Does brachytherapy cause nausea and fatigue? several family members have had severe nausea and fatigue from external radiation. im scheduled to have brachytherapy next week, and i want to know if it will cause the same side effects?

Brachyherapy : Brachyherapy for the prostate causes very little fatigue however the medications associated with the treatment can cause some fatigue the majority of patients continue to work and do all normal activities several days after treatment.

Side : Side effects from external radiation are related to the area of the body that is being treated. Because brachytherapy involves placing radioactive sources directly in the tumor, the side effects are usually limited and therefore it would be very unlikely that you would have nausea. You may have some mild fatigue but i would not expect it to alter your lifestyle.

Brachytherapy : Brachytherapy alone seldom causes nausea or severe fatigue. The symptoms are often seen in extended field external beam therapy, whereas brachytherapy is limitied to much smaller areas of treatment so the side effects are usually much less. Nausea, though, is often dependent on where the radiation therapy is being applied and is preconditioned by other variables like gastritis (from the stress and anxiety of the diagnosis), gall stone presence, and emotions. In my experience, fatigue is usually related to external beam radiation and not to straightforward brachytherapy.