Now, my libido is slowly starting to come back. It reminds me that a large chunk of life has been missing for a long time. It's important because it allows you to be a full man again.
I live healthily now. I walk my dog and I monitor my diet carefully. I'm quite sure that changing my diet has kept me alive.
The incidence of prostate cancer is much lower in vegetarians, so I rarely eat meat but stick to fruit and vegetables, pasta, nuts and seeds.
With no family history of prostate cancer, I don't know why I've been singled out for it. I'm just glad my GP acted so quickly.
Case Study 2. Impotence
Tony Wilkinson, 50, a mechanical engineer from Camberwell, South London, has been impotent for ten years. He is married to Cathy and they have four grown-up daughters.
Here, he tells how he faced up to one of man's greatest fears:
I was injured in a fall at work, which fractured my pelvis - but because of the pain from my main injury, I didn't realise I had also damaged my testicles.
I was in hospital for three months, and during that time realised I was not becoming aroused at all. The doctors just told me not to worry.
When I got home, though, I tried to make love and nothing happened. I didn't know then, but I had irreparable nerve damage.
It got to the point where I avoided going to bed. I had been married to Cathy for 21
Tony and wife Cathy
years by then, but, like a lot of men, impotence was one thing I couldn't talk to her about.
Cathy, I later discovered, thought it was her problem. She thought she couldn't arouse me any more and was worried I didn't love her.
Finally, months later, she brought up the subject and persuaded me to see a doctor. He sent me to a specialist who suggested various aids - a pump or injections into the penis. But nothing was suitable or comfortable for me.
Then Viagra came out, and once I tried it I was hooked. Now, I can make love again, but we have to plan ahead because the pill has to be taken 45 to 50 minutes before we make love.
In the old days, we would make love up to five times a week. Now I have a prescription for four Viagra pills a month - so that means once a week.
Being impotent is not something to be ashamed of - I don't see it as a reflection on my manhood. All my friends know about it and I'll happily discuss it with them. And if I can help someone else by talking about it, then so much the better.
The Impotence Association: 020 8767 7791.
Case Study 3. Testicular Cancer
Colin Osborne, 39, works in the printing industry and lives at Hainault, Essex, with his wife Sandra, a hospital radiographer, and their two sons, Ashley, 11, and Elliott, seven.
He almost died of testicular cancer - and believes every man should check themselves regularly. Colin says: If I hadn't been married to a radiographer, I probably wouldn't be alive today.
It was two weeks after I'd found a pea-sized lump in my left testicle that I mentioned it to my wife, Sandra. She said I had to go to the doctor straight away.
Part of the problem for men is that you know if you go to the doctor you're going to be examined - and that means dropping your trousers and someone prodding and poking you. I wasn't scared - just embarrassed.
My GP referred me to a surgeon, who did an ultrasound scan. The next day I got a phone call asking me to come back.
I went on my own. I knew what it was just by the way the surgeon looked at me. That was the worst day of my life. I thought I was going to die.
I went into shock and can't even remember driving home. Sandra was in the kitchen and I said: 'I've got cancer and I'm going to die.'
The next day I saw a urologist, and he told me I had to lose one of my testicles. I was told I'd probably had the disease for six months for the lump to get to that size.
I had the orchidectomy (removal of testicle) the next day. It was a fairly quick operation under general anaesthetic.
I was booked in to have a course of chemotherapy at St Bart's Hospital in London.
Then they discovered the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes in my abdomen. I had four lots of chemotherapy in three months and went into remission.
But some weeks later it spread to my pelvis and lungs.They gave me another course of chemotherapy, but still the tumours were growing.
The doctor treated me with a new drug called Taxol and the tumour in my lungs virtually disappeared.
Later, Professor Tim Oliver, who was treating me at Bart's, told me I would have lived just two months if the drug hadn't worked.
In all, my treatment lasted 18 months. I had seven lots of chemotherapy and an operation to remove my lymph nodes. You could say I've been through the mill. |
