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Old September 30th 11, 09:17 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.soc
Edward Dolan
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Posts: 14,212
Default OT Prostate Cancer

"JimmyMac" wrote in message
...
On Sep 27, 11:48 am, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
[...]
There has been a recent large study about which treatment is the least
disruptive to a normal life. Prostatectomy is the worst, followed by
radiation, followed by seeding, the least disruptive.

How is your anti-hormonal treatment going? I just had 1 shot in the belly
prior to radiation and seeding and had a non-ending series of hot flashes
for 4 months as a result. I don't know if I could live with those shots.


Hot flashes are the least of my worries and I don't suffer too badly

from them. I am more concerned about the long term effects of hormonal
therapy. There is a downside to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).
Adverse acute menopausal side effects include hot flashes, abdominal
fat deposit, breast pain and/or enlargement, reduction in the size of
testes and penis, loss of lean muscle mass, emotional changes,
anxiety, depression, weight gain, fatigue, impotence, and loss of
libido.

The loss of libido I also consider a serious matter in addition to the hot
flashes. It why I will never neuter any of my cats. It is best to function
as a normal creature for as long as possible. Mankind is not smart enough to
mess with mother nature.

What is remarkable to me in light of all the adverse side effects that you
list is that many guys who were being treated and supposedly cured of their
prostate cancer at the VA in Seattle were going to continue the anti-hormone
treatments anyway. That is how much they feared prostate cancer. I thought
that was crazy and never even considered such a course.

More serious side effects include anemia, loss of bone mass

(osteopenia/osteoporosis), Type-II diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, memory impairment, cognitive
decline, adverse effects on the liver, increased risk of skeletal
related event (pathological fracture), colorectal cancer, and excess
serum cortisol. Some anti-aging experts refer to cortisol as the
"death hormone" because of the multiple degenerative effects that it
produces including immune dysfunction, brain cell injury, and arterial
wall damage. Regardless, I had only two alternatives. I could allow
the disease to rapidly progress unabated, or I could opt for ADT to
survive longer. I chose the latter.

You chose the only treatment you could have chosen. I would not worry too
much about those "serious side effects". I had a friend here in Worthington
who had the same diagnosis as you and the same treatment and he lived for
well over 10 years and never had any side effects except the ones I have
already mentioned (he died of kidney failure at age 83). Just be thankful
that the hot flashes do not bother you much and that you do not mind the
loss of libido.

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota



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