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Do the side effects of hormone therapy such as ED and dental shrinkage revers once the therapy sto

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mellysmell
mellysmell

My husband is 70 and had radiation therapy for eight weeks and has been on hormone therapy for going on 11 months what are the chances that the genital shrinkage and ED will reverse once the hormone therapy stopped. I am much younger than he is. The thought of never having sex again is depressing but I want to be supportive

1 like, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • georgeGG
    georgeGG mellysmell

    Posted

    Dear mellysmell,

    I understand your concern. As to chances I can only write from personal experience. Libido ceased steadily and was gone by day 13 of HT. i stopped HT after 17 months because of toxicity. (I had severe depression which almost killed me.) I stopped HT late February 2016. By April the odd errection appeared. By mid May libido resumed and grew quickly to normal over two weeks with the previous ability to have erections. Initially orgasms were pathetic. They gradually imroved to almost like the previous normal. Size returned to previous normal. There has been no ejaculate.

    I hope this will encourage you. My oncologist said that the return of libido was earlier than she would normally expect.

  • martin30348
    martin30348 mellysmell

    Posted

    I've done a limited amount of research and it appears in some cases the ER and dental issues resolve themselves with the stopping of the medicine. However, In some cases it remains. Its frustrating that it is a great unknown. I have been exploring alernative therapeutic treatments in clinical trials. There is some very promising data out there. The challenge is getting into the studies. There is one that just launched in New York. I wish you the best of luck. You are a good person for standing by your man
    • mellysmell
      mellysmell martin30348

      Posted

      I've been doing some research on proton therapy and it looks very promising.  It was not offered as an option to us (not sure why except that it's more expensive and not all places are equipped to provide it).  I wish we'd been given more information about it before we made the decision to do the hormone therapy. What's done is done now and we'll have to try to manage living with the side effects. You really have to be your own researcher and ask and ask and ask questions about ALL of the options not just what your particular physicians can offer.
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