THURSDAY, Feb. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Most men who have surgery
for prostate cancer can still achieve orgasm if the nerves that
surround their prostate gland are not removed, according to a new
study.
Researchers from Cornell University say a man's age and the
number of his nerves that are spared will play a role in his
ability to climax after surgery.
The study followed 408 men who underwent a procedure to remove
their prostate, known as robot-assisted laparoscopic radical
prostatectomy, between 2005 and 2007 for an average of three years.
Men had mean age of 60 years and all were able to have an orgasm
before the procedure.
Seventy-four percent of the men were able to have their nerves
spared bilaterally, or on both sides. Of those men, 91 percent
experienced no change in their ability to achieve orgasm following
the surgery.
About 13 percent of the men had their nerves spared on only one
side. Of this group, 82 percent of the men had the same ability to
reach orgasm. Another 12 percent had little or no nerve sparing,
with 62 percent of them were still able to achieve orgasm the same
way they did before the operation.
The men's age also played a role in their ability to orgasm. The
study, published in the February issue of
BJUI, showed orgasm rates were significantly higher in men younger than 60 who had their nerves spared on both sides. Orgasm rates dropped by 10 percent to 83 percent among men older than 60, even if their nerves were spared on both sides.
A questionnaire completed by 156 of the men who were able to
achieve orgasm after surgery revealed 82 percent had high
satisfaction rates. Another 10 percent said they had moderate
satisfaction and 7 percent reported low satisfaction. Roughly 3
percent of the men said they experienced a painful orgasm.
"As far as we are aware, this is the largest analysis of orgasmic function in the robotic prostatectomy literature and will provide valuable information for surgeons talking to patients about what sort of sexual function they can expect after surgery," study author Dr. Ashutosh Tewari, director of the Prostate Cancer Institute and the LeFrak Robotic Surgery Center at Weill Cornell Medical College, said in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. National Institutes of Health provides more information
on
prostate cancer.