# Radiation precautions at home after permanent prostate seed brachytherapy

Source: https://onco.cc/protocols/permanent-prostate-seed-brachytherapy-home-radiation-safety/  
OnCo record `permanent-prostate-seed-brachytherapy-home-radiation-safety` (Protocol). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The seeds stay in the prostate and give off most of their radiation in the first few months, almost all of it absorbed inside you. You can be around other people normally. For about two months, avoid having children on your lap for long and avoid long close contact with anyone pregnant, use a condom for the first few ejaculations in case a seed comes out, and carry the card you are given.

## Summary

Release follows the same framework as other radioactive treatments: before discharge the physicist or radiation protection officer confirms that doses to others will stay within public limits and carer constraints, with assumptions matching the written instructions (IAEA SSG-46 5.258; in the US no other person likely to exceed 5 mSv, 10 CFR 35.75). ICRP 98 found that in the vast majority of cases the dose to carers stays well below 1 mSv a year, and that only a partner who is pregnant at the time of implantation may need specific precautions. Measured dose rates from 1,279 patients (Dauer 2010) found no precautions needed for a typical palladium-103 patient, and for a typical iodine-125 patient only avoiding sleeping in contact with a pregnant partner and long periods holding a child on the lap, for about two months; Prostate Cancer UK gives the same two months, with 50 cm from children beyond a few minutes a day and from pregnant women beyond three hours.

Written instructions also cover a seed coming out (rare; most likely in the first month) and what to do (SSG-46 5.260; ICRP 98); UK patients are told to use a condom for the first five ejaculations and not to pick up a seed passed in urine but to flush it away. A wallet card carries the implant details for later pelvic or abdominal surgery, for radiation security monitors and in case of death (SSG-46 5.261; ICRP 98). Cremation is the one point where sources differ widely: ICRP 98 allows it once 12 months have passed after iodine-125 (3 months after palladium-103), while Prostate Cancer UK says cremation is not possible in the first 20 months and to carry the card for at least 20 months. ICRP 98 notes that fathering a child remains possible after an implant.

## Fields

- Kind: Protocol
- Last checked: 2026-11-11
- Also known as: prostate seed implant precautions; LDR brachytherapy precautions; iodine-125 seeds at home; palladium-103 seeds precautions; after seed brachytherapy; seed implant and children; seed implant and pregnancy; passing a seed; seed brachytherapy cremation

## Connected records

- protocols: [Bladder filling and rectal preparation for prostate radiotherapy](https://onco.cc/protocols/prostate-radiotherapy-bladder-and-rectal-preparation/), [Release of patients after radionuclide therapy or a permanent implant: criteria, instructions and records](https://onco.cc/protocols/radionuclide-therapy-patient-release-criteria/)
- cancers: [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- technologies: [Brachytherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/brachytherapy/), [Low-dose-rate seed brachytherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/ldr-seed-brachytherapy/)
- institutions: [Prostate Cancer UK](https://onco.cc/institutions/prostate-cancer-uk/)
- terms: [Brachytherapy (internal radiotherapy)](https://onco.cc/terms/brachytherapy-term/)

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