“The day I came, the relief was enormous”: when pleasure returns, despite cancer or illness

"Will I be able to get an erection again?" The question obsesses Elian (1), lying in the recovery room of a Parisian hospital at the end of 2022. He was 50 years old at the time and working in fashion. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer a year earlier. "It was panic. In my life, it took me a long time to gain self-confidence, to free myself. So losing my sexuality with treatment seemed impossible to me. I even thought about not getting treatment. And if I were to die from it, too bad," he confides. For six months, he refused treatment, before finally agreeing to have his prostate removed, which left his erectile nerve intact. The journey has only just begun.

The first step, regaining an erection, can take several months to several years. Ten days later, a small miracle. A movement pulls him from his sleep: the beginnings of an erection. "The next day, I called everyone, I even sent an email to my surgeon!" he jokes. Let's not see this as an act of God. Elian masturbated regularly, without reaction, on the advice of his doctor. An exe