More Some Side Effects of Prostate Radiation that Oncologists Kind of Tell you About; or, The Four Horsemen of the Sexual Apocalypse, Part IV Libido Rising

Dalí

Great Masturbator 1929

Well, they might tell you that it could, possibly, perhaps, perchance, conceivably, feasibly, maybe, in time, with luck, for all we know, happen, but they won’t because no one size fits all and they can’t guarantee an increase in libido so they won’t get into the weeds about it, the details.  But I’ll share something that happened to me.  A little over four months after I received my first dose of Lupron (i.e. recently), I woke up one morning…horny.  Couldn’t explain it.  Nothing I dreamt the night before, nothing I consumed the night before, nothing I watched on the telly the night before, nothing I drank the night before, nothing I smoked the night before.  I just woke up, horny.  As a matter of fact, as I focused on that horniness and why now, why then, I began to experience a slight erection.  Now, it wasn’t anything to write home about, I mean it wasn’t a full blown woody, but there was potential, enough potential that after a few strokes, it got a wee bit harder, not necessarily stiff enough for penetration, but close.  Now, you have to understand that for months this was not in the offing since even before my radiation I was suffering from some ED, which was somewhat mitigated with the help of sildenafil.  No, this was different.  No meds where none needed.  Of course, I began thinking about my partner and the sex we had been missing for months on end and that helped encourage the organ to speak to me, so to speak.  At least give me hope.  For the record, I didn’t masturbate to orgasm and I was aware there wouldn’t be much if any ejaculate if I had.  My oncologist never mentioned that, but one of my urologists informed me of something called “a dry orgasm,” (a martini came immediately to mind) also known as “retrograde ejaculation,” (which sounds somewhat astrological) which occurs when a person ejaculates little to no semen during sexual climax and what’s there ends up in the bladder.  Men can still feel the sensation of pleasure during a dry orgasm, and some say the orgasm is stronger or more pleasurable than before.  Hard to believe.  My urologist said it was nothing to be “concerned” about.  Not sure WTF that meant.  “Not to be concerned about it.”  Orgasms come with their own rewards and ejaculating has always been part of the experience.  Orgasms and ejaculate go together like Abbott and Costello or Belichick and Brady or Anthony and Cleopatra.  You get the idea.  Those were the thoughts I was thinking on that morning of my simple erection.  Results on the eventual outcome are forthcoming.