Nobody wants to hear a cancer diagnosis, but not every diagnosis is a death sentence. As our understanding of how cancer works improves and researchers come up with more breakthroughs in cancer treatments, more and more people will live with and/or defeat cancer.
What Should You Know about Prostate Cancer?
After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the second-most diagnosed cancer in men. The prostate is a very small size organ (about the size of a walnut), but it serves a variety of functions in the in the male reproductive system.
Although men do die from prostate cancer, the majority of them don’t. It has a five-year survival rate of nearly 100%. Cancer of the prostate is slow-growing, and it often will not metastasize to other parts of your body. Therefore, it sometimes doesn’t have too profound of an effect on a man’s overall health.
However, each scenario is different, so it’s important to speak with your doctor about your options and determine a plan that makes the most sense for you, given your health, the stage of your cancer, and the pace at which it is growing. In some cases, your doctor will suggest that you wait and monitor to see if it will grow.
In other cases, though, your doctor will advise you to be more proactive in your treatment. The most common treatments for prostate cancer include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation and a surgical procedure called prostatectomy. Although both can be highly successful, there are some side effects. One of the most common is urinary incontinence.
The Connection between Urinary Incontinence and Prostate Cancer Treatment
Although there are a few cases where radiation may affect the urinary system, prostatectomies are by far the most common cause for urinary incontinence after prostate cancer. A prostatectomy is a procedure where the prostate is removed completely to mitigate the risk of the cancer spreading.
As much as 25% of men who have undergone a prostatectomy will experience urinary incontinence six months after the procedure. Although the number of instances does go down with time, it can still be a real concern for men – especially if they experience an incident in public.
As September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, we wanted to let men know that there are options after a prostatectomy. Behavioral training, like training your bladder to go at specific times, can be very successful. Limiting food and drink to certain hours of the day can be beneficial as well. Finally, you may want to speak with your doctor about Kegel exercises and physical training.
In addition to that, you should consider looking into incontinence supplies for men to manage your day-to-day life. Absorbent products, like those that you can find here at Diaper Buys, can be worn to provide the protection you need to maintain a normal life after a prostatectomy.