Living with prostate cancer

Coping with prostate cancer can be difficult. There are things you can do and people who can help you to cope with a diagnosis of prostate cancer.

After surgery or radiotherapy, you might have problems with your bladder. These can in include leaking urine, bladder inflammation and difficulty passing urine.

Prostate cancer treatments can affect your sex life in different ways. Some treatments can damage the nerves or affect hormone levels that you need to get an erection.

Hormone therapy for prostate cancer can affect the levels of your hormones. This can cause different side effects including hot flushes, swollen breasts, sleep disturbances and weight changes.

There isn’t any strong evidence that you should eat or avoid particular foods when you have prostate cancer. But you should try to have a healthy diet and stay within the government guidelines for drinking alcohol.

It is unclear if particular foods can reduce the risk of prostate cancer coming back (recurrence). Research has looked at a number of different foods and supplements.

Being active and keeping a healthy weight can help you to feel better during and after treatment for prostate cancer.

There are organisations, support groups, videos and other resources to help you cope with prostate cancer and its treatment.