Prostatitis with zero pain, just horrible 24/7 urge to urinate/frequency
Posted , 85 users are following.
Hello All,
I am a healthy 25 year old male with no history of urinary issues.
I am at my wit's end. Last Sunday, I started having terrible urinary frequency. I will literally go to the bathroom, urinate, flush the toilet, and then have to use the restroom again RIGHT AWAY. In other words, I have constant urinary urges 24/7... It has been this way for one week.
I don't have any pain or discomfort in my pelvic area, and there is no burning sensation during urinating. However, I feel as if the urine is at the tip of my penis - that is where the urge sensation is most prevalent. If I hold it for a long time and it accumulates, there is quite a lot of urine. However, most of the time (especially in the middle of the night) hardly anything comes out even though it feels so urgent.
I can't sleep since it feels like I have to urinate constantly... last night I was going every 5 minutes, and most of the time only a few drops came out. I am having anxiety now because of this.
I went to the urologist last Tuesday (2 days in). Urinanalysis showed no UTI and bladder ultrasound was okay. However, during the rectal exam, he said my prostate was "off" and did a test of the urine that came out after the exam. At that point, I was told that I had a prostate infection and that the enlarged/inflamed prostate was causing the frequency. In other words, there was bacteria.
I was given 500 mg of Levaquin to take once a day for 30 days. However, it has not helped after 6 doses. I'm trying Motrin (ibuprofen) to no avail. I was told it takes a while for the antibiotic to reach the prostate. I have no fever, and no chills.
I am terrified that I have the chronic pelvic pain (CPP) form of prostatitis. However, I don't know if I do, since (1) there WERE bacteria present upon running the urine after the rectal exam and (2) I have ZERO PAIN. The only symptom is the 24/7 need to urinate. Any ideas on this? I hope I have the acute prostitiis form since this is cured with more antibiotics, but if I have the lifelong CPP form I don't know what to do... I feel like I will have to quit my job since I can't sleep with the need to urinate.
Please help!
4 likes, 293 replies
help78383 roark25
Posted
Hi all,
I feel 100% now and returning back to normal life stuff, work etc. (Its been hell for the past month though). Who ever sees this I hope this helps. So if you have seen any of my other comments on here you will know this but about a month ago I had the urgency to pee 24/7 and no pain. It started to become a huge problem and I had to quit work and everything else. I was in a hot bath most of the day as that was the only relief I was getting.
I went to many Dr.'s who all did the bladder x ray, urine tests etc. No one found anything. I was miserable for 2 weeks not knowing what was wrong with me. Later into the 2-3rd week the sensation started to travel a bit up into my bladder but still mostly felt it from the tip of my penis.
I was desperate so I went to another specialist outside of my main medical care. I spent a lot of money to see this dr. however she ran thorough tests and she ended up finding out that I had bacteria in my prostate and urinary tract. She asks if I had gotten a culture done from my main physician. At the time I had no Idea what a culture was and none of the dr.'s told me to get one done.
I went back to my main physician to ask if they had done one and they said they usually don't unless they find something in the basic urine test first. I then proceeded to tell them I wanted a culture done and sure enough they found the same bacteria Streptococcus(Strep agalactiae).
They proscribed me Cipro for one week. I have bad anxiety and after reading comments about this I got really nervous to take it and asked for a less intense antibiotic. They then gave me Duricef. However all my dr.'s highly recommended I take Cipro because they said Duricef might not be as effective at getting rid of the bacteria since I guess the bacteria was a rare type and not common. They told me having bacteria in my system for this long is more dangerous and I really should take the Cipro (which is for only one week).
I started Cipro yesterday. I'm on my 4th pill this morning. I feel 100% better now. I'm looking forward to getting off Cipro and being done with this once and for all. My advice for most of you if you haven't already is 1. get a culture done 2. take the antibiotics they give you and move on with life. If it is a bacteria some times basic urine tests will not catch it so getting a culture done is a must to be sure. Hope this helps someone out there.
francois74708 help78383
Posted
what's the difference between urine test and a culture? is that not same thing?
help78383 francois74708
Posted
A culture, from what I understand is where they put the urine sample in a dish and let the bacteria/fungi grow to determine if you have a bad bacteria or fungus and if so what antibiotics are effective against it. Sometimes they don't do all this in a urine test I guess. And what my urologist said is sometimes even urine cultures wont catch bacteria and fungus so taking antibiotics is sometimes a shot in the dark to figure out what it is or how to cure it. I'm on my third antibiotic right now that in theory should cure this completely. The longer a bacteria is in the system the harder it is to get out or the longer it takes.
Helphelp help78383
Posted
How long you have waited before trying the antibiotics?
francois74708 help78383
Posted
so the first week of Cipro didn't work? been having this for over 5 years now...I'm really starting to lose s***. gonna it this culture again on Friday, hope they find something so I can move on
!
help78383 Helphelp
Posted
The best way to describe the feeling is a slight burning/irritation in the urethra area mostly, slight tickle sensation and stinging and the biggest sensation was always feeling like you need to urinate even though I didn't really need to. I would also sometimes pee little by little over and over again rather then a normal stream. Most of the sensation was coming from the tip of the urethra.
To be clear though Strep B was the only real bacteria they found but mentioned there could of been other bacteria in there causing it that didn't even show up in the culture. They basically went through multiple different antibiotics until one worked. The reason Cipro only worked for a few days was because most likely the bacteria mutated itself (from what the urologist told me) and since I've had it for so long it took a lot longer to get rid of.
I'm not even fully cure of this yet. I just took 1000mg of Zithromax to basically finish off the rest of the bacteria so hopefully this totally cures me 100%. I'd say I'm about 80% better.
Wombatf18 francois74708
Posted
I took Cipro for 30 days with no improvements. I've read that there is a strain ESBL E. Coli that is resistant to Cipro and Bactrim. Are you just having your urine cultured? Have you looked into labs that do DNA sequencing? I had my urine cultured and they found nothing but it was only cultured for a day so maybe the bacteria didn't have enough time to grow. I'm currently looking into labs that do the sequencing.
In the meantime. I was just prescribed Flomax for 30 days by my urologist and am going to have my primary care physician get me a prescription for Augmentin.
I'm of the belief that this problem is caused by some sort of infection. It's just hard to pinpoint that exact bacteria causing the symptoms and thus coming up with the ideal action plan is tough.
help78383 Wombatf18
Posted
Exactly. I believe I'm in the same boat with you. I know for sure this is a bacteria because I had full relief on Cipro for three days until it slowly started coming back. I would also agree that they only cultured for 24 hours so I think that would not be enough time in some cases to show the bacteria. I've even read that urine cultures are very flawed and outdated.
I have no idea what a sequencing is but that would be something to look into. In my case I took the one dose of 1000mg of Zithromax last night and I already feel a lot better today. I'm not even at the 24-48 hour mark so hopefully this completely cures whatever bacteria I have.
Another thing to note that I learned is that if the bad bacteria end up mutating then its generally recommended to take a antibiotic that does not target a specific bacteria but rather kills all bacteria. The reason I was given a large 1000mg dose of Zithromax was to basically nuke my body of all bacteria good and bad that way there is no chance for the bad bacteria to be able to mutate. So If you cant pin point what bacteria you have that might be something to look into as well.
A good analogy that one of my urologist mentioned is that like a dirty kitchen the longer you let it get dirty the longer it will take to clean it. So the fact that I've had whatever bacteria is in me be there for almost a month before actually getting on any antibiotics makes sense why I'm having to go through a longer process to cure it.
Wombatf18 help78383
Posted
Hopefully the 1000mg of Zithromax is the end all be all for you. I'll definitely keep that in mind if my next round of drugs aren't effective. If you're able to remember a month or two down the road I'd be very interested in hearing if the results stuck.
Good luck.
help78383 Wombatf18
Posted
Yes, I'll update you in the months coming as to how I feel. Good luck on your end too.
Helphelp help78383
Posted
Can you tell me your symptoms?
Do you have days you are symptom free ?
Wombatf18 help78383
Posted
Hey help78383,
I was wondering how things are going since you took the 1000mg of Zithromax? My latest course of antibiotics have been ineffective. Did your doctor ever nail it down as prostatitis? I ask because I've read Zithromax can be used to treat Urethritis which has similar symptoms to prostatitis. I really hope it worked for you.
-Wombat
help78383 Wombatf18
Posted
Hey,
So things turned out a lot different then I expected honestly. In terms of symptoms I'd say they are a little better not fully gone though. After the first urologist was convinced it wasn't a bacteria even though the antibiotics had worked he wanted to try the scope but I wasn't going to just take one dr.'s advice so I decided to see another urologist. I found one that had a 5 star rating and was recommended by a friend and said he was the best in my area.
I went to him with all my tests/results etc. from everything previous. He finally diagnosed me with a neuromuscular issue regarding my pelvic floor. He said he sees this a lot in guys all ages and says it can give guys and girls lower UTI like symptoms. He also said that antibiotics can work with non bacterial issues and that he even uses the the same group of antibiotics that i was on (low dose) for his acne. He said It usually resolves its self after some time but that time varies from person to person. He said I needed to see a physical therapist that specializes in the pelvic floor.
After doing some research I found a lot of articles that actually line up almost exactly to what I've been dealing with. It sounds like PT is my best option so I found a facility in my area that treats pelvic floor issues and I'm getting a referral from my doctor and planning on getting over there in the next week. I am sure though that since this started it has slowly been getting better however I think PT will speed the recovery up. I have noticed that sitting down does flare my symptoms up a little more.
Since I do think this is a muscle/nerve issue I understand now that the reason this might be taking so long to fully go away is because the muscles and nerves in your pelvic floor are complex and take time to heal. I think I got this from sitting all the time for work and high stress (tight pelvic floor). Since I've done a million tests and no one has found anything bacterial and I have not had sex for years and have been tested more times then I can remember at this point I do believe this is my pelvic floor.
To give some context the pelvic floor is a area of muscle and nerves around your pelvis area. Any tightness in this area due to a number of things can give you many symptoms similar to a UTI. If you haven't looked into the pelvic floor I would and see about checking out a really good PT that knows about it. As of now If things keep improving slowly which they are and I get into PT I should be good. Good luck.
Helphelp help78383
Posted
Wombatf18 help78383
Posted
ryan02012 help78383
Posted
I keep replying to you, sorry, but any luck with PT. Was your pelvic floor too tight, or too loose? I sit down a lot, and had a spurt of bed rest for a while this past month. Started getting a pinch on my penis, and this UTI sensation. People keep saying it's Prostatitis or pelvic floor. I've been doing squats and got a Rx for Cipro in. Hoping to see results.