What are the psychological effects cancer can have on a man?

Many times we see patients who have recently been diagnosed with cancer, and they’re depressed. They’ve been hit by a bus. This has been an issue that many of them did not see coming out of the dark towards them. And the good news is that, with information such as looking at Web sites, looking at videos like this, patients obtain the information, I think really the power, to deal with, or cope with, the diagnosis of cancer. The stress and anxiety, and often the depression, that accompany a diagnosis like this are important, very, very important, for a patient to identify, and to deal with, to not sweep under the rug. I think sometimes we see patients who are so very, very busy with their cancer therapies that they don’t take time to take measure of all the stress and anxiety that they’re under. And for me as a fertility specialist, it’s very important that patients are aware of this and are being provided an opportunity to deal with it. Certainly stress, anxiety, depression—these things do overlap and can cause significant impairment in reproductive health, not to mention, the patient’s overall health.

So I think this is important for clinicians and patients and patients’ family members to be extremely apprised of and aware of and to be on the lookout for, because there is adequate help in virtually every hospital setting and in outpatient settings to deal with these issues. And this is not something, this issue of stress, anxiety, or depression, these issues are not only present at the time of diagnosis, but maybe down the road. We’ve seen a number of patients who thought they had their cancer successfully behind them, and they come to us noting, “My fertility is impaired, Doctor. Is my cancer coming back?” Or, maybe they don’t have that concern, but maybe it conjures up memories of their long and hard battle with cancer. We see this a lot. And I think it’s important for us as clinicians to be aware of this fact, and to not only treat the patient for their fertility issues, but to look at the broader patient and realize that they may need help. Because for many of them, when these fertility issues come about, they start reliving the whole nightmare of their diagnosis and treatment.