Is a Penile Implant Right for You?

A large share of the men who end up considering an implant arrive by this route. Erectile dysfunction after treatment for prostate cancer — whether surgery or radiation — is common, well recognized, and frequently the part of survivorship nobody prepared the man for.

The nerves responsible for erections run immediately alongside the prostate. Even when they are spared, they are handled, and they recover slowly or incompletely. Radiation affects the same tissue over a longer timescale. So this is not a complication in the sense of something going wrong — it is a known cost of treating the cancer, and it deserves to be treated in its own right rather than accepted.

Two things are worth knowing if this is you. The first is that recovery of erectile function after prostate surgery takes time, and how much time varies enormously between men — which is why the decision to move to an implant is one made with your urologist, at the right point for you, and not on a fixed schedule. The second is that an implant works regardless of nerve recovery, because it does not depend on the nerves. For a man whose function has not returned, that is the whole point.

If your prostate cancer was treated here, this conversation is a continuation of one we are already having. If it was treated elsewhere, bring the records — what was done, when, and what has been tried since.

There are two kinds of penile implant, and the great majority of men choose the first.

An inflatable implant has three parts — cylinders, a pump in the scrotum, and a fluid reservoir — and it moves between two states. Inflated, it produces an erection. Deflated, the penis is soft and hangs naturally. That second state is why most men choose it: at rest, nothing looks or feels unusual, including to a partner and including in a locker room. It is the more sophisticated device, and it is the one the procedure page describes.

A malleable implant is a pair of semi-rigid rods. There is no pump and no reservoir; the penis is bent up for use and down the rest of the time. It stays semi-firm always, which is the trade-off — less concealment, in exchange for a device with no moving parts to fail and nothing to operate. That makes it a reasonable choice for men who would struggle with a pump, particularly where hand strength or dexterity is limited, and it is a simpler operation.

Most men here receive an inflatable implant. Which is right for you is a conversation, not a default, and it is worth having properly — the choice is difficult to reverse.

Nothing on this page can tell you whether an implant is right for you. What it can do is tell you whether the question is worth asking — and if you have read this far, it probably is.

The consultation covers your history, what you have already tried and what happened, the other conditions and medications in play, and an examination. It is also where the practical questions get answered: what your insurance covers, what the recovery asks of you, and how soon this could happen.

Partners are welcome, and it is often better when they come. This is a decision that affects two people, and the expectations conversation goes better with both in the room.

If an implant is not the right answer for you — because something else has not been tried, or because the problem is not mainly mechanical — we will tell you that. Dr. Robbins performs this operation often enough that he has no reason to talk anyone into it.