taken 10 days before Lupron.  The appts were set up for CT and bone scans.  After the scans we saw the oncologist assigned to us. The information I got was from our urologist friend and on the Internet. If this happened to us, this has happened to many others.  We stayed for over 2 ½ years.  I can’t say we didn’t have fear, this is a place that does clinical trials, we didn’t want to burn bridges- but honestly, we’ve never looked back after leaving. What I’ve learned after 4 years is:We are choosing our allies/doctors, consultants by their ability to communicate with us and work with us.  If we had an early stage well maybe we’d take a little less compassionate medicine, but truly, I’ll be darned if we are going to go through what we’ve gone through with people who are not practicing any sort of compassionate medicine.  We now have people devoted to our quality of life AND keeping the psa at a reasonable number- who work with us- who we are and our belief system. I don’t know if I sound bitter about our treatment.  I am not bitter, I am trying to help change the system.  The problem is, most people don’t know any better until going through it.  This is why these groups are so amazing. We travel 45 minutes to our new doc.  We travel 7 hours or a 1 hour flight to our consultant doc.  We do phone consultations.  AND, we’ve chosen our local oncologist who is at a good hospital which is also important to us.  It has taken more work, yes, stress, but we can now sit across from our allies and know we can hear bad news, if that’s the case.. good news a given.. is great.  grace From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of Terry HerbertSent: Monday, February 21, 2011 12:37 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened Mike, I had a MiniPoll on my site last year to focus on what men were and weren’t told about what might be termed the ‘minor’ side effects (Erectile Dysfunction and Incontinence being the ‘major’ side effects). In using this term I don’t wish to downplay the fact that they can cause serious concern to men who have them. The results were here http://www.yananow.org/MiniPoll2.htm Clearly this isn’t a scientific poll and may well be biased, but it does demonstrate perhaps that most men are not fully informed about the potentials of their choice of therapy beforehand. It seems clear from the commentaries I have read about these ‘minor’ side effects that the reason that they are now surfacing and being investigated more fully is because of the ability of men to communicate via the Internet and Support Groups. I believe that too often in the past the medical world has ignored these inconvenient outcomes and has downplayed them. Many men would have felt, because they were led to this conclusion, that they were the only one to complain about the issue – and they were the exception to the rule. Clearly, given some of the numbers in some of the limited studies, this isn’t so. This is another reason why I think it is so important to share information, even informally by way of anecdotal evidence. It removes that ‘aloneness’. All the best Prostate men need enlightening, not frighteningTerry Herbert - diagnosed in 1996 and still going strongRead A Strange Place for unbiased information at http://www.yananow.org/StrangePlace/index.html From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of MikeSent: Monday, 21 February 2011 3:54 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: penis length is shortened I had my prostate removed but was never told that it usually also affects the length of the penis. Make sure you talk to your surgeon about the chances of it happening, as it was and is quite a surprise to find out after the fact. I saw it mentioned by several other people in here before, so I started reading up on it in medical journals on the net. Most men that have it removed lose on the average 1/2-1 inch in length. It would have been nice to know before the operation or I may have looked for an alternative plan. I only had a 5 inch penis before, and now it's closer to 4 with a full erection.

[Guest guest]

So sorry to hear about your experience. When I was first disgnosed in October 2009, the urologist just flat out said that I had prostate cancer and showed very little compassion in the statement. I was given appointments for bone and CT scans and later had biopsy done. Nothing much has changed. Now that it has metastised, I see an oncologist (third time seeing him will be on March 1) but cannot really get any answers out of him. If lucky I get maybe 5 minutes talking to him. If I had insurace I would go to a better doctor, but instead go to the VA. That is not to say that that VA doesnt care for people. They have treated me well enough. I could never have afforded any of this if not for the VA. I am very glad you have found a good doctor to

treat you, even though some travel is involved. Hang in there, and best wishes.

Dave Halvorsen

To: ProstateCancerSupport Sent: Mon, February 21, 2011 11:14:30 PMSubject: RE: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened

I’ll give an example of what happened to us. We knew nothing of PCa. We went to a prestigious medical facility. (We already had a high psa) We made an appointment of course with the doctor who was going to do the biopsy. (before you can see any doctors- or talk to anyone except the people making appts, you have to make a biopsy appt. If contained and no mets you see one doctor/team and if mets you see another doctor team. We did not know this going in. We filled out forms in reception. We were escorted into an examining room. We were told what to do to get ready for the biopsy. The doctor came in- said hello..looked over what they gave him.

The doctor did a color doplar and then the biopsy. He had someone there he was training who he was talking to- not us.

No one sat down and talked. After he finished he just said to my husband you have PCa. He walked over and wrote a prescription, handed it to me- while we were still in an examining room. I naively asked if these meds would affect his liver. He said they could, but they would do blood tests in 3 weeks and walked out of the room!

His nurse assistant walked us to the lobby where my husband asked what the meds do and she said, the treatment is chemical castration. My husband actually felt faint and we were taken into a room where he could lay down and regain some composure. That’s the honest to God’s truth of our experience. Nothing more, nothing less!! We never saw the doc again who did the biopsy. When we got our results we were called and they set up an appointment with one of their oncologists on the team who deals with mets.

I had to call a retired urologist friend of my brother’s in another state to ask questions. Casodex was prescribed to be taken 10 days before Lupron. The appts were set up for CT and bone scans. After the scans we saw the oncologist assigned to us.

The information I got was from our urologist friend and on the Internet.

If this happened to us, this has happened to many others. We stayed for over 2 ½ years. I can’t say we didn’t have fear, this is a place that does clinical trials, we didn’t want to burn bridges- but honestly, we’ve never looked back after leaving.

What I’ve learned after 4 years is:

We are choosing our allies/doctors, consultants by their ability to communicate with us and work with us. If we had an early stage well maybe we’d take a little less compassionate medicine, but truly, I’ll be darned if we are going to go through what we’ve gone through with people who are not practicing any sort of compassionate medicine.

We now have people devoted to our quality of life AND keeping the psa at a reasonable number- who work with us- who we are and our belief system.

I don’t know if I sound bitter about our treatment. I am not bitter, I am trying to help change the system. The problem is, most people don’t know any better until going through it. This is why these groups are so amazing.

We travel 45 minutes to our new doc. We travel 7 hours or a 1 hour flight to our consultant doc. We do phone consultations. AND, we’ve chosen our local oncologist who is at a good hospital which is also important to us. It has taken more work, yes, stress, but we can now sit across from our allies and know we can hear bad news, if that’s the case.. good news a given.. is great.

grace

From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of Terry HerbertSent: Monday, February 21, 2011 12:37 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened

Mike,

I had a MiniPoll on my site last year to focus on what men were and weren’t told about what might be termed the ‘minor’ side effects (Erectile Dysfunction and Incontinence being the ‘major’ side effects). In using this term I don’t wish to downplay the fact that they can cause serious concern to men who have them.

The results were here http://www.yananow.org/MiniPoll2.htm Clearly this isn’t a scientific poll and may well be biased, but it does demonstrate perhaps that most men are not fully informed about the potentials of their choice of therapy beforehand.

It seems clear from the commentaries I have read about these ‘minor’ side effects that the reason that they are now surfacing and being investigated more fully is because of the ability of men to communicate via the Internet and Support Groups. I believe that too often in the past the medical world has ignored these inconvenient outcomes and has downplayed them. Many men would have felt, because they were led to this conclusion, that they were the only one to complain about the issue – and they were the exception to the rule. Clearly, given some of the numbers in some of the limited studies, this isn’t so.

This is another reason why I think it is so important to share information, even informally by way of anecdotal evidence. It removes that ‘aloneness’.

All the best

Prostate men need enlightening, not frightening

Terry Herbert - diagnosed in 1996 and still going strong

Read A Strange Place for unbiased information at http://www.yananow.net/StrangePlace/index.html

From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of MikeSent: Monday, 21 February 2011 3:54 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: penis length is shortened

I had my prostate removed but was never told that it usually also affects the length of the penis. Make sure you talk to your surgeon about the chances of it happening, as it was and is quite a surprise to find out after the fact. I saw it mentioned by several other people in here before, so I started reading up on it in medical journals on the net. Most men that have it removed lose on the average 1/2-1 inch in length. It would have been nice to know before the operation or I may have looked for an alternative plan. I only had a 5 inch penis before, and now it's closer to 4 with a full erection.

[Guest guest]

Thank you Dave..What state are you in.  AND, a friend who goes to the VA in ny state.. was sent out to California from treatment.. I think if you can do the research yourself.. even though it’s hard, you can bring these to the docs..May I ask how old you are.. and when you say now it has metastised.. What does that mean exactly… did you have your prostate removed? Can you say something about your situation..We’ve had so much involvement..consultations..etc..We know a great doc at a VA in CT..Where are you..And thank you dave..Now we are trying to decide the DES situation.. but the clot problems scares the hell out of me..grace From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of dave halvorsenSent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:14 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: Re: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened So sorry to hear about your experience. When I was first disgnosed in October 2009, the urologist just flat out said that I had prostate cancer and showed very little compassion in the statement. I was given appointments for bone and CT scans and later had biopsy done. Nothing much has changed. Now that it has metastised, I see an oncologist (third time seeing him will be on March 1) but cannot really get any answers out of him. If lucky I get maybe 5 minutes talking to him. If I had insurace I would go to a better doctor, but instead go to the VA. That is not to say that that VA doesnt care for people. They have treated me well enough. I could never have afforded any of this if not for the VA. I am very glad you have found a good doctor to treat you, even though some travel is involved. Hang in there, and best wishes. Dave HalvorsenTo: ProstateCancerSupport Sent: Mon, February 21, 2011 11:14:30 PMSubject: RE: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened I’ll give an example of what happened to us. We knew nothing of PCa. We went to a prestigious medical facility. (We already had a high psa) We made an appointment of course with the doctor who was going to do the biopsy. (before you can see any doctors- or talk to anyone except the people making appts, you have to make a biopsy appt. If contained and no mets you see one doctor/team and if mets you see another doctor team. We did not know this going in. We filled out forms in reception. We were escorted into an examining room. We were told what to do to get ready for the biopsy. The doctor came in- said hello..looked over what they gave him. The doctor did a color doplar and then the biopsy. He had someone there he was training who he was talking to- not us. No one sat down and talked. After he finished he just said to my husband you have PCa. He walked over and wrote a prescription, handed it to me- while we were still in an examining room. I naively asked if these meds would affect his liver. He said they could, but they would do blood tests in 3 weeks and walked out of the room! His nurse assistant walked us to the lobby where my husband asked what the meds do and she said, the treatment is chemical castration. My husband actually felt faint and we were taken into a room where he could lay down and regain some composure. That’s the honest to God’s truth of our experience. Nothing more, nothing less!! We never saw the doc again who did the biopsy. When we got our results we were called and they set up an appointment with one of their oncologists on the team who deals with mets. I had to call a retired urologist friend of my brother’s in another state to ask questions. Casodex was prescribed to be taken 10 days before Lupron. The appts were set up for CT and bone scans. After the scans we saw the oncologist assigned to us. The information I got was from our urologist friend and on the Internet. If this happened to us, this has happened to many others. We stayed for over 2 ½ years. I can’t say we didn’t have fear, this is a place that does clinical trials, we didn’t want to burn bridges- but honestly, we’ve never looked back after leaving. What I’ve learned after 4 years is:We are choosing our allies/doctors, consultants by their ability to communicate with us and work with us. If we had an early stage well maybe we’d take a little less compassionate medicine, but truly, I’ll be darned if we are going to go through what we’ve gone through with people who are not practicing any sort of compassionate medicine. We now have people devoted to our quality of life AND keeping the psa at a reasonable number- who work with us- who we are and our belief system. I don’t know if I sound bitter about our treatment. I am not bitter, I am trying to help change the system. The problem is, most people don’t know any better until going through it. This is why these groups are so amazing. We travel 45 minutes to our new doc. We travel 7 hours or a 1 hour flight to our consultant doc. We do phone consultations. AND, we’ve chosen our local oncologist who is at a good hospital which is also important to us. It has taken more work, yes, stress, but we can now sit across from our allies and know we can hear bad news, if that’s the case.. good news a given.. is great. grace From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of Terry HerbertSent: Monday, February 21, 2011 12:37 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened Mike, I had a MiniPoll on my site last year to focus on what men were and weren’t told about what might be termed the ‘minor’ side effects (Erectile Dysfunction and Incontinence being the ‘major’ side effects). In using this term I don’t wish to downplay the fact that they can cause serious concern to men who have them. The results were here http://www.yananow.org/MiniPoll2.htm Clearly this isn’t a scientific poll and may well be biased, but it does demonstrate perhaps that most men are not fully informed about the potentials of their choice of therapy beforehand. It seems clear from the commentaries I have read about these ‘minor’ side effects that the reason that they are now surfacing and being investigated more fully is because of the ability of men to communicate via the Internet and Support Groups. I believe that too often in the past the medical world has ignored these inconvenient outcomes and has downplayed them. Many men would have felt, because they were led to this conclusion, that they were the only one to complain about the issue – and they were the exception to the rule. Clearly, given some of the numbers in some of the limited studies, this isn’t so. This is another reason why I think it is so important to share information, even informally by way of anecdotal evidence. It removes that ‘aloneness’. All the best Prostate men need enlightening, not frighteningTerry Herbert - diagnosed in 1996 and still going strongRead A Strange Place for unbiased information at http://www.yananow.net/StrangePlace/index.html From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of MikeSent: Monday, 21 February 2011 3:54 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: penis length is shortened I had my prostate removed but was never told that it usually also affects the length of the penis. Make sure you talk to your surgeon about the chances of it happening, as it was and is quite a surprise to find out after the fact. I saw it mentioned by several other people in here before, so I started reading up on it in medical journals on the net. Most men that have it removed lose on the average 1/2-1 inch in length. It would have been nice to know before the operation or I may have looked for an alternative plan. I only had a 5 inch penis before, and now it's closer to 4 with a full erection.

[Guest guest]

Genie,

Thanks for your reply. I am in Washington state, near Seattle. I am 59 now, and has been about 1 1/2 yrs since I was first diagnosed. Last summer I had another bone scan done and it was discovered that the cancer had spread to my hips and lower back (metasised). They currently have me on hormone therapy, trying to keep it under control (not spreading further). So far it seems that hasnt worked too well. I keeping hoping for the best though. I definately plan on taking a tougher stand with my oncologist when I see him on March 1st.

Stay in touch, it is great communicating with you.

best regards,

Dave Halvorsen

To: ProstateCancerSupport Sent: Tue, February 22, 2011 1:19:49 PMSubject: RE: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened

Thank you Dave..

What state are you in. AND, a friend who goes to the VA in ny state.. was sent out to California from treatment..

I think if you can do the research yourself.. even though it’s hard, you can bring these to the docs..

May I ask how old you are.. and when you say now it has metastised..

What does that mean exactly… did you have your prostate removed?

Can you say something about your situation..

We’ve had so much involvement..consultations..etc..

We know a great doc at a VA in CT..

Where are you..

And thank you dave..

Now we are trying to decide the DES situation.. but the clot problems scares the hell out of me..

grace

From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of dave halvorsenSent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:14 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: Re: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened

So sorry to hear about your experience. When I was first disgnosed in October 2009, the urologist just flat out said that I had prostate cancer and showed very little compassion in the statement. I was given appointments for bone and CT scans and later had biopsy done. Nothing much has changed. Now that it has metastised, I see an oncologist (third time seeing him will be on March 1) but cannot really get any answers out of him. If lucky I get maybe 5 minutes talking to him. If I had insurace I would go to a better doctor, but instead go to the VA. That is not to say that that VA doesnt care for people. They have treated me well enough. I could never have afforded any of this if not for the VA. I am very glad you have found a good doctor to treat you, even though some travel is involved. Hang in there, and best wishes.

Dave Halvorsen

To: ProstateCancerSupport Sent: Mon, February 21, 2011 11:14:30 PMSubject: RE: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened

I’ll give an example of what happened to us. We knew nothing of PCa. We went to a prestigious medical facility. (We already had a high psa) We made an appointment of course with the doctor who was going to do the biopsy. (before you can see any doctors- or talk to anyone except the people making appts, you have to make a biopsy appt. If contained and no mets you see one doctor/team and if mets you see another doctor team. We did not know this going in. We filled out forms in reception. We were escorted into an examining room. We were told what to do to get ready for the biopsy. The doctor came in- said hello..looked over what they gave him.

The doctor did a color doplar and then the biopsy. He had someone there he was training who he was talking to- not us.

No one sat down and talked. After he finished he just said to my husband you have PCa. He walked over and wrote a prescription, handed it to me- while we were still in an examining room. I naively asked if these meds would affect his liver. He said they could, but they would do blood tests in 3 weeks and walked out of the room!

His nurse assistant walked us to the lobby where my husband asked what the meds do and she said, the treatment is chemical castration. My husband actually felt faint and we were taken into a room where he could lay down and regain some composure. That’s the honest to God’s truth of our experience. Nothing more, nothing less!! We never saw the doc again who did the biopsy. When we got our results we were called and they set up an appointment with one of their oncologists on the team who deals with mets.

I had to call a retired urologist friend of my brother’s in another state to ask questions. Casodex was prescribed to be taken 10 days before Lupron. The appts were set up for CT and bone scans. After the scans we saw the oncologist assigned to us.

The information I got was from our urologist friend and on the Internet.

If this happened to us, this has happened to many others. We stayed for over 2 ½ years. I can’t say we didn’t have fear, this is a place that does clinical trials, we didn’t want to burn bridges- but honestly, we’ve never looked back after leaving.

What I’ve learned after 4 years is:

We are choosing our allies/doctors, consultants by their ability to communicate with us and work with us. If we had an early stage well maybe we’d take a little less compassionate medicine, but truly, I’ll be darned if we are going to go through what we’ve gone through with people who are not practicing any sort of compassionate medicine.

We now have people devoted to our quality of life AND keeping the psa at a reasonable number- who work with us- who we are and our belief system.

I don’t know if I sound bitter about our treatment. I am not bitter, I am trying to help change the system. The problem is, most people don’t know any better until going through it. This is why these groups are so amazing.

We travel 45 minutes to our new doc. We travel 7 hours or a 1 hour flight to our consultant doc. We do phone consultations. AND, we’ve chosen our local oncologist who is at a good hospital which is also important to us. It has taken more work, yes, stress, but we can now sit across from our allies and know we can hear bad news, if that’s the case.. good news a given.. is great.

grace

From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of Terry HerbertSent: Monday, February 21, 2011 12:37 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortened

Mike,

I had a MiniPoll on my site last year to focus on what men were and weren’t told about what might be termed the ‘minor’ side effects (Erectile Dysfunction and Incontinence being the ‘major’ side effects). In using this term I don’t wish to downplay the fact that they can cause serious concern to men who have them.

The results were here http://www.yananow.org/MiniPoll2.htm Clearly this isn’t a scientific poll and may well be biased, but it does demonstrate perhaps that most men are not fully informed about the potentials of their choice of therapy beforehand.

It seems clear from the commentaries I have read about these ‘minor’ side effects that the reason that they are now surfacing and being investigated more fully is because of the ability of men to communicate via the Internet and Support Groups. I believe that too often in the past the medical world has ignored these inconvenient outcomes and has downplayed them. Many men would have felt, because they were led to this conclusion, that they were the only one to complain about the issue – and they were the exception to the rule. Clearly, given some of the numbers in some of the limited studies, this isn’t so.

This is another reason why I think it is so important to share information, even informally by way of anecdotal evidence. It removes that ‘aloneness’.

All the best

Prostate men need enlightening, not frightening

Terry Herbert - diagnosed in 1996 and still going strong

Read A Strange Place for unbiased information at http://www.yananow.net/StrangePlace/index.html

From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of MikeSent: Monday, 21 February 2011 3:54 PMTo: ProstateCancerSupport Subject: penis length is shortened

I had my prostate removed but was never told that it usually also affects the length of the penis. Make sure you talk to your surgeon about the chances of it happening, as it was and is quite a surprise to find out after the fact. I saw it mentioned by several other people in here before, so I started reading up on it in medical journals on the net. Most men that have it removed lose on the average 1/2-1 inch in length. It would have been nice to know before the operation or I may have looked for an alternative plan. I only had a 5 inch penis before, and now it's closer to 4 with a full erection.

[Guest guest]

I was not told but discovered this on investigation before the surgery. Discussed with one doctor and was told this would only be in the flaccid state. That turned out, certainly, to be true. If you think about it they remove about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inch of your urethra (the tube from bladder to penis). Immediately after surgery the scrotum was swollen and my penis barely peeked out. It took about 2 months to 10 weeks for it to get to the point that I could urinate standing up. As it is I am perhaps 1 1/2 " shorter and it feels a bit like there is a rubber band pulling it in from the inside.

Cannot address if it is true on erection since that is a side effect I am still working on. The Doc I talked to says no but I guess I can expect some effect.One curious thing is that the Doc indicated that while you will be shooting blanks after surgery the feeling is there no matter what. That means that you can climax with a limp member. Weird! Nerve sparing is attempting to save the nerves that tell the muscles to let blood in and keep it in (control of the erection).

BTW I am 53 and had no symptoms or ED before surgery and was otherwise healthy (though I am taking Lipitor for Cholesterol and Metapropol for Hypertension)  Steve

[Guest guest]

Steve, you can indeed have an orgasm without erection after the surgery (willing spouse helps), and in my case it felt as good as the real thing. A year after my surgery Viagra seems to be helping, but improvement is slow and it doesn't provide a full erection yet. Tri-mix, however, does, and the injections are a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. I use 30 gauge syringes, and I regard them as my friends as because of them and the Tri-mix, sexual activity is virtually normal. Regarding penile shortening, yes, it does seem shorter in the flacid state, but isn't notably shorter erect.

Mike

Subject: Re: What were you told? was..... penis length is shortenedTo: ProstateCancerSupport Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 9:06 PM

I was not told but discovered this on investigation before the surgery. Discussed with one doctor and was told this would only be in the flaccid state. That turned out, certainly, to be true. If you think about it they remove about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inch of your urethra (the tube from bladder to penis). Immediately after surgery the scrotum was swollen and my penis barely peeked out. It took about 2 months to 10 weeks for it to get to the point that I could urinate standing up. As it is I am perhaps 1 1/2 " shorter and it feels a bit like there is a rubber band pulling it in from the inside.Cannot address if it is true on erection since that is a side effect I am still working on. The Doc I talked to says no but I guess I can expect some effect.One curious thing is that the Doc indicated that while you will be shooting blanks after surgery the feeling is there no matter what. That means that you can climax with a limp member. Weird!

Nerve sparing is attempting to save the nerves that tell the muscles to let blood in and keep it in (control of the erection).BTW I am 53 and had no symptoms or ED before surgery and was otherwise healthy (though I am taking Lipitor for Cholesterol and Metapropol for Hypertension) Steve

[Guest guest]

SteveI certainly wasn’t told my penis would get shorter. As in your case it virtually disappeared after the op but with deliberate stretching and ‘exercise’ has returned to more or less what it was before. It is now 15 months since the operation (RRP) and I have also had 33 sessions of radiotherapy to the prostate bed. In spite of that I can now get an erection of sorts when on my own but have not yet managed to maintain it sufficient for proper sex – too much pressure to perform. Taking regular Cialis has helped recovery and I would strongly recommend that because it helps the nerves to recover. Full nerve recovery can take up to three years apparently. Viagra makes me feel pretty rough and doesn’t help much. I am about to try MUSE transurethrally – I’ll let you know how I get on.Keep smiling.Bob