John P. Mulhall, MD

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that every human has the unalienable right to sexual and reproductive health. At Memorial Sloan Kettering, we recognize the importance of sexual function and fertility, and our goal is to permit men and couples to resume satisfactory sexual relations or preserve their fertility potential irrespective of their diagnosis or the kinds of treatment they have received.

We see more than 2,000 patients each year and specialize in the management of erectile dysfunction, Peyronie’s disease, disorders of ejaculation and orgasm, low testosterone levels, male infertility, sperm extraction before and after cancer treatment, and penile implant, varicocele, and penile reconstructive surgery.

We have a well-established penile rehabilitation program for men who have had radical pelvic surgery (radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, radical cystectomy for bladder cancer, or rectal surgery) or pelvic radiation. This program is designed to minimize the negative impact these treatments have on a man’s long-term sexual function. In our fertility preservation program, we focus on educating men of reproductive age to bank sperm prior to chemotherapy. When this is not feasible, we perform sperm extraction from the testicle to maximize a man’s chance of being capable of fathering a child once his cancer is cured.

I have many research interests. In the laboratory I focus on two projects. I have established cell lines derived from Peyronie’s disease plaque tissue and I study the behavior of these cells and means of modifying their behavior. In the laboratory I also study means of reducing erectile dysfunction after radical pelvic surgery and analyze novel drugs as a means of protecting erectile tissue and promoting erection nerve regeneration after injury. Among my clinical research interests are evaluating new treatments for Peyronie’s disease, the link between erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease, and clinical trials exploring novel ways to preserve erectile tissue after radical prostatectomy.

I am an associate editor for the Journal of Sexual Medicine and am currently the secretary general of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America. I also serve on the board of the nonprofit organization, the Association of Peyronie’s Disease Advocates, and am the chair of their medical advisory board.

In the fall of 2008 I published the book Saving Your Sex Life: A Guide for Men with Prostate Cancer, aimed at informing men diagnosed with prostate cancer about the sexual effects of surgery as well as educating them about ways to maximize their sexual-function recovery.