What will happen?
If you have recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer and have chosen to, or been advised to have a radical prostatectomy (surgery), one of the side-effects that you will have been told about is urinary incontinence.
Most men will have some level of urinary continence immediately following their treatment. Up to 15% (approx 1 in 7) of those men will be left with life-long urinary incontinence 123.
Men often report that although they are warned about incontinence, they are not told about it in any detail and that they would like more information about what will happen to them and the things that they can do to prepare.
What can I do?
In the following sections we will give you some practical advice and tips about what will happen to you in the coming weeks and to help you to prepare for coping with a catheter after surgery and the subsequent bladder leakage that will occur following catheter removal.
• Preparing for bladder leakage Practical tips to help prepare for bladder leakage after surgery.
• Your catheter. Immediately after your surgery and when you return home, you will have a catheter in place. Find out practical advice about how to look after your catheter during this time.
• Catheter removal. You will have a catheter in place for 2-3 weeks to allow healing of your urethra. Find out what will happen at the appointment to have it removed.
• Coping with bladder leakage
When your catheter is first removed, you will probably be unable to control your bladder and will have bladder leakage. Find tips and advice to help you cope with bladder leakage and continence product advice.
Anything else I need to know?
To read more about the surgery/operation itself and what it entails please visit prostate cancer UK.
If you are having a non-surgical treatment for prostate cancer, for example external beam radiotherapy, permanent seed or temporary brachytherapy, you may also experience, urinary , bowel and erection problems. To read more about what these treatments involve, visit Prostate Cancer UK.
Find out more about coping with urinary or bowel incontinence following these treatments.
To read about the erection problems which is the other most troublesome side-effect of surgery go to Prostate Cancer UK