penile shortening

This subject is probably one of the most sensitive to wrap your hands around.  Once again, as I try to gather information I get conflicting opinions.  Some doctors say penile shortening is a side effect of surgery and some say it does not happen.  I have experienced major shrinkage and I did not just get out of the pool.  At the present time, I am 5 weeks out of surgery and Little Elvis is behaving like a frightened turtle.  I am wondering if this is a tempoary condition or if this will last a lifetime.

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I’m seven weeks post surgery and thought for sure I’d always have to squat/sit to do my business. Have since learned that isn’t the case. But..   My little pee wee and I are Anxiously awaiting the arrival of the vacuum pump to help exercise him via getting blood to flow. From what I understand, it’ll take a good length of time (pardon the pun) to get back to closer to the original size….   If it wasn’t so darn hot here, I’d just tell anyone that looks that the water sure is COLD.

Bootheel - That's exctly what I heard (about the urethra and the bladder). Maybe I'm not crazy after all.

But - Steve N Dallas - as I said, after some period of time (8-10 weeks?) things down there seemed to relax and return to normal - well, as normal as you can be with ED.

kcragman

Navy

Welcome to the "turtle club". Doctors deny such a thing will happen but thats not true. It does. It has been shortened like the others said and its something we have to live with. You'll have to work on it with the pump , pills and exercise. Its a distressing thing. Some suffer more than others. But don't let them tell you it doesn't happen. My doctor refused to believe it too. Right. After the catheter was removed and things settled down, the "turtle mode" set in. It was shocking. Maybe things will improve for you.

I'm not sure the Doc's known what their talking about as far as the urethra being shortened. I didn't have surgery ( Proton Beams ) and I have the same results. Sure doesn't look like I was curcumsized now. I think trama is trama no matter what the process was.

...ha ha, by george Roger I think you may be on to something!!

I am a little more than 2 years post-surgery. From what I was told, one can lose 10% to 15% of length on average after surgery. My understanding of why is similar to Bootheel's above.

This is a somewhat issue, I believe, from just the "hiding penis" syndrome that many have right after surgery. I certainly had that for several months.

I lost a bit more than the average... I think some was due to surgery, and some was due to subsequent Peyronie's syndrome that developed. It is not fun when you notice your penis has gotten smaller; even less so when your partner(s) notice.

I hate that this subject is not discussed or clearly documented anywhere. It is clearly an issue for many men. My surgeon mentioned it in the second meeting I had with him prior to surgery. In hindsight, I think he kind of downplayed it (easy for him to do, having his whole penis!), and the other surgeons and radiologists I interviewed swept it under the carpet.

I encourage you to use vacuum pumps and injections and Viagra (or similar meds) sooner than later, and to be aggressive in treating your ED as well as any shortening.

I’m still laughing about -> Welcome to the "turtle club".

 

It might be my imagination and or hopeful thinking but I’m now five days into using the vacuum pump and there seems to be a difference.

 

Course, I have a feeling it helps if you have/had something to work with in the first place which kind of leaves me out

We were not told about the shortening of the penis, until we asked about it well after surgery was over and we were in a follow-up check. The surgeon confirmed that one half to one inch of shortening can occur due to the removal of the portion of the urethra. It made sense logically. Though I am a believer in full disclosure, I wonder if this bit of disheartening knowledge was better to know later. After all, it was such a depressing experience for B anyway, it may have caused him even more worry. Being on the "receiving" end, I can tell you truthfully what it is like to have it just a bit shorter! Well, it is absolutely the best feeling in the whole world having B here, by my side, and able to be inside me! Like any bodily change in the one you love...its part of life, and you accept in the same way you hope your partner accepts you. The other fact is that an inch or two really does not have much to do with a woman's satisfaction in bed. Now that 18 months have passed after surgery, and we have happily resumed our lovemaking, the difference is negligible.

These posts are very interesting to one who has not yet been treated. When you say the penis developes turtlitis after surger, or perhaps even radiation, I would go one step further. Gilligan (my little buddy who is always getting me into trouble) has an early bout of turtlitis which is obviously a psycho-physiological reaction to an uncertan future - I dare think what will happen when I begin HT! I had an MRI at the James Center (OSU) yesterday and today was told the cancer has not left the prostate. I've decided on IMRT with the IGRT (?) guidance. At this time it seems I'll start HT this coming Wednesday, and I after being on it for a couple of months I will begin the radiation after which I'll be on HT for an additional 2 months. ARRGGHH! I really dislike this but it is what it is.

Jeesh I'm usually a stable guy, but this is really tossing me around emotionally. Do others have similar feelings?

Stephen

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57 PSA 6.7 , DRE negative, DX on 7/25/08 Biopsy positive 2 of 12 cores with Gleasons 3+4 and 4+4 As of this date no treatment. It seems like I was diagnosed 6 months ago.

Boxers will certainly let your testicles sag. just like women's boobs, our ball sac will look more and more like something out of National Geographic as time goes by. My sister in law works in a nursing home and she warns me about wearing boxers. Says i'll regret it when someone sets me down on the toilet and my privates get a cold bath.

Actually, i asked my surgeon about this and asked him to explain. His answer is that it most certainly is NOT the loss of the inch of urethra. they must leave the exterior abdominal boundaries where they are and pull everything else down to the urethra. They pull the bladder down into the urethral canal and create a new neck for the bladder. Read Snuffy Meyers book. it has illustrations and all. if they did not do this, and simply pulled the penis up to the bladder, you would tug directly on the bladder and cause huge damage just by pulling your penis. God knows, we men do that enough.

There is trauma to the area which shrinks everything down, but this is due to low blood flow. What happens, according to my surgeon, is that you have a certain grace period where you can recover from this low blood flow and have few side affects. But, the longer it lasts, the more smooth muscle tissue is lost from the penis and surrounding area. Once the smooth muscle tissue atrophies, it is gone forever. he insists it is very strongly linked to the skill of the surgeon how much collateral damage is done and so prevent a lot of trauma and tissue atrophy. The soner you get blood flowing back into the penis, the better things will be. ED drugs, pumps, JO (even when limp) will all get blood flow going and minimize shrinkage. As many guys have said here, a pump that will stretch things out and pull in blood is probably the best tool to keep things going.

having said that, he did say that most men should not experience mush shrinkage at all. If you are getting erections as firm as you were before surgery, your penis will not be noticably shorter. Most of us have the problem that the engorgment simply is not there. Over 1/3 of the penis is inside the body. Without that full engorgement, that bulb of the penis will not push the exterior part of the penis out further. I have rarely gotten an erection as firm as before surgery, but when I did, my wife mentioned that it was good to see my back to my old self. So, i think the dr was right.

limp out of a warm shower, I think I look perhaps a tad thinner than before surgery, but length is still there. when things are under full pressure, I am perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 inch shorter, but not enough to notice or bother either my wife or me....and it's not as though I was hung like a horse to begin with! just average.

Again, it bothers us men more than it bothers our female partners. Gee, wish I could invent an augmentation procedure along with a prostatectomy so that a reward for going through all this crap would be a **** size member. Let me start disecting mice or something....

Paul

Hi guys - hate to bring this up again, but I have been lying to you.

At 19 weeks post op I assume I am pretty close to being where I am going to be. I was not hung like a stallion to begin with, but now I have two observations: 1) I am not sure I am ever going to be able to stand and whizz again. I am still using thin pads, but even without them I'm not sure I can clear my trousers, and 2) my pubic hair never used to get in the way of ANYthing. Now it gets in the way of EVERYthing. I've taken to trimming it back with scissors. How can THAT not change your perception of what is happening down there?

I also have a stunning dimple in my abdomin right at the base of (and above) my penis - so deep I can stick my finger in there almost up to the first knuckle. I am pretty darned sure it was not there before the surgery.

Imagine an inflated balloon with a straw sticking through the wall of the balloon - but permanently attached to the balloon. If you reach inside the balloon and pull on the straw it creates a dimple on the outside of the balloon where the straw enters. I feel like that is what has happened to me - rightly or wrongly.

Just reporting what I am seeing.

kcragman

Piano - No, nowhere near an incision. All of my incisions are at the belly button level or above (more or less). This dimple is right at the base of my penis.

My drain was plugged in through the left-most incision.

I am ordering a pump and I hope that helps with one or more of my issues.

kcragman