It's difficult to assign which treatment has caused the side affects, I also had radiotherapy. I didn't have ay real side affects from the radiotherapy before the know side affects from the hormone treatment started. One important thing is to start penile rehabilitation as soon as possible, and not just after surgery. The penis needs to regularly erect to avoid the growth of scar tissue (fibrosis) and the death of nerve cells, which can also cause shortening of the penis.
The loss of my libido, which I was suffering from prior to diagnosis, did affect my sex life. It didn't stop me meeting someone though and we are now in a civil partnership.
Not sure
Due to lack of support from a peer group there are things I would possibly do differently. I would ask to have active surveillance, with possibly radiotherapy, for three months to see if my PSA was increasing at a significant rate prior to starting treatment. I would opt for radiotherapy and hormone treatment over surgery though.
As I was having radiotherapy and hormone treatment at the same time it's difficult to assign any side effects to the radiotherapy, most of the side effects I experienced I put down to the hormone treatment, which went on for a lot longer.
Yes
As commented on the hormone treatment response, I would ask for active surveillance, with possible radiotherapy, for 3 months before deciding on further treatment. I would still go down the same route over surgery though.
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