Prostate Cancer Taught My Husband and Me What Real Intimacy Is

My husband, Dean Skylar, bought me lingerie after his prostate cancer diagnosis. It was a hopeful act that indicated he wanted to preserve our sex life through what he knew would be challenging times ahead.After skin cancer, prostate is the most common cancer for American men. The disease is found through a blood test to determine prostate-specific antigen level (PSA). Found early, treatment may simply be active surveillance. If the cancer is contained in the prostate, a prostatectomy might be recommended to remove the prostate and surrounding tissue.In Dean’s case, the cancer had spread, and he was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer. His treatment was chemical castration, and his life expectancy was five years.All of a sudden, our lives changed dramatically. We had to deal with a death notice as well as a potential end to our sex life.A prostate cancer diagnosis affects a couple’s lives in profound ways. Information about the disease’s effect on loss of sexuality related to hormone therapy isn’t widely discussed. Your oncologist will prescribe information on drugs and treatments to fight the disease, but discussion about sex is uncomfortably sparse. While you’re both fightin...