What should you know about post prostate cancer surgery?

Prostate removal surgery can affect urination, erections, ejaculation, bowel comfort, energy, and mood while the body heals. A catheter may be used temporarily, and urine leakage can improve gradually with guidance from your team. Your pathology results and follow-up prostate-specific antigen testing help clinicians understand whether surgery removed the known cancer and whether more treatment needs discussion.

Keep the incision and catheter area clean as instructed, take medicines as prescribed, and increase walking gradually. Avoid heavy lifting until your surgeon clears it. Ask about pelvic floor exercises before starting, because technique and timing matter. Report urinary leakage, erectile changes, pain, constipation, or low mood so rehabilitation can be tailored. Further options may include radiotherapy or other specialist treatments, depending on the pathology and follow-up results.

Contact your surgical team for fever, worsening wound redness, pus, severe pain, persistent vomiting, inability to keep fluids down, or a catheter that stops draining. Seek urgent help for heavy bleeding, clots that block urine, severe breathlessness, chest pain, fainting, or sudden leg swelling and pain. Difficulty passing urine after catheter removal also needs prompt advice.

Ask when the catheter will be removed, how your pathology affects follow-up, when to check PSA, and which activities are restricted. Discuss pelvic floor rehabilitation, erectile-function support, continence products, and what result would lead to a conversation about additional treatment.