190: Overcoming Hemochromatosis and Erectile Dysfunction

Episode Overview: On this episode of The Penis Project Podcast, Melissa speaks with Magnus, an aeronautical engineer from Sweden and long-time listener of the show, about discovering a significant bend in his penis, and the sometimes frustrating, sometimes funny, journey to work out what to do about it, largely on his own. Magnus had been listening to the podcast for a few years out of general curiosity about men's health, never expecting he'd need it. Then, in November last year, he noticed his penis had developed a sudden and significant bend, up and to the left, and thanks to what he'd picked up from episodes about erectile function after prostate surgery, he immediately suspected Peyronie's disease. Looking back, he connects the dots to a couple of years earlier, when a strong reaction to a COVID vaccine booster (in his telling, ongoing joint pain alongside a sudden and complete loss of spontaneous and morning erections) may have set the stage, something his GP dismissed at the time because he could still have sex. Ashamed and not sure what to do, Magnus initially told no one, not even his wife, until she noticed the change herself. What followed was a difficult few months navigating Sweden's public health system: long waits, an underwhelming first specialist appointment that left him so shaken his wife had to lead him to the car, and finally a lucky break when a personal connection helped him access treatment faster than the system otherwise allowed. From there, Magnus built his own multimodal treatment plan: a daily PDE5 inhibitor, penile traction therapy, shockwave therapy (which involved regular long train trips, and some engineering ingenuity of his own), a food supplement aimed at reducing fibrosis, and a return to regular resistance training. True to his profession, he has tracked his progress meticulously, and has seen real, measurable improvement in both curvature and length over several months. Magnus also talks candidly about the emotional and relational side of Peyronie's disease, including the shame that kept him silent at first, and a novel way he found to open up to his wife about what he needed from her, using an AI chatbot to help him put it into words. This is an honest, resourceful, and at times very funny conversation about taking charge of your own health when the system doesn't quite know what to do with you. In This Episode, we cover

Episode Overview: On this episode of The Penis Project Podcast, Melissa Hadley Barrett speaks with Adam, an exercise physiologist, content creator (@balancedbyadam) and father of two, about being diagnosed with prostate cancer at just 43 years old. Adam's story starts with a routine blood test. As an exercise physiologist with a family history of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease, Adam had been adding a PSA test to his own annual bloods since turning 40. At 42, his PSA jumped, a follow-up biopsy found early, low-grade, prostate-confined cancer, and Adam was left with a decision most men his age never expect to face: active surveillance or surgery. Adam talks candidly about the mental toll of “watch and wait” the low mood, the twenty-plus kilograms he quietly put on over the following year, and how he kept what was really going on to himself, using a “bulking phase” story on social media as cover. He also opens up about using a GLP-1 medication (the same class as Ozempic and Wegovy) ahead of surgery, treating himself as a first-hand case study the way he often does for his followers. Ultimately, Adam chose surgery, having a radical prostatectomy in March 2026. Melissa and Adam talk through the realities of recovery that rarely make it into the “you'll be fine, you're young and fit” conversation many men are given beforehand. Throughout the conversation, Adam speaks openly about his marriage, his two young daughters, and how the diagnosis has changed the way he thinks about time, mortality and being present. He's also using the experience to shift what he talks about on social media, with weekly “Willie Wednesday” posts. , This is an honest, unfiltered look at what recovery can really look like for a young, fit man proof that “you'll bounce back quickly” isn't always the story, and that there's no shame in a slower, wobblier road.

Episode Overview: On this episode of The Penis Project Podcast, Melissa Hadley Barrett speaks with Steve Bartley, a 61-year-old filmmaker and television researcher, about his experience with advanced prostate cancer, hormone therapy, and rebuilding his sex life along the way. Steve's diagnosis in 2024 came out of nowhere. With no family history of prostate cancer, he only had blood work done after noticing unexplained, rapid weight loss. His PSA came back at 8, and his doctor was blunt: this could be cancer. What followed was a fast and frightening escalation, from an MRI scored at the highest level of concern, through to a biopsy showing a Gleason score of 9, one of the most aggressive grades. A PET scan then revealed the cancer had already spread beyond the prostate into his pelvic lymph nodes, moving him overnight from what he expected to be an early-stage diagnosis to low-volume stage 4 prostate cancer. Because the cancer had spread, surgery wasn't the standard option. Steve was referred for hormone therapy (androgen deprivation therapy, or ADT) alongside radiation, and describes the whirlwind of appointments, procedures and decisions that followed, made even harder by the fact that he was in a relatively new relationship at the time. Steve talks candidly about how his radiation treatment didn't go entirely to plan. Urinary urgency set in earlier and more intensely than he was told to expect, and after a difficult stretch without clear communication from his treating team, he sought a second opinion. That conversation, and his own research, led him to make the significant decision to stop radiation partway through and focus on hormone therapy instead, a decision he made largely on his own while his partner was overseas. Melissa and Steve also talk through the practical side of rebuilding erectile function after ADT and radiation, tablets, nasal spray, and injections, and why trying these options on your own first can take the performance pressure out of the equation. Steve's journey has also become the driving force behind a documentary he is producing, Prostate Cancer: From Crisis to Cure, featuring some of Australia's leading prostate cancer specialists and due for release later this year or early 2027. The aim, in his words, is simple: to give men and their partners hope, and to break the silence that still surrounds this disease. Subscribe to our newsletter and resource library for updates on when the doco will be released https://rshealth.com.au/resource-library

Episode Overview: In this episode of The Penis Project Podcast, Melissa talks with Mark, a 56-year-old rural firefighter from the South West of Western Australia, about a prostate cancer journey that has had just about everything in it: an aggressive cancer, surgery, a rising PSA, salvage radiation, penile rehabilitation, one very memorable trip to the emergency department, and a bloke who simply refused to sit down and feel sorry for himself. Mark had never been crook in his life. He only asked for a PSA test because a mate who had been through prostate cancer kept nagging him about it. During a routine work medical, his mate’s voice popped into his head, and he asked the doctor for the test. The GP asked why. Mark asked for it anyway. The result came back with an elevated PSA, and as Mark puts it, he nearly fell off the chair. What followed was a biopsy in Bunbury, a two-hour trip from home, a Gleason 8 diagnosis, and a radical prostatectomy in Perth, four hours away. Mark and Melissa talk about the tyranny of distance in Australia: every appointment being a whole day, the cost of staying away from home, and the men Mark met who were driving four hours a day for radiation because they had nowhere to stay. Mark also talks about the parts nobody warned him about. The catheter that started leaking around the sides and scared the daylights out of him. The pads. The pelvic floor exercises he started before surgery because his mate Grant told him to, and which he credits with getting him dry within a few weeks. And then, months later, a phone call from his surgeon to say the PSA was creeping back up. Which resulted in radiation treatment. He declined the testosterone-lowering therapy that was offered alongside the radiation, because he did not want the fatigue and flatness during fire season. He worked right through his treatment, and three days after his last “nuking session”, as he calls it, he pulled up at work to get the job done. And yes, we talk about erections. Mark did the work: the daily tablets, the vacuum pump, and eventually injections. The first injection dose was too generous and Mark ended up in a country emergency department with an erection that would not go down and, by his count, six or seven people in the room having a look at his old fella. It is a very funny story and also a serious one. It changed how Melissa practises: every country patient now goes home with an emergency reversal injection so nobody else has to make that drive. This is a warm, funny, plain-speaking conversation about what it takes to get through prostate cancer treatment especially when you live a long way from anywhere, and about why looking after your penis is not optional extra credit. It is part of your body, and it deserves the same care as everything else.

Episode Overview: In this episode of The Penis Project Podcast, Melissa sits down with Will McDonald, Channel 9 news reporter, PCFA ambassador, Ironman finisher, skydiver and father, for a candid and inspiring conversation. Will was 42 when he was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer that had metastasised to his hip. He was fit, active and had no urinary symptoms whatsoever. The first sign anything was wrong was a nagging pain in his left hip that simply never got better. Six weeks later an MRI revealed lesions that were almost certainly cancerous, and his PSA, when it was finally tested, confirmed prostate cancer as the source. What followed was hormone therapy, chemotherapy, radiation to his prostate, lymph nodes and hip, and the beginning of a very different kind of life. Six years on, Will’s PSA remains undetectable. He is still on androgen deprivation therapy, taking medication twice daily alongside a three-monthly injection. He describes the treatment honestly. He dislikes it, it changes your body, and there are days when it is genuinely hard. But he has found that resistance training, diet, mindset and refusing to make cancer the centre of his identity has made an enormous difference. The episode also covers Will’s decision to bank sperm before treatment, the five rounds of IVF he and his partner went through, and the arrival of their son Alfie in 2023. And then there is the Ironman: a 3.8km swim, a 180km ride and a 42km run, completed on ADT to raise funds for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, because sometimes the best answer to cancer is to go and do the hardest thing you can think of. This is a conversation about prostate cancer, yes, but it is also about identity, resilience, fatherhood, fear, gratitude and what it really means to keep living.