1. Community
  2. Men's health
  3. Prostate Problems

Recommendations for someone living outside the US

Posted , 17 users are following.

paul5555
paul5555

My case may be relevant to a lot of people here, so hopefully good answers will help lots of people.

I've got mild but rapidly increasing BPH.

Like many of you probably, I'm overwhelmed with the number of non-medicinal treatment options (medicine hasn't worked for me very well).

I will have to self-fund the procedure since I don't have US insurance.  (I'm in Mexico)

So I'm thinking of the following basic plan of action:

1) Get quality MRI imaging done here.

2) Have a good local urologist look over it to look for middle lobe, other anatomical issues. etc.

3) Send the imaging to doctors in the US and elsewhere to see whether they think I'd respond well to their particular treatments.  I don't think too many of these treatments (apart from Urolift) are done in Mexico, unfortunately.

4) Somehow try to pick among the so many different treatment options based on their responses, costs, and of course all of your so-helpful responses on effectiveness and go do it.  Right now I'm mostly focused on Urolift, PAE, FLA, and aguablation.

It seems fairly straightforward, which makes me wary and want to ask those with so much more experience, does this seem like a sensible plan or are there things I'm missing/other factors to consider?

Thanks in advance!

 

0 likes, 73 replies

73 Replies

Prev
  • stan98754
    stan98754 paul5555

    Posted

    God plan  ,  pls send the MRI scan to Dr. K in Houston.  He will give you  good analysis of your problem  with  treatment  suggestion  .  Im from Europe  with FLA procedure  in April  3rd.  Big median  lobe  was   the biggest problem  , pls note PAE is not effective  .  REZUM and FLA yes.    Stan 
  • tgt111
    tgt111 paul5555

    Posted

    I’ve been delving into these different procedures for awhile now.. I’m going to go with PAE.  The stats are very good and there’s a lot of recent studies that are backing the procedure up as the new gold standard( I know lame phrase). I think the FDA has approved it recently in some way also.. .as per Dr. Bagla..Anyway, it’s also not true that it doesn’t work on people with large median lobes... Some people have had great results with large lobes..It may be true that it’s not as successful on large median lobes but this shouldn’t rule out an attempt in my opinion. The side effects are minimal and brief.. And I’m  not going near anything that could give me retro... Anyway my 2 cents..
    • mike588
      mike588 tgt111

      Posted

      I had 2 PAE's which did not work and have the dreaded Median Lobe - OK I understand many or even most have had success, the only reason I am writing is to warn you that after the procedure the prostate probably swells up, and the PAE docs did not insert a Foley Catheter or give me medication that would help such as Cortisone - subsequently I was in agony for a whole week trying to pee, and I'm sure I did not help my bladder because my Urologist said I had trebeculation of the bladder when he saw me after the procedures. So I would not say side effects are minimal and brief.

    • jimjames
      jimjames mike588

      Posted

      Hi Mike, That's a good heads up for any PAE prospects. As to the trabeculation, my understanding is that is a long term issue and wouldn't have been caused by only a week of even significant stress. Did you have a bladder/kidney study prior to PAE, if so I would imagine it would also show a trabeculated bladder. FWIW all my studies have shown trabeculated bladder which is not that uncommon for bph patients.

      Jim

    • mike588
      mike588 jimjames

      Posted

      Jim,

      No bldder/kidney study but I had a cystoscopy and the Urologist said there was no trabeculation prior to the PAE  -so it could be a coincidence that it happened around the same time due to BPH for so many years, or the 2 weeks of trauma actually caused it.

    • jimjames
      jimjames mike588

      Posted

      Are you saying that your urologist did both a pre and post PAE cystoscopy and only found trabeculation after? Beyond my pay grade but I was under the impression that trabeculation develops over time but maybe it can have multiple causes. Could he have been confusing inflammation with trabeculation? In any event, I'm surprised you never had a bladder/kidney study because they are pretty standard for men in retention. I'm sure your kidneys are safe now, but not a bad idea to get the non invasive study which should confirm (or not confirm) any trabeculation.

      Jim

    • mike588
      mike588 jimjames

      Posted

      Jim,

      I didn't communicate very well - I had a cystoscopy as part of my BPH monitoring say a year before the PAE(s).

      Then I had another cystoscopy some months before I went into retention (maybe 2-3 years after the first one) where the Uro told me it had developed since the last time he had looked.

      I DID have a bladder test, I'm not sure which ones, but one they hooked me up to test pressure (I was already in retention), that was quite horrible. Before FLA they also checked kidneys which showed some damage. Then after the FLA they did another ultrasound to see if Kidneys were OK and they more or less were OK, I had been wearing Foley for 7 weeks and started CIC after that.

      Next time I see Uro I will ask for another bladder test to check for trabeculation, I suspect they will say I need cystoscopy first.

      Michael

Back to top
Prev

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.