Restore Study

[cwoodman]

What is restore study?

[Darryl Partner]

the Restore Study ended a couple of years ago It was a multi year NIH funded research project that Malecare and investigators from other universities conducted to investigate novel methods to help gay prostate cancer patients restore their quality of life. Little of practical significance was found. You can read the approximately two dozen papers from our research by searching scholar.google.com and PubMed for Darryl Mitteldorf as one of the authors. We are currently working on a new study with a different university based partner which we hope will be more fruitful.

[EdinBmore]

The RESTORE study was advertised here. As I recall, it was conducted by Malecare and the U of MN and studied the experiences of gay men with PCa. I participated in the 2 yr study and was given information regarding gay sexual behavior and PCa - the importance of continuing sexual experiences during and after treatment. More specifically, the study provided written and recorded information (yes, videos of how to use a penis pump and other toys - no, it wasn't porn), sildenafil, a penis pump, butt plugs, dildos, etc. The participants were interviewed online, and completed surveys of their experiences. The project staff were available to discuss treatment issues and how to restore sexual functioning. It seemed to me to provide support and general guidance about gay sexual health for men with PCa. And, it emphasized that importance of doctors learning about gay men/sex/PCa. I do not know if anything truly useful was learned; it seemed like a first effort and I suspect that it probably raised far more questions than it answered.

OH! I just saw Darryl's response. We seem to be saying the same thing.

EdinBaltimore

[jimreilly in reply to EdinBmore]

I participated in it, too, and think probably that every such effort that makes a dent in ignorance (on the part of anyone, doctors, gay men, their friends, whatever) is useful. I live in Minnesota and have had pretty good experiences with most of my doctors here (one early one I fled, but after that the rest were at least OK and often better).

[Darryl Partner in reply to jimreilly]

I’m glad you found our work to be helpful.