How is a man's sexual response affected by cancer and cancer treatment?

When a man has a testicle removed as part of his cancer therapy, typically the loss of a single testicle will not negatively affect his reproductive potential. Usually the remaining testicle will produce an adequate amount of sperm and will produce an adequate amount of testosterone to help him maintain a normal sexual and reproductive life. However, there are patients that we see who, after the removal of a single testicle, will have problems with their testosterone levels being too low, or have problems with inadequate numbers of sperm. And so it’s important for us to follow these patients along and realize that they may not only have issues with sperm production, but also testosterone-related issues, problems with libido, problems with erections. So these patients over the long term really do declare themselves, as we follow them after the surgery, patients will give us feedback and let us know. It's important for the clinician to be sensitive to these issues, though, and to ask about them, because these patients are often overwhelmed by the cancer therapy that they’re going through. I think it’s our job to help them regain as much of their life that they had prior to their cancer diagnosis as possible and an important part of that, really not just for young people but for older people, too, is regaining their intimacy with their partner, and if they’re interested in starting a family, having the ability to initiate pregnancies. These are the things that patients look forward to beyond their cancer diagnosis that really we find help them through their treatment.