Prostatitis Specialists

What is Prostatitis?

Prostatitis is a condition that causes inflammation of the prostate gland.

Your prostate is in front of your rectum and below your bladder. It goes around your urethra, which is the tube through which you urinate and ejaculate. Your prostate’s chief responsibility is to make semen, the fluid that carries sperm out of your penis.

There are four different kinds of prostatitis:

• Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome (CP/CPPS): CP/CPPS is inflammation with irritation of the surrounding nerves. It’s the most common kind of prostatitis. Common symptoms include problems passing urine, painful urination, pain in the bladder, painful testicles and penis, problems ejaculating and painful ejaculation.
• Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis: This is an infection that can come and go. It makes you feel like you need to urinate frequently and causes a burning feeling during urination. You may also feel pain in your bladder, testicles, penis, and through to your anus.
• Acute (Sudden) Bacterial Prostatitis: This is an infection that causes chills, fever, severe burning during urination, and problems emptying your bladder.
• Asymptomatic Inflammatory Prostatitis: This form of prostatitis manifests as inflammation, not an infection, and doesn’t cause any symptoms. It’s usually only found during routine tests for other conditions.

How is Bacterial Prostatitis Treated?

Treatment for prostatitis depends on the cause of the problem. Acute bacterial prostatitis requires a two-week course of antibiotics. In some cases, you might need to have intravenous treatment in the hospital.

You might also need a catheter, which is a tube that goes into your urethra and helps you drain your bladder. Some men need a longer course of antibiotics or have to try different types of antibiotics if their condition isn’t improving.

Chronic bacterial prostatitis requires a longer course of antibiotics, sometimes up to three months. This doesn’t work in every case, and around one in every four patients needs to take long-term, low-dose antibiotics to ease their symptoms.

How are Other Kinds of Prostatitis Treated?

Antibiotics don’t usually help if you have CP/CPPS, because the cause typically isn’t bacterial. Anti-inflammatories can help by reducing the inflammation in the tissues and relieving pain in the short term.

Alternatively, medications called alpha-blockers can help relax the muscles surrounding your prostate and the lower part of your bladder.

Other approaches that don’t use medication could also be beneficial. Prostatic massages that drain fluid from the ducts in your prostate can reduce the pressure and pain, and physical therapy can help relax your muscles.

Other treatments that prove helpful for some men include:

• Biofeedback for muscle relaxation
• Acupuncture
• Heat treatments
• Inflatable cushion or donut pillow
• Dietary changes

Surgery isn’t usually helpful as a treatment for prostatitis. It can be used in rare cases where there’s a specific cause for the condition, such as scar tissue in the urethra that surgery could remove.

If you have any symptoms of prostatitis, call Associated Urologists of North Carolina today.