Confused .. Need help

Posted , 8 users are following.

Guys,

I cannot tell you how thankful i am to have found this forum. The discussions and the help that you are doing for each other is worth gold.

Anyways, after reading up on the internet for the last month and stumbling on this forum i hav decided to post my story. And hopefully you can guide me which way to go.

So i am 36 years old, and from last 3 years i have been having all sorts of urinary problems. Frequent urination, and definitely urinating at 5 am every goddamn morning, and many times going to urinate every 45 minutes after 5 am. And then there are days things are just bad. I urinate every hour during day time, and atleast 5 times during the night. Sometimes i feel i am just a pipe, drink one glass of water and just pee after 30 mins. The urine volume is not much and i have to strain sometimes. Sometimes at night i feel i have to strain more, to get the urine out, as if i know urine is in there but i cant just get it out without straining more.

Also the last 3 years have been the most stressful period of my life. Job, money, relationships etc. Everything that can go wrong went wrong.

And yes, this is also the time when i lost lot of hairs, almost got bald within 3 years. 

So I finally decided to visit a urologist. He did couple of tests -- urine, PSA, prostate ultrasound and even the urodynamics test to see how I pee. My PSA was 0.9, my prostate size was 23 cc, the urodynamics test basically did not go through, because i was just too uncomfortable with all those tubes in me.

His diagnosis was that my prostate is not getting relaxed properly. Also he did prescribe terazosin, to see if it helps. I tried it for only 2 days, it made me so dizzy so i did not continue it, but i did see a difference. The fact that i did see a difference and then i read about how it works(realxes the urinary pipe muscles) , I think I do have BPH. I have read so many places that you can have urinary symptoms even with a slightly enlraged prostate. And i feel thats what is going on. Especially the way i feel its in there and i cant get it out without straining.

But i wanted to ask you guys. What do you think i should do ?

I feel like going to another urologist and get my prostate size checked. While at the same time, i found many good doctors who do Green Light, UroLift, Holep etc, but i feel they would say i should do it, so that they can make money.

Confused and Frustrated.

 

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  • Posted

    Good morning, sorry to hear about all of your problems. My prostate was only 24cc when i had my PAE done, and I was 52 at the time. That is just slightly enlarged tho. However I havea very large median lobe, which most likely causes a lot og my problems. The PAE really did not help me at all. 

    I would recommend you go back to the same URO and ask for a cyctoscopy to see how large your median lobe is. Honestly if you got that much testing out of him on that first visit, he sounds like a pretty good DOC. Most of them wont even think about doing all of the testing you got done.

    You might also see if he will do a prostate fluid check, just to rule out prostatitis.

    Did he also do your other regular blood work, thyroid,wbc, etc? Tjat sounds odd for you to have all of these problems, and lose all of your hair in 3 years time. You could have a vitamin or mineral deficiency going on also.

    Good luck buddy

    • Posted

      Hi Joe, what are symptoms for large median lobe ? Difficulty ? Hesitancy ? Retention ? Incontinence ? Etc. Did you try alpha blocker meds like flomax or doxazosin ? Thanks. Hank.

    • Posted

      yes my GP did lot of other blood tests and found a vitamin D deficiency.

      Also i have not been living a healthy life style for last 3 years, which changed this year. Now i am living a very healthy life style, but this urine problem is not going away.

      I did reply to my general discussion, with more thoughts, if you scroll down.

       

  • Posted

    My suggestion would be to try medication for a bit longer. I was on Tamsulosin for a few months after I had retention and found that any dizziness rduced with time. (This has happened twice, but after reducing my tea and coffee intake I don't require the drugs). Granted, I wasn't in a job where I worked with machinery or anything, but some of these drugs for relaxing the urinary system also reduce blood pressure, which usually isn't a bad thing, but is disconcerting when it causes dizziness. I also found it was only noticeable in my case if I stood up suddenly. Remembering to hold on to something as I stood up meant the dizziness was OK and only lasted about 30 seconds. I never actually fainted. As I said, this seemed to happen less as time passed. If this isn't working in your case with the medication you were given, go back and get something else.

    • Posted

      Maybe I should add that Tamsulosin did cause retro-ejaculation - which wasn't a problem with intercourse, but made masturbation less satisfying.

    • Posted

      Thanks for your suggestion. I really want to stay away from systemic medications to treat a local problem.
  • Posted

    Good morning.  At your age your prostate is not that large and your PSA is good. And if a pill to relax your muscles is needed get one that will not cause more problem.  There are many meds that help. But  will cause retro ejaculation and some other side effects. Don't rush into any procedure if your bladder is the problem.  I had the urolift and it opened up the urethra which is what could help you.  At 36 you don't need them cutting away at your prostate.  If the urologist will not help you find one that will.  Good luck  Ken 

  • Posted

    I would  suggest two things: your problem may have a lot to do with the stress you have suffered over the past few years; you may try to do some stress reducing relaxation techniques although that can be difficult. also, you might try using cialis for daily use because it may relax your urinary muscles without the side effects (i.e. dizziness). 
    • Posted

      absolutely agree. This year im changing lot of things one by one. 

      so stress is slowly going down, but this problem is not. although to be fair this problem also ramped up slowly, so may be it will ramp down slowly too. today is a realitvely better day than yesterday.

  • Posted

    I have been taking terazosin for three years now. Before that I used flomax and rapaflo. Make sure if you take it, you take it before bed. Also, my doc had me gradually increase my dosage to get used to it. I am now taking 10 mg each night, but started with 2 mg, so my body could get used to it.

    it can make you dizzy, so maybe try a smaller dose and see if that works. 

    • Posted

      Thanks for your suggestion. I really want to stay away from systemic medications to treat a local problem. The dizziness i can tolerate, the effect on the whole body, that i wont. I would prefer one time procedure, than long lasting medication.
  • Posted

    Everyone,

    thanks for your replies. I have spent few hours doing lot of research on this subject and also watching various videos of various procedures. And what i have understood so far is that, as much as the size of the prostate matters, what matters more is how much is prostate tissue is constricting your bladder entry point, or irritating the bladder. Quite often the size of the prostate has a direct relationship with its effect on the bladder, because bigger the prostate, bigger the constriction. But i have read about lot of cases where a small increase in prostate size can constrict the bladder, and conversly many cases where a big prostate might not constrict the bladder. 

    @joe is a good example, where he has only 24cc bladder and yet having symptoms.

    this makes me think, that instead of relating everything to prostate size, what i really need to know is the amount of obstruction the prostate is placing on the bladder, at the point where bladder pipe exits out into the penis. And i think joe mentioned a good point -- the doctor need to look at cyctoscopy and tell me whether look prosate is obstructing, or not.

    I looked at various videos, and i can clearly see how urolift as well as green laser/holep, increased the size of the hole, from a earlier smaller to wide open post surgery.

    I would like to think i have a good urologist. In the sense he did put lot of effort to find out the cause, and settled on "stressed/tense prostate" as the diagnosis. 

    Although from the symptoms that i feel - weak urine stream, frequent urination, incompletel voiding---  and the fact that terazosin did help, i think my prostate even though small in size, is causing an obstruction. Plus i am losing hair. When you add all these up you get textbook BPH. But then you add a 23 cc prostate size, and it doesnt add up.

    Are there any other possible reasons that can cause this ? Inflamed bladder. Inflamed prostate ? 

    One think i do notice is, on some days its far more worse than others. I mean on some days i am just leaking. On others its mild. 

    At this point i am thinking about going to another URO and see what he comes up with ?

    Thougths ?

    And once again, thanks a lot for this discussion.

     

    • Posted

      Good Morning my friend.  I am glad that you are looking into different procedure.  And if this urologist will not do anything for you Indeed go see another.  But have a less evasive procedure first that may be all you need.  The urolift will open you up and move what ever is blocking the bladder.  This procedure has no side effect.  It may be a little uncomfertable for a few day but you will be opened up and it does not cause retro ejaculation like most of the others.  Research what ever you diside Take care Ken   
    • Posted

      yes urolift is the procedure of my choice.

      no side effects, no permanent changes in the anatomy, takes 5 minutes, immediate effect, and leaves the option to do any other procedure later if need be, or add more urolift implants.

      thanks for your help

    • Posted

      Yes it is  I had mine 2 years ago had 4 implants works great  Take care  Ken
    • Posted

      Hey buddy I did think of one other thing you should have checked, especially considering the problems you are having so young. Its very possible that you have a stricture. Do a search on that here on this forum. It can be caused by an accident, horseback riding, bicycle riding etc. And once again a good cystoscopy would show that. 

      When I went to the URO that does the urolift procedure, he showed me on the svreen my large median lobe, and he refused to do the urolift on me, and was honest enouhg to tell me that it wouldnt do any good for me.

      J

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