The survival for a man undergoing surgery to remove localised prostate cancer is greater than 95 percent. While prostate cancer can be a life threatening disease, most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it.
The odds of surviving for long periods of time following surgery for prostate cancer are very high. That means a lot of men are living as prostate cancer survivors.
Anxiety can significantly affect an individual’s quality of life. Those men with higher cancer-specific anxiety one year after surgery for prostate cancer are more likely to report lower levels of satisfaction with their sex life and higher levels of depressive symptoms.
The men who reported high anxiety levels are more likely to report low sexual satisfaction and a high rate of depression symptoms. What is interesting from the sexual health standpoint is that anxiety is not linked to poor erectile function per se but is linked to low levels of sexual satisfaction. Anxiety does not affect some men’s ability to perform sexually but perhaps more their ability to enjoy their sex life.
Anxiety is generally higher in those men who have more aggressive forms of prostate cancer based on their pathology reports after surgery. Among men with prostate cancer who have less aggressive disease, a survival rate is nearly 100 percent. Yet they think about cancer every day. This presents a great opportunity for identifying these men and offering intervention aimed at modifying this anxious behaviour.
Anxiety about a cancer diagnosis can lead to increased depressive symptoms and an inability to enjoy life’s activities, including sexual relations.