Sexual and marital relationships after treatment for nonseminomatous testicular cancer.

Data from 121 patient questionnaires suggest that treatment for nonseminomatous testicular cancer not only causes sterility but also disrupts marital and sexual happiness in 10 to 20 per cent of patients. Treatment included unilateral orchiectomy and retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy alone in 47 men; 30 had additional chemotherapy, 8 had additional radiotherapy, and 26 were treated with all three modalities. Erectile and orgasmic problems were more prevalent when radiotherapy was included. Compared with healthy men, patients reported less sexual activity, lower sexual desire, more erectile dysfunction, more difficulty achieving orgasm, reduced orgasmic intensity, and, for 82 per cent, a greatly reduced semen volume. The longer the time since treatment, the more likely the patient was to have antegrade ejaculation. Although the patients' 12.8 per cent divorce and/or separation rate is not unusually high, those whose marriages ended cited sexual dysfunction and cancer treatment as significant sources of stress. Sterility was a frequent source of anxiety for one quarter of the patients.