How can impotence arise in a male with cancer?

There is a distinction between male impotence and male infertility. Impotence refers to a man’s ability to achieve and maintain an erection, and infertility really addresses a man’s ability to achieve a pregnancy. Impotence, or erectile dysfunction, is an issue or a condition that we do often seen in men who come to us with a diagnosis of cancer. Oftentimes cancer will lead to a change in a man’s endocrine axis, or his hormones. It can cause a drop in testosterone, and that drop in testosterone may not only affect a man’s ability to achieve and maintain an erection, but it may also affect his libido. So these two things together can certainly have a negative effect on a man’s fertility.