What should you know about ADT and prostate cancer?

ADT may be given by injections, tablets, or surgery that stops the testicles producing most testosterone. The choice depends on the cancer, the wider treatment plan, other health conditions, and personal preferences.

Prostate cancer cells often use androgens, including testosterone, as growth signals. Reducing those signals can shrink or slow cancer activity, but ADT is not chemotherapy. It may be used alongside radiotherapy, before or after another treatment, or as ongoing disease control when cancer has spread.

Possible effects include hot flushes, reduced sexual desire, erection changes, tiredness, mood changes, loss of muscle, weight gain, and weaker bones. The pattern varies with the medicine, treatment duration, and your baseline health.

Before treatment, give the oncology team a full medicine list and mention heart problems, diabetes, bone thinning, depression, or previous fractures. Ask how ADT fits with radiotherapy or surgery, how its effect will be checked, and which symptoms should prompt a call.

Regular resistance and weight-bearing activity can help preserve strength and bone health when suitable for you. Balanced meals, sleep support, smoking cessation, and attention to mood also matter. Do not start testosterone products or supplements marketed for male hormones without checking with your cancer team, because they may conflict with treatment goals.

Contact your cancer team promptly for side effects that disrupt daily life, marked mood changes, new swelling, or worsening difficulty passing urine. Prostate cancer can present with urinary difficulty, but sudden inability to pass urine needs urgent assessment.

Seek emergency care for chest pain, severe shortness of breath, collapse, or signs of a blood clot such as a newly swollen and painful leg. New severe back pain with leg weakness, numbness, trouble walking, or loss of bladder or bowel control also requires emergency assessment because the spinal cord may be under pressure.

Ask what the aim of ADT is in your case, which form is recommended, when it will start, and what would lead to a change in treatment. It is also useful to discuss bone protection, exercise, sexual health support, fertility wishes, mood, and how existing heart or metabolic conditions will be monitored.