The Sexual Health Center

The Aftermath Of Prostate Removal: Understanding The Risks!

Life after prostate removal involves dealing with certain unavoidable side effects. In addition to the physical side effects, one also has to deal with emotional issues.

The process of removal of the prostate is known as Prostatectomy. During this process, your surgeon might remove the entire prostate gland, seminal vesicles, and pelvic lymph nodes. 

Once the prostate gets removed, the side effects of doing the same hit immediately.

What Do You Need To Know Before Prostate Surgery?

One of the most common side effects issued with Prostatectomy is Incontinence of urine. During the time following your surgery, the sphincter that controls the flow of urine might not work efficiently, causing you to leak whenever you laugh or sneeze. 

This urine incontinence will last for a couple of months and improves after 6 months. 

It is essential to perform bladder control exercises like kegel exercises to strengthen your pelvic muscles before starting your surgery for faster recovery. Urinary incontinence can either be stress urinary incontinence or urge incontinence. When the pressure on your bladder increases it leads to stress incontinence and this normally occurs as a result of damage to your sphincter muscles. 

What Do You need to Know Before Prostate Surgery

Urge urinary incontinence occurs as a result of an overactive bladder. This creates an intense urge to urinate and leads to involuntary leakage. When your nerves get affected post-prostatectomy, leading to inflammation of your bladder, you might experience an urge for urinary incontinence.

Erectile Dysfunction :

An inability to maintain an erection, commonly known as erectile dysfunction is another common side effect of Prostatectomy. During your prostate surgery, the nerves and blood vessels that are responsible for erection might get affected and this leads to erectile dysfunction. 

Depending on your age and overall health, and whether you undergo nerve-sparing or non-nerve-sparing prostatectomy,  the severity of your erectile dysfunction varies. 

To reverse erectile dysfunction, oral medications like viagra can be undertaken such that the blood flow to your penis will improve. Where medications are noneffective you can use a penile pump that used vacuum pressure and pulls blood from your body to the penis. The last procedure to reverse erectile dysfunction is opting for a penile injection and this is used only when your wrestle dysfunction becomes permanent. Bladder neck contracture:

When a star tissue forms around your bladder neck, you are prone to a bladder neck contracture. Your bladder neck connects your bladder to the urethra and when scar tissue is formed, this connection between the bladder and urethra becomes narrow such that it will become difficult to urinate. Bladder neck contracture is common in a non-nerve-sparing prostatectomy. Depending on the severity of the scar tissue, your medical expert prescribes medication to surgery to remove the same.

Infection :

Infection is the most underrated side effect of prostatectomy. You can get infected in the surgical incision, the urinary tract, or your bloodstream. This infection causes swelling and redness around the area of your surgery. It is essential to treat the infection immediately to avoid rashes and burns.

Pain :

Pain is an unavoidable factor when you undergo a prostatectomy. In addition to pain in the area of your surgery, you might also experience pain in your back, hips, and legs. This pain can be acute or chronic and depending on the pain, your treatment procedure will vary. Other common side effects include Lymphedema, blood clots, numbness or tingling, inability to ejaculate, and so on. Although prostatectomy is an effective treatment to treat prostate cancer and enlarged prostate, it does come with side effects. It is important to be aware of the side effects before undergoing surgery to take precautionary measures.

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