In short
Podcast Summary: The Male Room with Dr. Jesse Mills
Episode Title
What to Expect After Prostate Surgery: Reclaiming Sex, Confidence, and Control
Overview In this episode, Dr. Jesse Mills, the Director of The Men’s Clinic at UCLA, discusses the impact of prostate cancer surgery on men's lives, particularly focusing on sexual recovery, continence, and overall quality of life. He introduces the concept of "prehab" to enhance recovery outcomes and emphasizes the emotional vulnerabilities that accompany prostate cancer recovery for both patients and their partners.
Key Topics Discussed
- Understanding Prostate Cancer Surgery
- Radical Prostatectomy: The surgical removal of the prostate, which can significantly affect sexual and urinary functions.
- Quality of Life Focus: Dr. Mills emphasizes his role as a coach for patients, aiming to restore their quality of life post-surgery.
- The Concept of "Prehab"
- Prehabilitation Strategies:
- Medication: Use of PDE5 inhibitors like Tadalafil (Cialis) to promote blood flow.
- Pelvic Floor Exercises: Kegel exercises are recommended to strengthen pelvic muscles, aiding in both urinary control and sexual function.
- Nutrition: Importance of high protein intake and reduced sugar consumption for recovery.
- Follow-Up Care: Regular consultations with healthcare providers to assess progress and modify treatments as necessary.
- Sexual Recovery Post-Surgery
- Expectation Timeline:
- 3 Months: Initial recovery phase; potential for some men to begin regaining sexual function.
- 6 Months: Significant recovery for many patients, with about 50-70% experiencing functional erections.
- 1 Year: Approximately 80% of men can achieve erections suitable for penetration.
- Ejaculation Changes: Patients may experience a "dry orgasm" post-surgery, where they can have the sensation of orgasm without the release of semen.
- Managing Continence
- Incontinence Rates: Discussion on how surgery affects urinary control and the importance of pre-surgical pelvic floor exercises.
- Post-Surgical Support: Techniques and strategies to regain bladder control post-operation.
- Psychological Aspects
- Emotional Vulnerability: Acknowledgement of the psychological challenges faced by men post-surgery, including fear and anxiety about sexual function.
- Partner Involvement: The importance of including partners in discussions to foster a supportive environment.
- Myths and Misconceptions
- Common Myths: Debunking the belief that full recovery to pre-surgery sexual function is guaranteed.
- Realistic Expectations: Emphasis on the notion that while men may not return to their pre-surgery state, they can achieve a fulfilling sexual life with the right support and treatment.
Key Takeaways
- Empowerment Through Knowledge: Patients are encouraged to take an active role in their health and recovery through prehab and follow-up care.
- Holistic Approach to Treatment: Addressing both physical and emotional aspects of recovery is vital for a comprehensive rehabilitation process.
- Importance of Communication: Open dialogue with healthcare providers and partners is crucial for managing expectations and fostering emotional support.
Conclusion Dr. Mills provides a compassionate and practical outlook for men recovering from prostate cancer surgery, emphasizing the importance of proactive engagement in their health and the value of support systems. The episode serves as a comprehensive guide for navigating post-surgery challenges, focusing on reclaiming intimacy, confidence, and control.
For further information, listeners are encouraged to explore resources related to prostate health and recovery, and to maintain communication with their healthcare teams.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOStarting the Conversation on Prostate Cancer
3:33 to 5:28
Explore the importance of discussing prostate cancer and patient experiences.
“I am so excited, but also just this is going to be a sobering topic, but also we're going to have fun with it like we always try to do on the mailroom.”
Quality of Life After Prostate Surgery
5:28 to 9:10
Understand how to maintain quality of life and regain function post-surgery.
“And mostly we'll focus on surgery because that's where most of the data are post-recovery from prostate cancer therapies.”
Expectations of Sexual Health Post-Surgery
9:10 to 14:00
Learn about sexual recovery timelines and approaches after prostate surgery.
“It may be as easy as it just recovers because you had a fantastic favorable anatomy and a great surgeon and a great surgery.”
Understanding Neuropraxia and Erections
14:00 to 16:49
Learn about how neuropraxia affects erectile function post-prostate surgery.
“that has a funny bone and has hit it, that's a neuropraxia where half your hand goes numb because you just dinged your ulnar nerve.”
Penile Rehabilitation Post-Surgery
16:50 to 19:55
Discover the methods for penile rehabilitation after prostatectomy, including Viagra and vacuum devices.
“We usually combine it with something called a vacuum erection device, which is if you've ever seen Austin Powers, that's a vacuum erection device.”
Prehab and Nutrition Importance
23:20 to 28:00
Explore the significance of prehab and nutrition for patients before prostate surgery.
“And that's what that does, is that you're just priming the pump.”
Importance of Kegel Exercises Post-Surgery
28:00 to 29:35
Learn how Kegel exercises can aid in recovery after prostate surgery.
“follow post-operative instructions, if you're not eating well, if you're not sleeping well, you're not going to have as good outcome as somebody that's super motivated.”
Understanding Orgasm After Prostatectomy
29:35 to 31:28
Discover how orgasms can still be experienced after prostate surgery.
“to hold that so that your urination becomes much easier.”
Fertility Preservation Discussions
31:28 to 33:22
Explore the importance of discussing fertility preservation before surgery.
“That's on my script that I don't actually have.”
Understanding Climacteria: Urine Leakage During Orgasm
33:22 to 35:53
Learn about climacteria and its implications for men post-surgery.
“Sperm preservation is super important in that whole thing.”
Show all 18 chapters
Management Strategies for Climacteria
35:53 to 38:21
Find out strategies to manage climacteria effectively after surgery.
“couple of ways, Jordan, that, that I've had some success over.”
Understanding Penile Shortening After Surgery
42:30 to 46:38
Explore the effects of prostate surgery on penile length and shape changes.
“It's with noodles, croissants, croissant rolls, pan of chocolats, scones, and biscuits.”
Preventing Peyronie's Disease Through Prehab
46:39 to 50:54
Discover how prehabilitation can reduce the risk of developing Peyronie's disease.
“Mills, it's interesting, but in our prehab population, the guys that we're following for prostate cancer rehabilitation, I'm not seeing that many men develop Peyronie's disease.”
The Role of Psychology in Recovery
50:55 to 54:35
Learn about the psychological aspects of recovering sexual health after prostate surgery.
“Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what that looks like for you, for your patient?”
Addressing Myths About Sexual Health Post-Surgery
54:36 to 56:00
Understand common myths and facts regarding sexual health after prostate cancer surgery.
“Yeah, I think the biggest, I don't know if it's a myth, but a misinformation is that you're never going to be the same again.”
Navigating Post-Prostate Cancer Life
56:00 to 59:00
Learn how to manage life after prostate cancer and the importance of patient-physician communication.
“But how do we get you to the point where you know that you're cured of cancer and you have a lot of life ahead of you, but it's going to be some work on my part.”
Empowerment Through Knowledge
59:00 to 59:38
Understanding your health data is key to reclaiming your life and confidence after cancer.
“You know, I'm normally so fired up, but I think I'm super fired up in the fact that we have so much more good to do out there.”
The Importance of Community Support
59:38 to 1:00:07
Explore the role of nonprofits and community support in prostate cancer awareness and treatment.
“Man, so, okay, now I'm feeling good again.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Cardiometabolic is one of the biggest health challenges in the U.S. and evaluating patient risk across multiple conditions requires careful attention. With so many testing options and guidelines, getting a clear picture of patient health can still be a challenge. LabCorp brings clarity. Our cardiometabolic testing solutions support early risk assessment and empower more informed decision making so you can focus on what matters most, your patients. Visit LabCorp.com to partner with LabCorp and simplify complex patient profiles. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously.
0:34On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20 % year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S &P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's.
1:09Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA, and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. When people turn to healthcare for weight loss, they're looking for real support. That's why more people are choosing orderlymeds.com.
1:37Orderly Meds connects you with real doctors and access to proven GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and terzepatide. No guessing, just a more supportive experience. And all shipped directly to your door in discreet packaging. Do your research, ask questions. Then visit orderlymeds.com slash podcast for an exclusive offer. That's orderlymeds.com slash podcast. Individual results may vary. Not medical advice. Eligibility required. See site for details. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit.
2:12Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors for the next era of gaming. Upgrade to smooth, high quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com.
2:31This is Dr. Laurie Santos from the Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos. One of the things we talk about a lot on this show is behavior change and how small, easy swaps actually stick. That's why Hero Bread is such a great example of making progress without overthinking it. Hero makes everyday bread products with 0 to 5 grams of net carbs per serving, 0 grams of sugar, and up to 19 grams of protein. And they still feel satisfying to eat. It's bread that fits into real life. Visit Hero.co, check out their products and reviews, and use my code HAPPINESS for 10 % off your first order. All figures are per serving, not a low-calorie food.
3:11See Nutrition Facts for more info.
3:17Let's talk about it in the mailroom. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it in the mailroom. Welcome to the mailroom. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the mailroom. Dr. Jesse Mills here. Jordan Runtam, my man. I am so excited, but also just this is going to be a sobering topic, but also we're going to have fun with it like we always try to do on the mailroom. And the topic writ large over the next, I would say, about four episodes, maybe even five episodes, Jordan, that I'm looking at this is the saga of prostate cancer, how it's diagnosed, how it's screened for, actually, starting with that, how it's treated.
4:04But also then, how are you, by the way, Jordan? It's been a minute. You've been out in Doha, and you've been riding in the deserts as a Bedouin. And tell me about how things are going on your side. And are you good to be back in Brooklyn in sub-zero weather? I was going to say, I've been out in the sun too long, and now I'm paying the price. I'm back in sub-zero Brooklyn, the frozen tundra of the Northeast right now. But no, I'm good. I'm excited to talk to you about sort of, in the last three episodes, we talked to Dr. Wayne Bruce-Brain about how to treat prostate cancer, how to detect and treat it.
4:40And now this is kind of more of the aftermath, sort of living in the aftermath of treatment. Right. Yeah. And also just, you know, I'm a huge fan, as I've always talked about, of partnering with patients almost in a coaching relationship. And I'm a board-certified urologist, but I don't do prostate cancer surgery anymore. I haven't done really since I finished training just because I'm so specialized in male reproductive and sexual medicine. And so when I sit down with somebody in my office that's facing prostate cancer surgery, that's what we're going to replicate today. And I tell those men and their partners, if they're with somebody, I say that my goal is to be your coach and not necessarily to be your surgeon.
5:27Because the idea is that we want to be able to bring back the quality of life that a man has prior to his prostate cancer therapy. And mostly we'll focus on surgery because that's where most of the data are post-recovery from prostate cancer therapies. and I always say, you went to my colleagues who are the quantity of life doctors, I'm the quality of life doctor, you'll hear that a lot because there are a lot of men that have very valid apprehensions about going through this procedure, which we usually call a radical prostatectomy or robot-assisted prostatectomy has really been the gold standard.
6:03And Wayne went into the nuances of there's not just one way to do a robotic surgery, which was really helpful for the audience to understand what to ask for in a surgeon. And so my goal is because I can do anything for a man when he comes into my office in terms of his rehabilitation. I can write him a prescription. I can have him go see a physical therapist. I can do minor procedures in the office to teach him or use pharmacology to improve his erections. Or I can take him to the operating room and perform a surgery called a penile implant surgery, which probably deserves its own episode at some point coming up because it's a life-changing procedure that fully restores a man's ability to have penetrative intercourse when nothing else works or when they don't want to do anything else.
6:47And so, yes, I'm a coach first, a surgeon second. And if you don't have to ever get on my playing field, then that's actually a win for both of us. I mean, that's something you mentioned. I was just in Doha for a podcast conference and I was interviewing a lot of people over there, a lot of people working in very different fields to me and live in very different cultures to me over in the Middle East. And so now I'm kind of in interview mode. And hearing you talk about this, it's so fascinating for me to think about your job as both someone who is, in one sense, a technician. You are a surgeon.
7:21You're very, very precise. But then the other side, you're part therapist in many ways. And that's so interesting to me. I mean, having to treat a patient holistically, both physically and the psychological aspect. And I imagine that plays a big role when you have people who see you post-prostate surgery with a lot of concerns about what is my life going to look like now? And how do you go into those meetings? Right, Jordan. Well, that, you know, it's interesting. The feedback I'm getting from all over about our podcast is this idea of male vulnerability. And I don't think there are many things.
7:57And I guess that was an unintended theme of what we're doing. but it's so gratifying to hear people saying, gosh, it allowed me to have a conversation with my man about things that we haven't been able to talk about. And prostate cancer, I know, right? Prostate cancer is, that's where you're most vulnerable because the two things that prostate cancer surgery does to a guy is it can dramatically affect and sometimes completely shut down his ability to have normal penetrative intercourse again. And it also can affect his ability to hold his urine. And so the rate of incontinence is a whole nother thing that we'll touch on about how to optimize in this episode.
8:37But that's vulnerable to come in and say, look, there's something that, you know, I've been potty trained since I was two and a half years old. I've been sexually active since I was, you know, whenever that is for everybody, it's a little different. But all of a sudden now at 55, at 60, at 45, whenever I get this diagnosis, you're basically saying I had to start over again. I have to learn how to potty train again. And I have to learn how to have sex again. And that's the starting point of our conversation is yes. And the goal when I ever meet with somebody is you are going to get your erections back.
9:09I just don't know how yet. It may be as easy as it just recovers because you had a fantastic favorable anatomy and a great surgeon and a great surgery. It might be that I have to go to the operating room to restore erectile function, or most likely it's somewhere in between those extremes, but you're gonna get your erections back. Same thing with continence. You're gonna get your continence back. Either it's through exercises you can do yourself or there's even procedures where we can tighten up that urinary muscle so that you will be dry again. Ooh, that's that deep breath, right? That's where a guy says, okay, cool.
9:43You know, we've got it now. So I'm gonna have my cancer taken care of. And we talked about this again with Dr. Brisbane, vein, the three C's of prostate cancer is it's going to be cure, then it's going to be continence, and then it's going to be coitus, and usually in that order. Now, some guys, not always, some guys are like, I don't care if I'm incontinent. You just got to get my erections back. I got to respect that. I got to respect that. It's okay to laugh out loud, but it's true. I love the guys I take care of because they are honest, they're vulnerable, and they're telling me, yeah, doc, I get it.
10:13You got me. I'm going to get this prostate cancer treated and I'm going to get on with my life. That is job one. Well, pretend that I am somebody who's just come into your office and I'm having that conversation with you. And I know everybody's different, but what should I realistically expect my sex life to look like in the first three months, six months, and then 12 months after surgery? Right. So thankfully I have literature on this. So I am a brilliant medical student who's now graduating from residency and going off to his fellowship at Stanford, Vadim Osadji. Years ago, we put out a paper of our data set at UCLA, employing a novel technique that we coined the term prehab or prehabilitation.
10:56And the reason for that is just the history for a two minute, whenever I tell a story to my wife that involves history, I tend to go on for long. So she says, you have 90 seconds to explain it to me. God bless her. I'm going to keep on tack for her. I said, okay, here's the 90 seconds of the history of prostate cancer surgery. So for years, we've been removing prostates, but up until we had a screening test, which Wayne talked about earlier with the PSA, most of the time, prostate surgery was pretty brutal. It was in guys that had advanced cancer because we didn't diagnose it soon enough. And we were basically just trying to restore their ability to urinate through this cancerous tumor and not have them literally bleed to death on the OR table because the prostate is such a vascular organ.
11:38It's very, very tricky blood supply, but more important, it's a very tricky nerve supply. And so it was about 1982, not that long ago, a brilliant, really father of modern prostate cancer surgery, a guy named Pat Walsh or Patrick Walsh was at Hopkins. And he did a lot of cadaver studies where he was able to dissect out the entire nerve pathway of the penile nerves that were responsible for erection. Turns out they're like a superhighway. They go right on the outskirts of the prostate. And there he discovered a surgical plane, meaning a little gap where he could remove the prostate, sew the guy back together, and call what we call a nerve-sparing prostatectomy.
12:22And there's two nerves. There's one on the left and one on the right. And it turns out even if you have to remove one of those nerves because the cancer has spread over to that side, even with one nerve sparing, and this came up in Dr. Asachi in my paper, even with one nerve sparing, you still have a really good chance of getting full function back because that one nerve can supply the blood flow to the penis to institute an erection after that surgery. So that was a big leap forward, nerve sparing prostatectomy. And we used to tell guys that, and I'm almost at 90 seconds, I know, we used to tell guys that, you know, you had about a 50 % chance or a little bit greater of restoring erectile function to have normal intercourse post-prostatectomy.
13:03Well, that chance was, you know, it was kind of just a coin toss of a number. But then about 15 years after that, there's some really good pioneers. John Mulhall would get mad for me calling him a pioneer because he's not that much older than I am, but a brilliant researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering in your town there in New York. and John Mulhall was one of the early researchers as well as Bud Burnett at Hopkins. It's just a who's who of like the greats in our field. And they said, you know, there might be ways that we can improve the outcomes of a nerve sparing prostatectomy because the whole thought was after Pat Walsh developed this, that everybody would have 100 % potency after this surgery.
13:42And it turned out it was nowhere near. And the reason for that was that even if you do a fantastic nerve sparing surgery, you do go through a period of time where those nerves are not actually giving good blood flow to the penis. It's what we call the neuropraxia period. And the neuropraxia period for anybody that has a funny bone and has hit it, that's a neuropraxia where half your hand goes numb because you just dinged your ulnar nerve. Now, the ulnar nerve is a really big nerve. It's one you can see and touch and pick up. The nerves that supply the penile blood flow, we call the cavernosal nerves, those are finer than human hair.
14:20And so even if you just look at it funny, it can go through a period of time where it's not sending the signals to the muscle to actually get blood flow to the penis for an erection. That's the neuropraxia. We have a hypothesis, pretty good data to show that lasts about six months. So the goal is to do something to keep the blood flowing, the muscles contracting during that neuropraxia. And so the answer to your question a while back was, you know, what does it look like at three months, six months afterwards? It varies, but if a guy is able to have a bilateral nerve-sparing prostatectomy, so your surgeon is able to get out the whole prostate with good margins, sew you back together, keep those nerves intact.
15:04In the old days, again, it still led to a pretty good improvement, about a 50 % return of penetrative intercourse at about a year. And then, you know, the granularity along the way, it was all over the place but in the mid 2000s which was when i was in training and actually did some rat research looking at cavernosal nerves and rats and giving them this is a i mean this is going to sound like it's good to be a rat but i promise it's not here but we did we did studies where we would feed that rat viagra every day he would put in his rat chow and then we would set up this what we call a cavernosal nerve injury where i'd make a little incision go in and crush the nerves, not cut them, but just crush them to kind of simulate what a nurse-bearing prostatectomy would be like.
15:48And we found that if we gave those rats Viagra every day at a human dose, that the ones that had the best return of function were the ones that were getting that daily Viagra as opposed to the ones that weren't getting anything at all. And we did this in a model for rats with diabetes, prostate cancer, or at least the prostate pelvic nerve injury. And so that was kind of the beginning of the basic science approach to this idea of penile rehabilitation, that why wait? Because in the old days, in 82, 83, you'd say, hey, look, don't worry. Just keep hoping. And a year from now, erections will come back.
16:23But a lot of guys noticed over that time period, well, a couple of things. My penis is shorter. It's less spongy than it used to be. That's what we call atrophy, penile atrophy. and then if they did get erections back, they were never quite as rigid, never quite as robust as they were prior and that's because we burned six months of daylight for that nerve-sparing prostatectomy to have those nerves wake up from their neuropraxia, their funny bone period. So that was kind of the background on why we do this. We usually combine it with something called a vacuum erection device, which is if you've ever seen Austin Powers, that's a vacuum erection device.
17:02I guess you've seen it, right? So I'm sure we can find a clip out there on YouTube. But essentially, it's an external chamber. Those have been around since an aerospace engineer out here in California invented one in his garage in the 1960s. And basically, you're just pulling blood flow into the penis until your erections wake up. And we think that activates the smooth muscle. It's kind of like physical therapy for the penile nerves as you're waiting for that to come back. And so those are sort of the pillars of this idea of penile nerve sparing rehabilitation after a prostatectomy. So Vadim's paper and my paper a few years ago, we said, well, what if we actually started that process a couple of weeks or a month before we actually did his prostatectomy?
17:45So everybody at UCLA and actually some of the surrounding centers that don't have this, what we call the prehab program, they'll come see me or one of my partners that specializes in sexual medicine. and we give them what the drill, I just told you, you know, you're going to go on daily. We use Tadalafil, which is a generic for Cialis because it comes in small doses and it seems to have a longer half-life than Viagra. And we'll talk about this, I'm sure, over this time about the differences in erectile dysfunction meds. But Tadalafil, Sildenafil, which is Viagra, one of those, you take it every day, you do the vacuum erection device every day, at least five days a week to try to get blood flow in there.
18:24that is the basis for, hey, guess what? You're going to get your erections back. And Vadim's paper showed that at about two months, about 20 % of men would be able to get erections suitable for penetration, which was way better than the historical controls. At about six months, about 50 to 70 % of guys would actually get that back. So you knew that by six months, things are going good. And within that first year or so, 80 % of guys would be able to have erections suitable for penetration. So not that. Now, 20 % of my, that 20 % of guys where no matter what we do, they still need help. That's what my surgical practice is based on to help these guys restore penetrative intercourse.
19:06But that's the beauty of prehab is that a guy can be proactive. I find that engaging men in their healthcare decisions, as well as their recovery, it really helps. And in fact, one of the most important predictors of success for those guys that are going to achieve, 80 % of guys are going to achieve penetrative intercourse, it was how often they followed up with me. So the fact that they're having these touch points with a physician so that we could review their progress, make changes if we had to, that's important. So again, it's all about the dialogue, right? Finding a good coach, finding a good physician to help get you through that process.
19:43So those are sort of the building blocks of what we call prehab now. Start early, do it every day. Most of the time I have guys on that regimen for at least six months, even if they get erections back. I've had guys that have gotten erections back a week or two after the surgery. They got to keep on it because that neuropraxy is real and they may still find that they're going to need that help a month down the road, two months down the road.
20:15Cardiometabolic is one of the biggest health challenges in the U.S., and evaluating patient risk across multiple conditions requires careful attention. With so many testing options and guidelines, getting a clear picture of patient health can still be a challenge. LabCorp brings clarity. Our cardiometabolic testing solutions support early risk assessment and empower more informed decision-making. so you can focus on what matters most, your patients. Visit labcorp.com to partner with LabCorp and simplify complex patient profiles. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously.
20:49On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt, from renewable energy companies with high free cashflow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20 % year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S &P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's.
21:24Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing, Member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC registered advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. When people turn to healthcare for weight loss, they're looking for real support. That's why more people are choosing orderlymeds.com.
21:52Orderly Meds connects you with real doctors and access to proven GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and terzepatide. No guessing, just a more supportive experience. And all shipped directly to your door in discreet packaging. Do your research. Ask questions. Then, visit orderlymeds.com slash podcast for an exclusive offer. That's orderlymeds.com slash podcast. Individual results may vary. Not medical advice. Eligibility required. See site for details. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next-level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit.
22:27Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra Processors for the next era of gaming. Upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo. Lenovo. Who doesn't love bread? Satisfying sandwiches, fully loaded bagels, buttered rolls. Crave-worthy and smart, Hero Bread has just 0-5 grams net carbs, 0 grams sugar, and up to 19 grams of protein and 22 grams of fiber per serving. Hero Bread bakes with heart-healthy olive oil and delivers the soft, fluffy, flavorful experience you love.
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23:20you
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23:30prehab you were literally priming the pump that's right yeah that's right and we have pretty interesting research in the spinal injury field that what we're trying to do is overwhelm that nerve terminal with nitric oxide. And that's what that does, is that you're just priming the pump. You know that it's going to take a hit. So you're basically training your nerves. And then afterwards, you're training your muscle in the penis to be able to be receptive to that nerve input whenever that kicks back in. It's pretty cool, but it also empowers guys to take control of their health, which also is why I spent a lot of time talking to men about their nutrition and exercise, how do they go into the surgery?
24:12Because even though you're taking a nap, in other words, you have a general anesthesia and your surgeon's doing all the work, your body has a stress response cycle. And it's equivalent to running a marathon where you just, it's exhausted, your cortisol levels go up. So stress hormones go up, your blood pressure, even though it's controlled by the anesthesiologist during the procedure, the signals are there that, man, this is super stressful. And so how do you prepare for an athletic event? Well, you train for it. So I'm a huge fan of starting a nutritional program, really the minute somebody gets a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
24:47So as Dr. Brisbane has talked to going through the biopsy, you get the results of the biopsy back, that's when he should start thinking about doing something to improve his nutrition if he doesn't have great nutrition already. So the two big things for me that I always say is that cancer loves sugar. And when we had Dr. Joffrey on a few episodes ago saying sugar is the most addictive substance out there and should be classified as a drug, that's not hyperbolic. And a lot of people when they're stressed, especially they think of this devastating cancer diagnosis, what are they gonna go for? They're gonna go for the donuts, they're gonna go for the sugar that gives them that little dopamine rush.
25:26But we know that controlling men's sugar intake or even women as well for any kind of cancer control. In fact, to the point of sometimes putting them on drugs to lower their blood sugar, like metformin or some of the new GLP agents, that actually can improve their cancer control because if the cancer doesn't have access to high blood sugars, it doesn't divide as rapidly because it needs that, any rapidly dividing cell needs high levels of carbohydrate or sugar. So I'm really harping on guys to limit your sugar intake as much as possible before the surgery and those six months post-op to let you heal.
26:02Protein, super important. So again, every time I make an incision, every time you skin your knee, you know, or you fall off a camel in Doha, for example, or whatever you did. Great pictures you sent, by the way. Yeah, you looked awesome. Camels are taller than you think, though, I gotta say. You can hurt yourself. You can hurt yourself. If you fall off a camel, you just injured stuff, a broken bone, at least a bruise, it takes protein to heal all those things. And if you're going to have an incision and you're going to have some muscle cut into, you're going to have an organ removed and you've got to heal where that organ used to be that what we call the anastomosis or the two tissues we have to sew together so a guy can be continent again, all of that needs protein.
26:45So try to increase your protein intake pretty significantly. Even if it's something as simple as taking a 30 or 60 gram protein shake a day or adding a little extra lean protein. Beans are a great source of protein. Lean chicken also, all that. So whatever it is, but just conscientiously make a big effort to improve your protein so you have that. We can actually measure that a little bit by looking at something called a microalbumin or albumin scores. And most of the time we do that preoperatively to make sure people are a good candidate for surgery. So people that are nutritionally depleted will have low albumin levels and we know that we have to do more to get them up and ready for big surgeries.
27:22So protein, protein, and then exercise. If you're going to run a marathon, even if you're asleep for a few hours while you're getting your prostate removed, you got to exercise. You got to get your heart in shape. If you can walk, really, I try to get people to do a good 30-minute walk at least five days a week to get ready for this. If you're limited in your mobility, then do something, upper body exercise, something that can get in a pool, whatever it is, to try to get your cardiovascular system ready for it. And you're going to do so much better. I mean, it's just outcomes are always improved when people are taking accountability and doing everything they can consciously so that they can do well with that surgery.
27:59Because I could be the best surgeon in the world, but if you don't follow post-operative instructions, if you're not eating well, if you're not sleeping well, you're not going to have as good outcome as somebody that's super motivated. You mentioned continence earlier as well. I was doing, in my role as the every person consulting Dr. Google before seeing an actual physician. I saw a lot out there about pelvic floor exercises helping with, does that help with just bladder control or also sexual function or both? Love me some Kegels, Jordan. Love me some Kegels. Yeah. And there are apps out there.
28:33You know, people are going to say, well, how do you do a Kegel? And I think that the best way I train is before a guy has his prostate out, all I tell the guy to do is the next time you're using the restroom, you're taking a leak, just pinch off that, that urine stream for a few seconds. That's a Kegel, you know, that's really engaging that pelvic floor. And then, and then do it every red light you're sitting at every commercial break. If you're watching TV, then start to do those Kegels and you should kind of do them in sets that physical therapists have very different protocols for what they think, but it usually it's either like four sets of a five second hold or, or 10 sets of a five second hold where you're basically just pinching that muscle, like you're trying to hold off your pee and then relaxing and going back and forth.
29:20And you do that probably three times a day, ideally before you have surgery. So now you know what it feels like. So when the catheter comes out, which we talked about a little bit with Dr. Brisbane, in terms of the recovery from surgery, you're ready to roll. You know, you're ready to be able to hold that so that your urination becomes much easier. And most surgeons today, they're doing a little extra stitch, essentially, the way to think about it, where they tack up that outlet, which is the urethra at the bladder neck level, so that you're fighting gravity a little bit to be able to pee afterwards.
29:57And that helps keep guys continent. So Kegels are very important. And I like what you asked, you kind of set me up, that the muscles that control orgasm also are in that pelvic floor. And so by strengthening those pelvic floor muscles, a lot of guys will have a better orgasm afterwards, which you're gonna say, well, Dr. Mills, I didn't think you orgasmed after you had prostate surgery. We talked about that a little bit, Dr. Brisbane as well. And I'll say, not exactly, Jordan. Actually, you can have super intense orgasms where you get that pelvic floor constriction, you get that euphoric feeling of all of the serotonin and dopamine and oxytocin release, all of that is still very euphoric post-prostatectomy.
30:42You just don't have an ejaculate. So that's the difference is because the prostate provides the majority of ejaculate fluid, the other organ called the seminal vesicles, they provide the rest. All of those have to be removed during prostate cancer surgery. So guys will have what we call a dry ejaculate where they'll still get the feeling and they can have that a lot of times, in fact, before men's erections are back, they actually will have orgasms, which is pretty cool. So they'll be able to feel that sensation even before they're ready to have penetrative sex again. That's really fascinating.
31:17Wow. I mean, and then there's a whole other discussion about, you know, and we talked with Dr. Smith recently about sperm health and banking and who's a candidate for that. So it's all connected. It's all connected. That's on my script that I don't actually have. which is you're right. So when I also talk about prehab, I do talk about what we call oncofertility preservation because, you know, we are diagnosing prostate cancer, some in guys that are still in the wheelhouse of reproductive age in LA that goes up to about age 85, I believe. But, you know, I mean, you know, we have some older dads out here, rock stars, you know, who I'm talking about.
31:56But the truth is that any guy that's having prostate cancer surgery should have at least a discussion about fertility preservation because you're right. I always say a prostatectomy is the mother of all vasectomies. In other words, we have to cut across the vas deferens, but also take out everything attached to the vas deferens, which is the prostate, which are the seminal vesicles. And so man will still make sperm after a prostatectomy, but because he's had essentially one giant vasectomy, they're all stuck in the testicle. And so I can still do a sperm retrieval. I can still do a procedure where I can go directly into the testicle and get plenty of sperm out to use for in vitro fertilization.
32:38But if a man wants to bank sperm ahead of time, just like we talked to Dr. Smith about the ways to get pregnant with frozen sperm, one thing we came up with something called IUI or intrauterine insemination. And so if a guy provides me with ejaculated sperm that I can freeze, then if it's a good enough quantity and quality, then he can still use that ejaculated sperm after prostatectomy to initiate a pregnancy through insemination as opposed to having to go right to IVF. So sperm banking is a critical part of the discussion and no age is too old to have that talk, but you always can't make assumptions about when a guy wants to become a dad or oftentimes when he wants to potentially have more kids.
33:20So they're absolutely right. Sperm preservation is super important in that whole thing. One other thing that comes up a lot that people don't think about and they probably didn't ask their prostate surgeon about is a phenomenon called climacteria, which is kind of what it sounds like. Climax is my orgasm. Uria means urination. And so this is not uncommon for guys to have a little leakage of urine while they're orgasming, which can be pretty socially awkward to say the least, uncomfortable for the man and his partner and not something they have to live with forever. So I'm going to break down the physiology of that a little bit, as well as ways to help improve guys as they're thinking about prostate surgery and this whole prehab program.
34:08And so the phenomenon of orgasm is a pretty cool thing. We talked about this a while back with Natalie Feingold-Goldberg in sex therapy and why some guys have difficulty ejaculating at all, what we call delayed orgasm. And some guys have premature orgasm where they ejaculate too fast. And a lot of that is because it's a reflex. It's a sympathetic derived reflex. So the nervous system, once everything is on the tarmac and ready for takeoff, there's a point of no return. And that point of no return is that sympathetic response. And so what happens in the urethra, which is our common pipe, the pipe to let pee out of our bladder and the pipe to let semen out of our prostate, seminal vesicles, testicles, is a very well-orchestrated dance of sympathetic fibers that close down the bladder neck but relax the opening or the external sphincter so that you can have semen come out but actually not have urine come out in a normal physiologic and anatomic intact male.
35:16So now there is no more semen, but that sphincter still wants to open up, right? But because you've had this reconstructive surgery, the prostate is gone, that opens up and you don't have a prostate and an internal sphincter to hold back the flow of urine. And so a guy's in the, you know, it's just amazing. Like, my God, this is so great. I'm going to have an orgasm after my prostate surgery. Dr. Mills told me about this. It's going to be fantastic. And then squirt, you get a little bit of urine out. And so it's physiologic. It doesn't mean you're incontinent and it just, we have to figure out how to deal with it.
35:52And there's a couple of ways, Jordan, that, that I've had some success over. Most of it is behavioral, which is that if you know a guy's going to have sex, make sure you fully empty, you know, now's not the time to drink coffee or a bunch of beer before sex and have a full bladder. You know, you gotta be, got to manage your fluids because if you don't have much in the bladder at the point of orgasm, ain't much going to come out. But that's not always practical, especially if, you know, somebody's engaged in sex with their partner for, you know, more than 30 minutes before the payoff, then that's a left time for your kidneys to make urine, end up in the bladder, and where's it going to go?
36:28So there are some medications. They're all off-label. There is no FDA-approved therapy for for this. But there are some things that work. One of the classic ones that your doctor might try is something called a tricyclic antidepressant. Omipramine is sort of the gold standard that we use. And why that works is it doesn't, we don't actually very often use it for depression anymore because we have so many better mental health agents, but it also actually tightens up that that sphincter so that it makes sure that you have a fighting chance of not leaking urine by closing up those, what we call the alpha adrenergic receptors in the bladder neck, so that you might have an orgasm without leakage.
37:13So there's some consequence of it. It makes some guys drowsy. It also can give you a little bit of a dry mouth. So there's some issues with it, but it might be worth trying if it's really, really bothersome. And there are surgeries we can do as well to improve this climacteria if it gets to the horrible point. And then lastly, you know, I mean, the old barrier method, it sounds kind of strange and simple, but sometimes it's just enough leakage that a condom would help keep it in place. And so a lot of men, even if they've been intimate with the same person, they're not worried about sexually transmitted infections, they will actually use condoms for a little while as they're having penetrative intercourse to make sure that they're not having that climacteria.
37:53But that's probably more than you ever wanted to know about Climacteria. And it's something that I don't even know what's out there in the literature. We don't talk about it much, but it certainly is a surprise. And certainly an email I get from patients saying, great news, Mills, this is great. Erections are back, so happy. But I got this little issue. And that little issue can be a big issue and also can be a little bit demoralizing to somebody that has returned function, thinking they're on their way, and then they have this urinary leakage with orgasm. But we can treat it. We can figure this out.
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42:44I would be remiss in my duties as the representative of every man on the show if I didn't ask this next question. I would imagine, although I should ask you directly, this is probably a thing after, you know, will my erections come back? I imagine this is the second on the list. Penile shortening or shape changes. Does that occur? If so, how often and to what extent and what can be done for it? Yeah, it does. it does occur. And, and thankfully there are things we can do for it. First of all, it's important for my oncological colleagues to acknowledge, because it wasn't actually really until I was in training, you know, in the early two thousands where they had, they showed papers that you do have a potential demonstrable length loss after prostatectomy.
43:34And some of it makes sense, I guess, in that, you know, your prostate is part of your, your urethral anatomy. In other words, the urethra, which is part of your penis, the prostate is like a donut with the urethra being the hole that goes to the donut all the way to the bladder. And, you know, prostates, they vary in length. Some of them are three inches long. Some of them are an inch long. Some of them are even smaller than that. But we always would say, yeah, you know, but the urethra, there's some redundancy to it. We're not shortening the erectile tissue. So length loss really shouldn't happen.
44:07But it kind of goes back to what we're talking about with smooth muscle atrophy. So a lot of guys, you know, they lose that dangle, that locker room dangle, because they're not getting that smooth muscle blood flow. And so the erect length loss is usually not that much, but the flaccid, like, I swear I looked down at my penis and it used to be much longer before my cancer surgery. Now it's what it is. That is true. But if you go on with smooth muscle atrophy long enough, it develops a condition called corporal fibrosis, which does cause dramatic length loss. It causes penile shortening with erections because that spongy, healthy elastic tissue that used to go up and down at a moment's notice now doesn't really respond the same way if you didn't do that prehab program and really get that smooth muscle engagement during that neuropraxia period.
44:58And the second thing, I like how you set that up with shape changes, because one thing that I've done a lot of research in, pretty well known for in the world, is something called Peyronie's disease, which we're, again, going to talk about at some point multiple times, just because it's such an interesting and such an important topic for men to know about. But in the classical studies of Peyronie's disease, which is when you get scar tissue that develops on the outer layer of the penis, what we call the tunic albigenia, we say about 20%, almost 20 % of men after prostatectomy would develop this scar tissue, which causes shortening.
45:36It also causes changes in the erect angulation of the penis. So the classic guy Peronis will come in, say my penis is shorter and I have a 45 degree upward bend or a side to side bend, or sometimes even a downward bend. And so now I have not only a shorter penis, worse erections, but I also have an angulated penis that makes penetrative sex difficult. So yes, all of those things can happen. All of those things are at least partially to fully preventable. And in another self-aggrandizement moment, another medical student that I worked with and resident over the years, we looked at our research about two, I want to say two years ago or so, three years ago, where one of my physician assistants, Keith Reggett, so I've worked forever, he's just a super smart guy that just spends his day in the clinic taking care of all my guys.
46:29And he said to me one day, you know, because we see so much Peyronie's disease, I probably see 3 ,000 men a year just for that diagnosis alone. And he said, you know, Dr. Mills, it's interesting, but in our prehab population, the guys that we're following for prostate cancer rehabilitation, I'm not seeing that many men develop Peyronie's disease. And the literature says, you know, between 16 and 20 % of guys will develop Peyronie's. And so I said, well, Keith, that's a really interesting observation. Let's look into it. And so we did, and we saw in our data set, some 400 plus guys after prostatectomy, we saw only a 2 % incidence of Peyronie's disease in these guys.
47:12And what that means is that something we're doing with our prehab is protective against a huge risk factor for developing Peyronie's disease, which is radical prostatectomy. So we went from a traditional 20 % rate of penile shortening curvature down to 2%. And I think it's probably that daily Tadalafil. It goes back to that smooth muscle engagement. Cialis itself, or Tadalafil, it has antifibrotic properties. This goes back to research that, again, we did at UCLA over 20 years ago with Jacob Rafer, who's my partner, friend, mentor, and true giant in the field, of medicine, he and his PhD scientist, Nestor Gonzalez, looked at Cialis as a treatment for Peyronie's back in around 2003 when it first came out.
47:58And they showed in vitro, so in test tubes, you could take penile scar tissue and feed it Cialis, it's very simplified, of course, but see that it actually could reverse some of the fibrosis in that layer, in that tunica Albiginian. So any guy that I see that has a risk for Peyronie's disease, certainly every guy that's coming in that has a prostate cancer surgery coming up, that is the pillar of how we prevent length loss, penile scarring, shortening, and Peyronie's disease is with that tadalafil regimen. So right. Yeah, shrinkage happens. We can prevent it. The other thing, if you wanted to be very aggressive, literature is not so great on this, but there's a few papers out there on something called penile traction device, which is like, you know, you're maybe too young, but you have that old soul that you remember what erector sets are.
48:50Do you know? Oh, of course I do. Oh, yeah. So tell the audience what an erector set is for those that are under 40 out there. It's like a souped up Lego set that actually comes with nuts and bolts in addition to, I remember them being metal. There were actually pieces of metal that would be put, maybe they're plastic now. And you would build cranes and all. It was a pretty, it was like a heavy duty Lego set. That's right. Yeah, no, exactly. So that's what a penile traction device looks like is an erector set of sorts. It's got these metal struts on either side of a cylinder that you put on the penis with a little gentle clamp at the head of the penis and then a foundation at the base of the penis.
49:29And then you just increase the struts on that erector set a little bit by little bit so that, you know, every week or however often you're able to gain a little extra length, you pop another little strut into that erector set and you walk around for an hour a day with this penile traction device on. And I can only imagine how many people, I hope you're not driving now or Googling and trying to figure out what penile erector set is, but it's probably trademarked. But anyway, if they're still in, Mattel is probably going to send me some kind of cease and desist. But anyhow, they're big sponsors of UCLA.
50:07So shout out to Mattel and the Children's Hospital. Maybe that'll get me off the hook. Anyway, they work. You know, if you're willing to wear the scaffolding for an hour a day, it may help restore some of that length. The question that we have in the literature on that is, is it one of those things where if you stop doing it, you recidivize? In other words, do you lose some of that length? Because when I see guys in active therapy, I use it a lot in my men that I'm treating for Peyronie's disease. It's pretty impressive. I mean, they really can restore some length and that elasticity. So if a guy is willing to go that extra inch, then yes, for sure, penile traction may be a part of their rehab.
50:53Yeah. We've talked a lot about physical things you can do, medications, but I imagine there's a huge psychological component to recovering after prostate surgery and optimizing sexual health after prostate surgery. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what that looks like for you, for your patient? Right. And my patient's partner. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I always, I'm always delighted when I see a patient's partner coming to this visit because I know then that they have support. And I know that there's somebody that, especially if they're sexually active together, then they can hear it out of my mouth that this is a team sport.
51:41And restoring erectile function is not going to usually happen right away. And there may be times when the man is going to be very, very willing and very libidinous and wants to engage in penetrative sex, but he just won't be able to. And it's not a slight against the partner. He or she could be incredibly responsive and incredibly understanding, but ultimately their libido is important as well. And so that's where I think sex therapists are super important. And I always say, you know, you can have sex without an erect penis, right? So you can still be intimate and figure out ways to pleasure each other without focusing on penetrative sex.
52:24And that's where the sexual therapists are super helpful to have that discussion because they can provide that extra level of here's some exercises you can try. But that's just on the sexual part, the survivorship of knowing that you're going through cancer surgery because you want to live a long, healthy life, especially for something like prostate cancer, which still kills more Americans than any other cancer, even though it's also almost as preventable. We really unpacked a lot of that with Dr. Brisbane, Dr. Hoffman on our cancer screening before. And it's true, but you have to say that the psychological ramification of telling a man that there's going to be a period of time when you're not going to have any kind of erection, likely for the first time in your adult life, and there's even a small chance that you're never gonna get that normal erection back and there's a 100 % chance that you're never gonna have an ejaculation again.
53:21That's like check, check and check for seeing how vulnerable that man wants to be to share that with his partner. And what about for all the single guys out there? And there are very good outcome studies that in general, single men don't fare as well as men that are partnered. and that is a huge thing that I have to address in my single male population. That's where cancer support groups can be helpful. That's where a lot of work has been done by the NFL Players Association. There's some amazing work in the professional sports field, cancer survivorship programs all over the country that I really encourage, especially my single guys to tune into.
54:00But right, you have to address the mental health before you can address the sexual health because you cannot dichotomize them. You're absolutely right. But it's a critical part of rehab is to have that discussion so that everybody understands what they're getting themselves into. Yeah, great point. Well, I think as your model patient right now, I think those are all the questions that I had from Dr. Google. But are there any big myths that you have people come into your office and they're sitting across from you and that you really want to put to bed right now when it comes to sexual health after prostate cancer surgery?
54:36Yeah, I think the biggest, I don't know if it's a myth, but a misinformation is that you're never going to be the same again. And that's 100 % true. So I don't want to candy coat any of this. but I also think you have to say you're going through something that is, is so critical to preserve your life that, that it may be worth understanding that the new you is going to be the new you. It's not going to be worse. Yeah. May not be better. It's going to be different for sure, but you have to get through that. And I think the only myths in general that I say is that a lot of guys, and maybe this is more of a, a fact is that I certainly see men.
55:18usually they're older. They went through this a long time ago. They may not have had this prehab counseling and prehab discussions available that say, I wish I never would have gone through that. And that's kind of the most heartbreaking thing I hear because there are men, you know, as much as I can just say how great we are at reconstructive urology at putting a penile prosthetic in or putting a urinary control device of some kind in where they fail. You know, we do get infections. We could do mechanical breakdowns. We do have complications from both surgery and radiation. And I have to own that as a profession and do everything I can to make sure that I meet guys where they're at to help say, okay, now this is where we're sitting today.
56:02But how do we get you to the point where you know that you're cured of cancer and you have a lot of life ahead of you, but it's going to be some work on my part. It's going to be some work on your part to get you to where you do feel as if your quality of life is starting to catch up to your quantity of life. Because for sure, I've seen guys, and Dr. Brisbane talked about this in some of the advanced prostate cancer treatment pathways or algorithms where we have to take testosterone away from a guy to improve his longevity. And, you know, I'm a huge testosterone advocate. We've talked about it.
56:36We're going to continue to talk about it. There's roles for it. but certainly enough guys have said, look, I went on androgen deprivation. I went on that hormone therapy to make sure my cancer doesn't come back. And I'd rather be dead than being on it. I gained weight, I'm depressed. My mind is not as sharp. I have zero libido and I just, I don't want to live like this anymore. So I have to meet guys where they're out there too. And so I think this is more of a call out to physicians than to the patients listening, but is just, you know, listen to your patient about what they want, what are their values.
57:12And that's a key aspect of shared decision-making that sometimes we lose in the oncology world. And I think it's so important to meet guys where they're at. And then if you are a patient, just like we talked about with Wayne, Dr. Brisbane, too, is that if you don't feel comfortable with your surgeon for whatever reason, then, you know, you do have abilities to go out, find somebody else that you really can have a longitudinal relationship because we're going to be there for you as an oncologist, as a rehabilitative and reconstructive urologist. You're going to have a good team in your corner. So yeah, don't not get screened.
57:47Don't not go through the therapy because our goal is to make sure there is another great nonprofit called Project Zero. And that's our goal is to have zero people die from prostate cancer because it is so preventable if screened. And also, we have so many great tools, again, to kind of bring it back to what Dr. Brizon and I talked about is there are even times when we can watch prostate cancer and we don't have to act. We don't have to go through surgery. And I think the regret of a lot of guys, especially in the older series, but when we found prostate cancer, you know, prior to 2005, 2010, we basically took it all out.
58:29And there's no doubt that we over-treated. We talked about that. Now we have so many better molecular diagnostics to know who to treat, who not to treat, that you just got to figure out who that guy is and then steward him through his journey, whether it's an active journey or whether it's a, let's wait and see and see how many quality of life years we got before we have to jump in on the cancer side. So yeah, more information, more information, feeling comfortable with your team, Jordan, just like everything else we do. It's feeling comfortable with the team, brother. Well, I think you led us through a very, very difficult journey, but very important journey with compassion and expertise, as you always do.
59:08Is there anything we missed? Yeah, no, I don't know. I'm subdued. You know, I'm normally so fired up, but I think I'm super fired up in the fact that we have so much more good to do out there. And I'm excited to hear the listener feedback on what action items they got out of this, which, you know, this whole series, both from a how do you screen diagnose treat to how do you prep yourself. I think this all are calls to action for men to know your numbers, make that relationship. And, yeah, let's get fired up. You know, let's do this to the point where guys are knowing their numbers, knowing their data, and getting with the right healthcare guys to get on there.
59:45Man, so, okay, now I'm feeling good again. I'm feeling super pumped. You did it, Jordan. Project Zero. Project Zero, yeah, I love it. That's probably trademarked too, but a shout out for any nonprofit that's out there in the community doing fantastic work, of which there are a lot, to get guys in the door to know their prostate cancer status. That's a home run here. That's the touchdown. And yeah, we did it. You know, we did it again. We hit a hard topic. And I know you can go somewhere with that one too, but it is, the goal. is to make it a hard topic and to keep it hard and to keep it active and to keep it long and the discussions flowing.
1:00:24Doc, you delivered on the mailroom today. Thank you for that. Look at that. Look at that. Right back at you, brother. Well, this is cool. I can't wait to join up again and figure out what we're going to talk about next, Jordan. I can't wait. Looking forward to it, sir. Thank you. Hell yeah. All right, brother. See you soon.
1:01:10The Mailroom with Dr. Jesse Mills was a production of iHeartRadio. It was executive produced by Jordan Runtog. It was edited, mixed, and mastered by Bahid Frazier, and the theme was provided by Long Transit. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe and leave a review. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. This program is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Consult your health care provider for any medical or other related questions or concerns.
1:01:51The views and discussions aired on this podcast are those of Dr. Mills and do not represent the official positions of UCLA or UCLA Health.
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From the publisher
Dr. Mills walks listeners through what life after prostate cancer surgery can really look like, with a candid focus on sexual recovery, continence, and quality of life. He explains how “prehab” — including medication, pelvic floor exercises, nutrition, and follow-up care — can help men improve their odds of regaining function after treatment. Along the way, Dr. Mills and Jordan discuss the emotional vulnerability that comes with prostate cancer recovery, breaking down the fears, myths, and real-world concerns men and their partners often face. It’s an honest, practical, and compassionate conversation about surviving cancer without giving up on intimacy, confidence, or hope.
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