Radical treatments of prostate cancer often lead to a pervasive liminal state that is characterised by multiple uncertainties that relate both to a possible recurrence of cancer and recovery from side effects, such as erectile and urinary dysfunctions. Liminality can make it difficult for cancer patients to narrate their experiences, as their stories lack a definite ending. After interviews with 22 Finnish men who had undergone radical prostatectomy, we analysed how men produce closure in their illness narratives. Focusing on the timelines of control visits or their anticipated recovery from side effects, these interviewees sought provisional certainty within a seemingly chaotic future. By locating erectile dysfunction in the wider context of a life-course and interpreting their fading sexuality as a 'natural' consequence of ageing, these men were adjusting to their post-operative lives. Our study further shows that the inability to adjust personal experiences to positive culturally available storylines that provide a chance for the narrative reconstruction of life, can cause materialised negative consequences, such as relationship breakdowns.

Provide short biographical notes on all contributors here if the journal requires them.Raisa Jurva is a doctoral researcher in gender studies at the University of Tampere, Finland. She is also part of the research team on the Academy of Finland-funded research project Just the two of us? Affective inequalities in intimate relationships (project 287983). Her research interests include entanglements of power and affect in intimate relationships, feminist theories and methodologies, and life course perspectives on gender. She is interested in the ways in which gendered conventions frame the lived experiences of couple relationships, and how those conventions are challenged both institutionally and individually in everyday life. She has published on discourses of heterosexuality in sex education materials, men's experiences of prostate cancer treatment, and female complaint as an expression of gender inequality.Annukka Lahti is a postdoctoral researcher in gender studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She is also part of the research team on the Academy of Finland-funded research project Just the two of us?Affective inequalities in intimate relationships (project 287983). She is interested in the affective shaping of inequalities both between and within relationships, as well as in the ways in which those inequalities must be renegotiated by the people engaged in the relationships. Her doctoral research focused on how the notion of bisexuality fits into cultural understandings of couple relationships and the affective effects of this. She has previously published in Feminism & Psychology and Subjectivity. Her postdoctoral research project focuses on the separation experiences of LGBTIQ people. Challenging unequal gendered conventions in heterosexual relationship contexts through affective dissonance

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