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Do you have urinary incontinence after prostatectomy & radiation?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jun 6 3:57am | Replies (64)Comment receiving replies
Hi @carver, I moved your question about urinary incontinence after prostate cancer radiation treatment to the discussion @hmctgraybill51 started here:
- Do you have urinary incontinence after prostatectomy & radiation? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/urinary-incontinence-1/
I did this so you can read the previous helpful posts by @jonbuuck @jerryegge @itterac @scullrower and connect with them and others like @maxvt @web265 and others.
Carver, has your oncology team talked to you about pelvic floor exercises? They seem too simple, but they can help.
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Hi @carver. My RP was May of 2019. I faithfully did my Kegels for 10 months, but it was determined that I was not going to gain continence. Since I needed to have adjuvant radiation, my radiation oncologist and my surgeon both recommended surgery for an artificial urinary sphincter (AMS800). Dr. Patrick Walsh in his Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer (which I highly recommend) and the urology team at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, said this is the gold standard in controlling incontinence. It takes a few weeks to heal from the surgery, but when the device is activated, it is truly remarkable. I could not have gone through radiation without this device. The only downside is that the radiation did weaken it a bit, but all I need is a thin pad once a day, and I'm good to go. I had a couple of doctors say that if you go this route, make sure your surgeon does a lot of these surgeries, and my understanding is that the Mayo Clinic Rochester does one of the most--if not the most--in the world. My research is that the other options are a poor substitute to the AUS. I'm glad I have it.