Infertility after prostate cancer treatment
You might not be able to have children after prostate cancer treatment. This can be difficult to cope with. It can be helpful to understand more about how treatment affects your fertility. Help and support is available which may help you cope with these changes.
How prostate cancer surgery affects your fertility
A common treatment for prostate cancer is surgery to remove the prostate gland. This is a radical prostatectomy.
During a radical prostatectomy, your surgeon removes your:
- prostate gland and sometimes some of the surrounding tissues
- glands that produce semen - these are the seminal vesicles
After surgery to remove your prostate, you no longer ejaculate semen. This is because the prostate makes most of the fluid in semen. Your testicles continue to make sperm cells but they are reabsorbed back into your body. This means you are still able to have an orgasm, but this is a dry orgasm with no ejaculation.
This means you will not be able to get someone pregnant by sexual intercourse.
If you want to have children in the future, your doctor might suggest sperm banking. This means they collect sperm before surgery. They freeze and store your sperm until you decide you want to use it to have a baby.
How radiotherapy, hormone therapy and chemotherapy affect your fertility
After 
or , you might produce less semen or no semen. These treatments can also damage sperm and reduce your sperm count. So it might be more difficult for you to have children naturally.
Men can still be fertile during their radiotherapy, hormone therapy or chemotherapy treatment. It's important to know that these treatments can damage a developing baby. So you should always use to avoid pregnancy while having these treatments.
Sperm collection and storage (sperm banking)
You might consider storing sperm if you think you might want to have children in the future. You need to store sperm before starting treatment.
It might be possible to take sperm from your testicles after a radical prostatectomy. The sperm can be used to fertilise your partner directly or with the test tube baby technique. This is called in vitro fertilization or IVF.
Ask your doctor or specialist nurse to refer you to a specialist fertility clinic.
Coping with changes to your fertility
It can be helpful to have more information about any problems or changes you experience. There might also be practical advice or other treatments that can help.
Coping with a low sex drive.
Prostate cancer and its treatment can reduce or make you lose interest in having sex.
Sex and cancer if you are single
If you are single and have cancer, you may have concerns about starting a new relationship. Or you might be worried about dealing with infertility in the future.
Supporting your partner if they have cancer
You may be wondering how to deal with any changes in your sex life if your partner has cancer. This might include issues around communication, supporting your partner or contraception.
Talking about sexual difficulties
Your sex life is very personal. You may find it difficult to talk with your partner or your doctor about any sexual difficulties.
Your partner is likely to be relieved that you want to talk things over. They could have been trying to find the right time to raise the subject themselves. You may feel even closer after you have talked any difficulties through.
Doctors and nurses deal with these situations all the time. They are used to talking about them so try not to feel embarrassed. They may raise these issues with you during your appointments. But if they don’t, feel free to ask them if you are worried about it.
You can ask them to refer you to a specialist counsellor or a sex therapist.
