Dr. Anne Truong explains why erectile dysfunction happens after prostate surgery: nerve damage, reduced blood flow, and psychological effects. A Cleveland Clinic study found vacuum pumps help. Start using one early, eat more beets and vegetables for nitric oxide, and skip fluoride mouthwash.
Questions this episode answers
Approximately 3,300,000 men (quoted for 2020).
83% (for 2020).
112 per 100,000 male (incidence figure cited).
99% five-year survival rate (speaker-cited).
109 men total in the study (speaker-cited).
Why does ED happen after prostate surgery? Stay tuned to find out.
This podcast is for you. The modern man. I'm Dr. Anne Truong, your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and best selling author of the book Erectile Dysfunction Fix. I'll do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get started and be sure to visit my website@sexualhealthformenpodcast.com for more information and resources from the show. See you on the inside.
Erectile dysfunction can occur after prostate surgery. Why is that? I'm going to talk about in this episode. Stay tuned, you'll get a bonus at the end. So the prostate is like a little rubbery small gland that is the size of a ping pong ball or size of a walnut is located deep in the inside of your groin between the base of your penis and the rectum. So I'm going to show you a little slide here of what the prostate looks like. This picture is like as if I slice a man's body in half looking at sideways view. So you see the penis and, and then this gland is a gray side, that's the prostate and right behind that is a sac called the seminal vesicles. That's where semen are made. So the prostate gland makes semen which then mix it with the sperm from the testicles and that goes out the urethra, the tube where you urinate. And that's what makes the semen. You can see from the picture that there are nerves that come down to the prostate, that it's either in the prostate or just touches the prostate depends on the man's anatomy. So when the prostate gland, which you see here is removed, you can see the nerve attached to it. See, the blood vessel is right at the base of the penis and that's why when you have an enlarged prostate, it clamped down on the urethra or the tube where urine comes out because the prostate just wrap around the urethra. And also the prostate glands, when you still have it, makes semen. And if you don't ejaculate, the semen just builds up in the prostate as well. But let's talk about the cases, how ED happened after prostate surgery. So the prostate surgery means complete removal of the prostate gland and how does ED occur? So, so the prevalence of prostate cancer in the United States. According to a study in 2020, there are approximately about 3,300,000 men living with prostate cancer. In 2020, 83% of prostate cancer are detected and confined to the prostate. And the incident in the population is 112 per 100,000 male. The good news is that once you're diagnosed with prostate, the five year survival rate is 99%. And depending on the stage of the cancer to prostate, it's either you get radiation, other surgery, or radical prostatectomy when the entire prostate gland is taken out. So during the surgery, because the nerve is intimately wrapped around the the prostate, the nerve can be affected or damaged during this role. And then the blood flow, even though the blood flow to the penis is reserved, but it could be the blood flow going into the penis may be affected as well, so there's decreased blood flow. Also have to consider the psychological factor, the emotional impact of the prostate surgery. The diagnosis of cancer can lead to anxiety and depression, which can then further exacerbate the ed. And then something to note is that that after the prostate surgery, because the prostate is taken out and the prostate is what make the semen, you no longer can ejaculate. And therefore when you're not able to ejaculate, it can also affect the orgasm quality as well. The good news is that there's a gradual improvement, that it may take up to a year to regain some of the erectile function and sometime even longer. So let's talk about some strategies for penile rehab after prostate surgery. The number one thing aside from just taking ED medication, either Viagra or Cialis, is consider using a penis pump. Think of the penis pump as taking the penis to the gym. You want to now get the penis back into shape again because it hasn't been used as a study that was done in the Cleveland Clinic that looked at using penis pump after radical prostatectomy. And they looked at 109 men. And one group, 74 men, use the penis pump for twice a week, starting one month after the surgery for nine months. And then another group of 35 men did not do any penis pump at all. And what they found was that in the group that used the penis pump and the penis pump, what it does is that it brings in blood flow to the penis and it stretches the penis muscle, it brings oxygen in, it actually prevent the penis muscle from contracting or being atrophy or even shrinking. So what they find in this study is that the men that uses the penis pump did not see any type of shrinkage after prostate surgery at all. And in fact, they have noticed that the sides of their penis have improve versus the one that did not do penis pump after the prostate surgery. So that's encouraging. I would also encourage along with using the penis pump is eating nitrous oxide loaded food. And most of it come from beets and crunchy vegetables. A lot of. A lot of vegetables. And also avoiding toothpaste that has fluoride in it. I recommend using a non fluoride mouth rinse and you can check the link to my store about the mouth rinse here. But if you have non fluoride, it doesn't kill the bacteria in your mouth and allow you to make more nitrous oxide. I also recommend taking nitrous oxide lozenge like this one. You can find it again at my store here. The Modern man crib and the lozenge, you just put a little round lozenge in your mouth underneath your tongue, let it melt and what it does is it gives you more nitrous oxide. What does nitrous oxide do nitrous oxide open up blood vessels so that way more blood flow flow to the organ, particularly the penis. So you have three things that you can do. The penis pump, eat beets and crunchy vegetables and the supplements of nitrous oxide and also non fluoride mouthwash. Avoid taking antacids such as Pepcid or Zantac or Nexium because that can also decrease your nitrous oxide as well. So there are things that you can do for penile rehab after prostate surgery aside from just taking ED medication. And to summarize, ED is very common after prostate surgery, likely due to nerve damage and changes in blood flow. But it's important to know that there is recovery and treatment option that's available that I just mentioned. Having said that, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I would really appreciate it if you if you leave me a review and comment and like let me know what you think of this episode and also follow down the link below. I have a link to go to my book called the five Common Mistake Men make when Facing ed and then I will show you how to restore your sex life again. So having said that, the modern man know that you can love and live a happy life and I will see you in the next episode. Are you struggling and frustrated in finding a solution for ed? Well, I have just the thing for you. It's called the Modern Man Club led by yours truly, Dr. Ann. Together we're redefining male sexuality and embracing a holistic approach to overcoming ED without medication or surgery. I will provide a protective environment for community and proven strategy to overcoming ed. It is a safe place. Expert coaching by me and my team we provide holistic approach to overcoming ED and an empowering community of men with ED supporting one another and lots and lots of educational resources. Visit men sexuality club.com@the link here on my right and connect with us and reclaim control over your sexual health. I'll see you there.
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