Men don’t often like to discuss wellness issues, especially when they revolve around your sexual health. However, instead of keeping quiet, a few brave men have put their questions to medical expert Dr. Mohan S. Palaniswami – and we’re passing the info on to you! So, if there’s something you always wanted to know – but were too afraid to ask – read on and see if the expert has the answers you’re searching for.
1. What exactly is impotence and can it be treated? ‘Impotence is the inability to achieve or maintain an adequate erection frequently or regularly,’ Dr. Palaniswami explains. ‘It is important to understand that one episode of decreased ability for erection does not mean someone is impotent. You should feel free to speak to your doctor about your sexual activity. It is a normal part of health, and physicians are trained to discuss, evaluate and treat, when necessary, these issues. A doctor can evaluate each individual to assess potential causes for impotence and determine the proper treatment, if any, that is needed.’
Dr. Palaniswami continues, ‘In many cases, treatment is quite effective. Treatment depends on the cause of the impotence, and can range from stopping of a medication to treating an infection to implanting prosthetic devices to starting new medications. Sexual wellbeing is a very important part of an individual’s over-all health. Physicians and other health professionals are important resources for considering your sexual health into your over-all health management.’
2. I don’t like using condoms, but if I get a vasectomy will it be reversible? According to Dr. Palaniswami, ‘Vasectomy can be a very effective method of birth control. Usually, a condom should continue to be used for the first three to six months after a vasectomy as there could be sperm stored in the vas deferens (the conduit which sperm uses to travel out of the testicles and through the penis.) More importantly, condoms protect from the transmission of sexually transmitted disease. Vasectomy offers no such defence. Once done, vasectomy is potentially reversible, but the success of reversing the procedure varies. Scarring from the initial procedure can cause irreversible damage to the vas deferens making a revision of the vasectomy impossible.’
Dr. Palaniswami adds, ‘Pregnancy rates after reversing vasectomy can be reduced by up to 50%…If vasectomy is desired, an option for future offspring may be to store sperm in a sperm bank in case the vasectomy is permanent. Prior to planning such a procedure, careful consultation with your primary care physician and a urologist should occur so that you fully understand the risks involved.’
3. Following my annual prostate exam, my doctor told me my PSA was normal, but what is it? ‘PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen and is a marker in the blood that is made almost exclusively by the prostate,’ says Dr. Palaniswami. ‘Recently, it has become the standard of care to check a PSA level in men over the age of fifty…A level of less than four is normal, while a level greater than 10 indicates a greater than two-thirds chance cancer being present. A study at the University of Washington in 1995 seemed to indicate that using this marker can catch up to 97% of prostatic cancers at the most easily-curable stage, that is, when the cancer is only in the prostate. The drawback to this test is that PSA can also go up with conditions that aren’t cancerous, such as an infection of the prostate (prostatitis), inflammation of the prostate from a nearby infection, or in a common condition called benign prostatic hypertrophy which is a benign enlargement of the prostate.’