Sexual function after surgery and combination chemotherapy in men with disseminated nonseminomatous testicular cancer.

Between 1978 and 1982 the sexual functions of 54 patients with a nonseminomatous testicular tumor stage II or III were assessed before and after treatment with surgery and combination chemotherapy. Two years after completing therapy 54% of the patients experienced sexual functional disorders. Greatly reduced or absent antegrade ejaculation was reported by 26 patients; 18 of them had been treated with more or less extensive retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, whereas 8 had not. This means that the chemotherapy might be responsible for ejaculatory disorders in 30% of the patients. Only two patients reported a change in the quality of erection; seven patients experienced a decidedly diminished libido, and five patients noticed their orgasm had changed in a negative sense. The appearance of the contralateral testis changed in 21 patients, who showed "atrophy" of this testis. The findings of this study indicate that sexual and ejaculatory disorders in particular are quite common in men treated for a disseminated nonseminomatous testicular tumor. Many of these disorders seem to be owing to causes other than surgical intervention.