Has anyone out there had a "Prostate Artery Embolization??

I agree that the uroligists have a great industry going.  They push what they can do, not what is necessarily best.  The interventional radioloigist that I saw said the urologist sees a nail (problem) and uses his hammer (his procedure) regardless what is truly best for the patient.  I still think PAE has the best upside and least downside.

Hi fellow prostate sufferers!

I live near Canberra in Australia, but first, a brief history of my condition. 

Out of the blue about ten years ago, I was having a few beers after a conference in another state capital when suddenly I found I could not "void" (technical term I have just learned...).  Long Story short, in 10 minutes flat I was up in the Emergency Dept of the main public hospital roaring with pain until they got a catheter into me.

Voiding returned to normal right away, but as a slightly evolved male I paid the GP a visit the next week.  He had me into a Urologist's quick smart, who wanted me on the operating table the following week.

Being a male (as aforesaid), what did I do?  Went away and did something else for ten years of course.  Don't we all?  Besides, I remember being spooked by the side-effects described by the urologist (although I think he was consciously underplaying them) and thought I did not have a burning urge to be both incontinent and impotent for the rest of my days.

In the interim, I have been told I have an enlarged prostate. But as the symptoms were easy to cope with, I soldiered on.  I sometimes had to get up twice during the night, more often once and frequently not at all.  I made no attempt to limit my fluid consumption during the evening, and at least five nights a week drank 2-4 glasses of red wine with a similar quantity of fresh rainwater (did I mention I'm slightly evolved?)

In the mornings I occasionally had to void several times in the space of an hour, and even more occasionally had to leap up from the dinner table, cutting my wife off in mid-sentence (to her great consternation - but she's a wonderful gel) and rush off for a pee. I might do that four times over dinner.  The other 360 days in the year, business as usual except that I often had a feeling of not having emptied the bladder, as well as occasionally experiencing some minor leakage (generally between the "urgent" signal and getting to the toilet bowl.

So - nothing I coudn't live with as life ain't supposed to be perfeck.

Then six months ago I stepped off the second leg of a flight to the UK, sat down in the kitchen with my oldest pal and we shared a small glass of John Jamieson's finest whiskey before turning in for the night.  Alas!  I awoke early and went for a pee.  Nothing!  Tried repeatedly, but nothing happened.  Then in the morning it all came out in the normal way (the odd part of this was that my old chum, who claims to have no prostate problems at all, said he had had exactly the same experience during the night (he has an ensuite, so our paths never crossed).

Again, I assumed this meant that whatever it was had resolved itself, so I left well enough alone.

Then a week ago - after driving down to Melbourne (about 7 hours), I had a similar blockage overnight but this time it didn't resolve itself.  I found myself in hospital with an indwelling catheter.  This was removed the following morning with no success so another one was inserted.  This remained in place for a week, after which it was removed with a similar lack of success.  I wound up on morphine whilst they tried to get a new catheter inserted, and an antibiotic drip.  Wouldn't recommend the experience even if the doctors and nurses were absolute darlings.

So - it's probably time to do something...

Thank you all for your very frank contributions - this is the first website I have read, and I found it amazingly useful.

I have to say that I am dumbstruck by the lack of progress in treating BPH considering the high proportion of men all over the world who suffer from it in varying degrees.  It's not exactly a 21st-Century disease, yet the best the urologists can come up with is a range of treatments which have a high chance of totally unacceptable side effects.  If you want a good laugh, have a look at the position paper of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand.  It strikes me as a textbook case of the profession trying to pretend there's nothing happening whilst they try and work out how to keep patients out of the hands of the radiologists who are going to take away all their money. Here it is for those interested: http/www.usanz.org.au/uploads/65337/ufiles/LUTS_SAG_Position_Statement_on_PAE.pdf

And so to PAE.  While clearly still in its infancy, it seems to be showing great promise of delivering to men the treatment they should have had available years ago, if not decades.

I will be doing something about my condition now, but I don't think I'll be starting with the urologists.

Keep the discussion flowing (sorry...)  Great site!

kermac