Prostate Removal

Delancey

As I understand it the Prostate is the male fertility gland and removal of it for whatever reason renders a man sterile but in theory should not cause erectile dysfunction issues.
That said , a lot of men do report erection problems following prostate surgery , if the prostate is not part of the ' erection machinery ' why does its removal sometimes lead to problems in this regard ?

SomeDose

Simple anatomy and prudent surgery, really.

There's lots of erectile nerve bundles very close to the prostate and, depending on the exact size and location of the tumour, the surgeon will often elect to remove these to leave clear margins and minimise risk of cancer recurrence. Risk of impotence is always clearly stated when consenting patients prior to surgery.

In some cases, it is possible to leave these nerves intact but I imagine the majority of patients who undergo a radical prostatectomy will experience some degree of impotence and require treatment with meds such as viagra etc. You also need to bear in mind that this particular patient group are likely to be at an age where they are already experiencing loss of sexual potency to some extent anyway.