I had about 38 sessions and had no side effects at all. Six years later, I started to have an incontinence, but I had had a prostatectomy 3.5 years before the radiation so who knows what caused the incontinence. I had none after the surgery.

The 20 day treatment with higher radiation is more risky but it usually results in only short term urinary and bowel issues like diarrhea. They usually go away pretty quickly. I know one guy that had His short-term radiation switched to only four days a week, so he had the weekend to recover, and that worked well for him.

The thing is no two people are the same and some get much worse, long-term side effects.