Green Light treatment for BPH.

Posted , 13 users are following.

Has anyone had this treatment and what was your experience with this treatment? Iam a new member.

 

0 likes, 32 replies

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  • Posted

    I had it inn 1997 when I was  56; never had a good erection after that.
    • Posted

      Thanks Geezer. Very sorry to hear of your ED. I had laser for Prostate Cancer 3 years ago at Univ Texas Med and It worked out well for me. I have spent lots of time on the PC sites since then trying to help others. A lot of the guys with PC have ED after their procedures. Keep telling people what can happen, you are doing a good service.

       

  • Posted

    I did and the outcome was not good.  I suspect that my doctor was not really qualified to perform the procedure.

    Make sure that you doctor does a lot of GL procedures.  Ask him how many he does in a year.  Ask what the worst outcome he's had, and ask if any patients had permanent incontinence or impotence afterwards.

    • Posted

      Thanks Glen, I had laser for PC 3 years ago. I have been on the PC sites since learning what I can and trying to help other guys. I have read the horror stories and intend to research until I am satisfied. Have you heard of any treatments that are as good or better than GL?

       

    • Posted

      I assume that GL can have a good outcome when performed by a doctor who is properly trained, and who does a lot of the procedure.  It was just a great disaster for me.  I do know that the way it works depends on the Green Laser light interacting with red blood cells to cause the heating that destroys prostate material.  If there is no red blood, it doesn't work.  I do know that my current urologist, who is also a professor who teaches at an excellent medical center, told me that he had been trained to do GL, had done it himself, and had taught the procedure to medical students.  He said he no longer does GL or teaches it, because of some inherent problems, and because there are better procedures available.

      Glenn

    • Posted

      Thanks glenn77, One of the treatments I keep seeing is Holeb? What have you heard about it?
  • Posted

    Kirk,  I had it done around 13 or 14 years ago.  I had a very large prostate, 141 grams.  The greenlight, is not effective for that size prostate.  I think the holep, would be for very large prostate.  Anyway, no pain, easy surgery for me.  After the surgery, went home with a catheter.  The next day they took it off and I could urinate easily. The thing with me, was that once I was off the medication {doxazosin}  my urination wasn't that good.  I still needed to take medication so I could urinate with a decent stream. After two years or around there, I had to go in for surgery again to fix the problem.  The prostate, continues to grow even after surgery.  So far I've had three surgeries. One Greenlight, and two TURPs.  My suggestion to you is to not do any of those, but to self catheter.  I am doing self catheterizing now, and it's the best. Better than all of my surgeries.  To be objective, there are others, that are very happy with their choice to do TURP.

  • Posted

    Hi Kirk,

    I had a HoLEp on 14th April this year and it has been a resounding success. I'm 69 and wasn't worried about RE because of my age and I had had RE for a couple of years because of the pills I was taking. I was completely free of all the BHP problems after about 10 weeks and had only a problem with urgency from about weeks 5 to 8.  I found a good hospital and consultant here in UK which is key for a good outcome. my prostate was some 70 grammes and I've found out that 35 grammes was taken away. I now am peeing strong, about 300 mlitres in 10 secs, have no retention and can sleep 7 hours without needing a pee.At about 6 weeks, much to my surprise I was producing semen and ejeculating and am continuing to do so. Not much volume but I expect it to improve over time and my orgasms are better than theyve been for years.

    If you are younger or want to guarantee not losing your ability to ejeculate then, try some of the other techniques but with Holpep and green laser you are guaranteed a lot of years of being non BHP.

     

    • Posted

      Is is Holpep? It sounds promising. Some people who replied had a not so good experience with Green Light. Perhaps a larger Prostate does not respond well to GL? i need to make a decision soon and intend to spend the next few weeks doing research. I dont recall if I told you I had Focal Laser Ablation For Prostate Cancer 3 years ago. I spent a lot of time on sites discussing PC, So, if any of you guys have any general question about PC I will reply.
    • Posted

      breeze61, I am def not younger. Note the Kirk 43, 1943 being DOB.  Be that as it may, I Still do not think  I should need to endure ED or endure an invasive procedure in these days of medical miracles. I proved that with my laser treatment of PC and would like to further prove it with treatment of BPH.

       

    • Posted

      Hi Kirk,

      I agree that one should not want to endure ED at any age, but I was so desperate after the last year of getting up 5 to 7 times a night I would have sold my granny for relief whether with ED or not.

      It's always a big decision and risk when subjecting oneself to an operation and I'm very grateful that my op worked out very well. I had no pain or much blood in urine and no clots. I was A1, 2 days after the op but did suffer urgency for 3 weeks but that cleared up . I did a pass on my first consultant who was fobbing me off and I did not want to trust him. I then found out about a hospital with a good reputation and as soon as I met the new consultant, I felt confident with him. Good luck with whatever choice you make.

  • Posted

    I had the Green Light treatment for BPH in June 2016. I am very satisfied with the outcome. I had been wearing a catheter for 3 months as my doctor tried to avoid having surgery by testing me every two weeks, 

    The operation lasted 1:30 and a catheter was placed as i stayed overnight at the hospital. The next morning they took the catheter out and asked me to try to uirnate. For the first time in three months i was able to urinate! The doctor suggested that I limit my activity to walking and no stressful exercise.  Of course I didn’t listen and exercised a bit too agressive after the third week and there wa blood in my urine, I have been uirinating very well since. My doctor suggested that i keep drinking lots of liquids (not alcohol!) to keep the bladder and urinari track clean.

    I am very happy with the results. If you have more specific questions i would be happy to share my experience with answers.

    Lou1110 montreal     

    • Posted

      Thanks Lou1110, How long were you in Hosp? Any side effects? Do you know the weight of your Prostate in grams before the procedure? Any items you might think I need to know? I know about overdoing it after a procedure, I read about it all the time on PC sites.
  • Posted

    Thanks for all the replies. I try to help on the Prostate Cancer sites, much as you guys are helping me here. I am a PC survivor. I had Focal Laser Ablation for PC 3 years ago and have tried to help others with PC since. I shall be out of pocket all next week but should be back by July 30 and will ck the replies. Tks again.
  • Posted

    Just to be clear, at least here in the U.S. using an "in-dwelling" catheter is not the only choice we have.  THere are many types and brands of single-use disposable catheters.  Once one learns how to do this (very short and simple learning curve for me) it is like JJ says, like brushing one's teeth; takes about that long.  I suppose you could argue that people don't normally brush their teeth 4 times a day but the relief and health advantages of completely draining the bladder is worth the extra time to me.  I had some bleeding at first and a little irritation to my urethra but evidently it "toughened up" because I don't get any of that now.  Originally, my local doctor's office gave me the only catheter they had on hand, a red rubber one that was, I'd guess, about an FR18 or something.  It caused bleeding and I got out some relatively large blood clots that I guess were in the bottom of my bladder.  Once I got some samples from a medical supplier and found that intermittant catheter that worked well for me I have had no problems with that part of this ordeal.  I try to do a natural void each time before I catheterize.  I've been using the Crede maneuver lately because I usually cannot get the flow going unless I'm retaining over 350 or 400 ml and I don't like to let it get that high.  I'm just taking it a day at a time.  

    I have a medigap insurance policy that pays for the catheters after the yearly co-pay is satisfied as they fall under Part B medicare which I would probably pay on other things anyway.  So I'm happy plus there is the added bonus that I do believe that my bladder is re-training to some extent. I have been doing CIC for about 14 months now and some of the urges of needing to empty are coming back at a lower retention level; probably about 325 ml as opposed to 400 ml.  

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