1. Alter Your Hormones With Anti-Androgens
Androgens are male hormones that play a central role in the development and spread of prostate cancer. Anti-androgen drugs, such as flutamide and bicalutamide, are often used in conjunction with other treatments to cease your body's production of androgens. Many men favor this approach to treatment because these drugs have fewer side effects that decrease libido. If you're concerned about your potency or your ability to achieve and maintain an erection while being treated for prostate cancer, anti-androgen therapy may represent the best solution.
2. Neutralizing Androgen Production Through Drug Therapy
As an alternative to drugs that suppress the production of androgens, your doctor may choose to counterbalance androgen production with estrogen-based drugs. However, more and more men are choosing to use alternative therapies, since the side effects of using these medications include the formation of potentially dangerous blood clots and enlargement of the breasts.
3. Surgical Approach to Hormone Therapy
Orchiectomy is a surgical procedure that can instantly, inexpensively and safely eliminate up to 90 percent of your body's androgen production. The procedure is, in essence, castration. However, doctors can insert sacs containing a saline solution, giving them the same look and feel of testicles. Reduced or eliminated libido is the most difficult lifestyle change created by this procedure. There is a range of therapeutic and medicinal treatments available for the other side effects, which include brittle bones, depression, fatigue and hot flashes.
4. Learn More About LHRH Agonists
For many men, luteinizing hormone releasing hormone agonists are more expensive but preferable alternatives to an orchiectomy. These drugs also eliminate up to 90 percent of the androgens produced by the body and are administered via injection or surgical implantation. You'll notice their side effects are similar to those that result from an orchiectomy.
5. Opt for LHRH Antagonists
LHRH antagonists have similar effects to LHRH agonists but act more quickly and create fewer complications. You should discuss these drugs with your doctor, as a significant percentage of patients have serious allergic reactions to them. Usually, you'll be offered LHRH antagonists when no other form of hormone therapy is working for you, or if your case of prostate cancer is advanced and spreading to other regions of your body.
