New study finds that exercise improves erectile function after treatment

Exercise programmes improve erectile function in men who have received treatment for prostate cancer, finds a new randomised control trial published in the respected medical journal JAMA Network Open.

The results suggest that patients with prostate cancer should be offered exercise programmes as rehabilitation measure following treatment, say the authors from Australia and the United States.

The study was of 112 men who had previously undergone or were currently undergoing treatment for prostate cancer and were concerned about sexual dysfunction, with one group going through normal care and the other having an additional six-months of supervised, group-based resistance and aerobic exercise. After the period, the men on the exercise programme had significantly higher erectile function scores.

The effects of exercise on erectile function were larger for subgroups who received radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy compared with those who had had prostatectomy.