231: Steve's Story: Gleason 9 Prostate cancer, a Second Opinion, and Finding "A Workaround" for Everything and Hope

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.co