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I wish urologists would tell patients that there are many options to treat prostrate cancer and the odds keep getting better. learn, explore, get third and fourth opinions. I like my urologist and he did not 'sell me' anything
However, if you elect for robotic prostratectomy, expect good results (with no guarantees and lots of exceptions), but also expect:
ED and incontinence.
Most of the NIH studies point to an overwhelming majority of men being incontinent for many months (80% +)
I can't believe some are 'advertising' like used car salesmen that their odds are lower, that a majority of their patients do not have incontinence or ED, That they will remove the catheter in a day or so. That manyof their patients are back to work in a week. This goes against good practice and the established research.
I would still elect for robotic prostratectomy, I believe the right choice for me. but this was far from a walk in the park. I love adding more life expectancy and this trumps everything., but returning to work in a week or so seems totally unrealistic unless you have a job in which you can work while being incontinent. Shame on those urologists who just do not put this out there and up front. .
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My urologist was 100% upfront with me about the side effects and recovery. He also talked about other treatment options. In fact, he all but guaranteed some measure of ED at the minimum and certain incontinence. I didn't get a dog and pony show from him - but I didn't get one the first time I used him either and I trusted him enough to have him do this.
I know a lot of folks are down on their doctors for their outcome. My outcome was positive, but I was told up front that it would be negative. He told me that, based on the MRI, I would lose at least half my nerve bundles, if not more. I lost a couple nerve endings and kept most of the nerves on one side and all on the other.
Just before I went in for surgery someone here posted a Sloan doctor's presentation that depressed the living hell out of me. The guy backed up what my doctor said about the vast majority of men experiencing ED and/or incontinence. But there was one take-away from that video that stuck with me, he said that if your sexual function is important to you that it doesn't hurt to remind your surgeon of that right before surgery so that when he's in there he's thinking about it and maybe take a few extra minutes to examine the nerves a little more thoroughly before just cutting them out. I did that very thing, and I even told my wife that if I forgot to say it that I wanted her to remind him. I don't know if that made any difference, but I didn't lose half my nerves due to the protrusion on my prostate.
The point being that not all experiences are the same. I saw 9 different doctors before making my decision, not a single one of them recommended their specialty, they all recommended surgery, every one. Now I'm only 54 and that was a huge factor because they all prefaced with "at your age", but my experience wasn't "surgeons want to cut and oncologists want to radiate".
I think whoever told you that it was a walk in the park and you'd be back to work right away was irresponsible for saying those things.