Prostate cancer cells need the male hormone testosterone to grow. Hormone replacement therapy stops you from making testosterone. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center describes what you can expect from hormone therapy treatments for your prostate cancer.

Most testosterone is made in the testes.

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Your testes are chemically blocked with medication to stop making testosterone. The medication is an antagonist or LHRH agonist. You will need to get injections of the medication every one to three months, depending on the circumstances of your individual case.

Hormone therapy is usually not the only way to treat your prostate cancer. It is often combined with other therapies like external beam radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

These treatments can sometimes help to get rid of the cancer if it is caught in the early stages. If the cancer is advanced, then the goal is to contain the cancer so that it does not spread to other organs in the body.

Hormone therapy treatments can produce many side effects. These include losing all interest in sex, impotence, personality changes, hot flashes, feeling more tired than usual, weight gain, loss of muscles, thinning bones, increased size of breasts, and a decrease in the size of your genitals. For many prostate cancer patients, the benefits of hormone therapy far outweigh the side effects.