I have recently started ADT (Lupron + Erleada) and I am wondering while on ADT, Does having sex make advanced prostate cancer more aggressive? Does having sex make ADT less effective? Should one avoid sex while on ADT for the sake of slowing the cancer down?
I would appreciate your thoughts and advice. Thanks.
Written by
Pcnmyy
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
The best advice I can offer is “smoke, if you got ‘em”.
I’ve never heard of anyone suggesting sex would make the cancer worse. But for a lot of us, ADT did a real number on the desire for sex or the ability to have erections (while you’re on the therapy).
I suggest you talk to your doctor. They are pretty used to discussing the sexual impact of PC therapies. Every time I visit one of my doctors they ask me to fill out a questionnaire asking about sexual function and it’s something they track for me.
Thank you Mike for the prompt response and advice. I am at an early stage of ADT and still have some desire for sex and I do not want to make my case worse than it is.
Enjoy while you can. No impact on your disease has ever been shown in any study. But orgasms a day or so before psa tests can skew the results. Even if you lose the desire I’d take a generic Viagra at least twice a month to get a hard. It will prevent atrophy from if and when you stop adt. And exercise a lot. Especially resistance training. It will help beat your cancer, make you feel better, help avoid loss of muscle tone and protect your bones.
No negative effect as I know of. Conversely, sex brings more blood to prostate and increase oxygen which theoretically may increase chemotherapy effectiveness. So we went at it during the chemo and then for the next few days there was this throbbing and fizzling sensation in the prostate akin popping soda bubbles. My gland was really bad at the onset, with large extracapsular extension. Now it's clear, normal size and soft. Not that it because of sex but it surely didn't mess the treatment and might have helped it a bit. And the dopamine effect is simply so good for the mood overall. So, enjoy!
Two years since I started ADT and been having sex life all this time. During first year the ADT effect was not that noticeable and I had no problem with erections. Then it started progressively harder, just because it's not on your mind anymore, you have to consciously bring it into your focus. So, I'm filling a tadalafil prescription today to help my brave warrior
Still wanting sex while on ADT? Go for it, man. Get all you can cuz, unless you are unique, your desire for sex will drop to minus 100.
I had a horrible experience with ADT. I hope that yours is much better than mine was.
Oh, btw, after your last injection begins to wear off (I had three 3 month injections) - be aware that it may take 6-9+ for the drug to leave your system. Bummer.
Suggest: "Androgen Deprivation Therapy: An Essential Guide for Prostate Cancer Patients and Their Loved Ones." It may help in understanding what to expect on ADT and some tips for dealing with the side effects.
It's not gonna happen with depotdoug. Sex is a done deal. I thought about Viagra or other sex drive meds, then said to myself Viagra meds mess with my Cardiac rhythm issues. Been on re-start Lupron since 09/11/2019 and Abiraterone/Prednisone since Dec 10,2019.
I'm prepping for my next med experience May 6th. RF catheter ablation to stop my constant persistent pia AFIB. 4-5 hour general anesthesia, recovery then 5+ hours lying flat on my back to ensure 2 cath incision sites in my Groin heal and seal. Yeh, visability and access to my entire groin pelvic area is required. Well, i get to have EP(electrophysiology lab) RN's and post procedure RN's and tech's take care of me. Won't even see any of the EP med personnel while sleeping 4-5 hrs. Recovery nurses, yeh. No sex for Doug.
yep, dick-in-the-dirt is what we call it where i come from. can happen any time, anywhere, with any body.... but mostly from drinking to excess. now it comes from ADT. my oh my, how times have changed.
one day at a time, brother!-- i got 30 plus yrs clean and sober. And tonite, after an ex-girlfriend got jiggy with me in a Skype session, i discovered the 2 yrs on ADT did not render me permanently impotent!!! God bless the internet, eh? hahahahaa
films? selling on a website? what's the deal, neal? seriously, i got 3 bags of packing peanuts or popcorn or whatev... can't see dissolving it all down the drain, as is suggested for disposal... oh well.
the peanuts that are made from puffed cornstarch are easily dissolved in water. put stopper in drain, fill sink with hot tap water, pour in peanuts, stir, drain.
You won't have to think about having sex while on ADT. You won't want to have sex, and your ability to do normal things with a partner or yourself with a Working William will fade away completely, and erectile tissues will clog up with fibroids, and all feeling of pleasure will be impossible, and William will only be useful as a water drain pipe.
If you want to please a wife, the only answer is a Well Done Muff Dive, or careful use of a vibrator / toy etc.
But I never had to worry, I was not married at diagnosis at 62. I was fully able before ADT.
Trouble was that any lady I might have been married to had got through the worst of her menopause and had become totally disinterested / allergic to any practice of sex, or any smell of it, or talk about it, and maybe liked to avoid anything at all that was male. So I have remained partner - free since diagnosis in 2009; nobody wants a cancer patient. I enjoy a 2 hour cycle ride more than trying to please a lady for 2 hours. I have never met any lady who can do a 2 hour cycle ride. I have coped very well after being thoroughly de-sexed, neutered, by ADT. No depression, and I have a nice simple life.
Pca will progress wherever it can regardless of what sex life you have.
There are big bunch of nerves surrounding PG that control William, and the pleasure he donates to a man's sense of well being. An RP plus pile of EBRT and ADT, make dam sure a man can't depend on William to stay healthy. He shrivels up prematurely with Pca treatments.
It took time for my sex ability to be exterminated by ADT. I did not have RP, too much Pca around PG. I had ADT +EBRT. After 2 years I quit ADT in late 2012, had a 6 month break, and testosterone bounced back and so did William. But Pca also flared right up, so I have been back on ADT ever since. William then faded to zero by 2015. If I had full amount of testosterone now, William would remain wonky and all wanked out, because the long term ADT makes permanent changes to body.
Just remember, the olda ya get, tha betta ya woz.
ADT does not stop a man wanting a partner, or seeing and enjoying the sight of someone highly desirable, but the man knows he can only look, and not touch; he was a rooster once, but is now a feather duster. And women subconsciously see me as quite ugly, and we have all lost whatever it was that maid us attractive. Woman have trouble with their sense of image, as age makes us all caricatures of what we all once were. Of course I have seen rich old guys Like Rupert Murdoch get married to young ladies like Jerry Hall and I can only guess what that pair get up to at night, but I could not like Ms Jerry too much after she'd been Jaggered for so long.
been on casodex for 2 yrs, PSA holding steady at ,0.1, so i was thinking of stopping for a while. but would go crazy if after 6 months, PSA started climbing again, as yours did. my liver's still going strong so what the hell.
I went to talk to my onco today, Psa up to 10, from a nadir of 0.32 last November, 12 months after I began Lu177 treatment in November 2018. So aud $40,000 bought me about the mean extension of time to life of 14 months. I'll get more Lu177 after I have another 7th PsMa scan in 2 weeks, if the scan shows I'll get another 14 months. Research in Melbourne PeterMac Hospital suggests this is highly likely. I maybe get a couple more years.
I guess I am far from crazy or very sick, so after talking to onco I went on further to complete my 65km cycle ride, with hardly a crazy thought about the coming day when I begin to un-live.
Life is not eternal, and idea of life after death is just another religious fantasy invented by relatives of a deceased person. The Pharaohs of Egypt stole millions of $$$ from their subjects to build Pyramids so ppl would remember them after death. Pyramids were constructed to slow down the grave robbers. Total BS, afaiac. Vanity at its worst. Its why I don't travel anywhere to see the famous old places mostly built by slaves.
But I have traveled about 250,000km by bicycle so far, mainly alone, just to stay in good physical condition, and maybe stave off insanity.
I would like to live to 100 at least, but I could make a bet I'll never get anywhere near that, but while I can dabble in old fashioned electrics with vacuum tubes and ride a bicycle to stay fit, and avoid death by a motorist flattening me, I am happy.
it's all about staying happy while we're here. i have no idea what the next world is but i've had enough inexplicable things happen in this world to prove to me that some kind of life exists after death. i guess we'll both find out some fine day... or you're right and there's nothing after death. youtube.com/watch?v=r-BHEQT...
Inexplicable happenings have never made me think an afterlife, God, or our souls, or Satan, or anything "supernatural" exist, and to me it seems our species simply got intelligent enough to have communal imagination of all these things, and helped us cope better with reality of a short life on Earth. Of course once a few ppl agree that the list of fantasies are real, that can become quite evil and tie ppl to stakes and burn them if they dare to say the fantasies are not real. We invent evil and goodness as we need to, and history shows how we could be kind, generous, as well as unkind and non-generous. Usually whatever stance we take is to advance ourselves and those who believe in the same BS, while destroying anyone who does not share our idea of reality. Religions have has vast numbers of adherents who can't agree with each other about Christ, and certainly have been mercilessly evil toward Jews and Arabs and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists, all of whom claim that are right and we are wrong so the blood flowed. Ppl have out of life experiences where they die, but are brought back to life by clever docs with high voltage shocks. The have seen God, angels, but that's all imagined stuff, like every bit of their theology.
I was brought up a christian, and to be a Good Catholic, but at 17 began so see that theology was a mass of unadulterated BS. But Christ lived, and he was a good man, and some of what he said and did was recorded and its a good record to follow, but I don't believe any miracles ever happened, they were added to story of Christ to make ppl believe and have quite false hopes if thy prayed. Fake stories and fake info and news has always been with us since the very first time anyone ever wrote anything down on clay tablets or papyrus on any subject; ppl lied when they spoke or wrote, all part of trying to survive better than by telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Christ, imho, was not God the son, or God the father, or God the holy Ghost, Christ was just a bloke. Blokes like Christ are not born very often.
All the blokes who started other religions also ain't born very often.
I followed Christ by becoming a carpenter to build a better Australia. Pure idealism.
I sure needed zero advice from any darn Pope on how to live.
I could have died many times on building sites, on my motorcycles, push bikes, or had many other illnesses that might have killed me. Many ppl get to old age while thinking there is nothing out there greater than them, usually called a God.
I know that whatever I feel is true about what is outside myself could be incorrect, and I accept I will die dumb, unknowing about a huge number of things.
The meaning of life is how to live to tomorrow and beyond, and there is not any deeper meaning, and it could be said the deep meaning of life is that it has no deep meaning. That's all quite OK for me. So be good to your friends and relatives, life is short, don't leave behind a bad memory in other minds.
There are seven vices and seven virtues, and I suggest you choose virtue over vice, and forget all about God, spirits, Devil, its Goodness without God, then just maybe all ppl will know you as a mystery person who was good not a bad person.
But so many just FEEL that I am so wrong about all this. They cannot say they think so because they have not weighed up the evidence to come to any useful conclusion.
I'n not seen any evidence God etc, etc exist as we define God. We, like Nature, just are, so be good at just being, if you would not mind.
i was lucky that both my parents told me the same thing: you're free to make up your own mind whether or not there is a God. Mom said she didn't think so; Dad said he didn't know, not having gotten any concrete evidence one way or the other. so for 42 years, i was a mix... pretty sure there was no God, hated the holy rollers of ANY kind of religion, trying to spread it like rotten peanut butter and went my merry way, just being a good person. I still have no tolerance for religious fanatics of any stripe. Take it somewhere else.
But my last post said nada thing about God, PT. zilch. So not sure what caused the diatribe. Honestly, I do worship imagination; mystical events happen all the time and pondering their significance sustains me when reality becomes burdensome.
There's an interesting film by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Ingmar Bergman, titled The Seventh Seal. In it, a minor character, an actor, i think, is gifted with a special ability to see what other people cannot. I relate to that guy... a lot. imdb.com/title/tt0050976/ I wrote a couple of books, still write stories and screenplays, used to juggle, performed for many glorious years in community theater productions, including operas, studied music, anthropology... i had one helluva life. It would bother me not one wit, bit, jot nor iota if there were no afterlife, no God, etc. So i have no vested interest in proving to myself nor anyone else that God exists, has a sweet suite in heaven all decked out for me with 72 virgins or whatev, kev. As i said, i had a great life, will be ready to leave when i do.
And again, I'll leave you with the immortal bard's words - Hamlet, Act 1, scene 5: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
My fundamental belief is that God and all ideas about souls et all exists as a communal common imagined set of ideas. The whole edifice of what is commonly imagined brings ppl together, and usually its benign, and helps community strength and works against the feeling of being alone if you don't believe.
The 72 virgins said to be waiting in heaven are mainly those who were ignored by men while on earth, I'd guess they would be very difficult women to approach for anything at all, even a heavenly cup of tea, let alone sex, and most of them were 90 when they went to heaven afaik. Be careful for what you might wish for.
Much of what we know is just dreaming. Many of us like to avoid or deny reality.
I'll have a nice day in my shed, working on electronics today.
When time comes for a doctor says I have months, and nothing can be done, I won't like it one bit. I won't care about afterlife or God, but cannot deny I won't like being told I shall have to un-live soon.
“As long as a population can be induced to believe in a supernatural hereafter, it can be oppressed and controlled. People will put up with all sorts of tyranny, poverty, and painful treatment if they're convinced that they'll eventually escape to some resort in the sky where lifeguards are superfluous and the pool never closes. Moreover, the faithful are usually willing to risk their skins in whatever military adventure their government may currently be promoting.” ― Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
Yes, all to true. I recall us young ppl in 1960s we all had God on our side to fight in Vietnam. God helped nobody, or he could not make up his mind because the Vietnamese enemy also had God on their side. Strong guys with a bullet in stomach cried for their mothers, not God, but 50,000 didn't survive.
I could have sex until my testosterone dropped below 1. Then you lose the will to have sex and an erection. I couldn't even finish after my testosterone dropped.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.