Men have overly optimistic expectations about recovery from prostate cancer surgery, U-M study finds

Preoperative education should be coupled with postoperative support for prostate cancer survivors, researchers suggest

--added 08/08/2011


In addition, prior to surgery, a small proportion of men had expected to have better urinary continence and sexual functions a year after the surgery than they had before it - the exact opposite of what typically happens.

"This is a belief that does not reflect preoperative counseling which, on the contrary, alerts men to urinary and sexual problems after surgery," says study author Daniela Wittmann, M.S.W, sexual health coordinator at the U-M prostate cancer survivorship program.


The study showed that for the most part, men's expectations of hormonal and bowel function matched what happened one year after surgery. But, when it came to urinary incontinence only 36% of the men's expectations corresponded to what happened one year post-surgery.

In addition, only 40% of men found what they expected for sexual function to be true one year post-surgery.

Also, 46% of the men found worse than expected outcomes in urinary incontinence and 44% of men found worse than expected outcomes in sexual function one year after surgery.

"When we provide preoperative education, we can only inform men in terms of overall statistics. We can't predict for the individual," explains Wittmann. "This may mean that, if in doubt, people tend toward being hopeful and optimistic, perhaps overly optimistic."





Funding: None

Disclosure: None


Written by Imran Hyder; contact by phone: 734-764-2220.

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