How do Japanese patients really feel about losing potency after radical prostatectomy? (MAJI study)

To investigate actual patients' feelings about losing erectile function because of treatment for prostate cancer.

The study participants were 20 patients who were going to receive robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy without nerve sparing. Before surgery, we interviewed them using an original questionnaire. The questionnaire included inquiries concerning their feelings about losing sexual function, whether they were sad or not, wanted to preserve sexual function, wanted to receive treatment if there were one that would restore sexual function and how much they would be willing to pay to recover their sexual function.

The median age of the participant was 67 years (range 60-73 years). Fourteen patients (70%) were sad about losing their sexual function and 17 (85%) wanted to preserve it if they could. Thirteen patients (65%) wanted to receive treatment that would restore their lost sexual function, and they thought that they would be willing to pay a median of 500 000 yen (range 0-1 000 000 yen) to recover it.

Most of the patients felt sad about losing their potency just before radical prostatectomy without nerve sparing. Although almost all patients wanted to preserve their sexual function if they could, they did not want to spend a great deal of money for it.