Use Of a Catheter To Stretch Urethra In BPH

Interesting idea. My BPH was treated with medications for 9 years concluding in disaster. Following my radical prostatectomy a blockage resulted in several months of self-catheterising. During this time I was told I should expect to need to continue this practice for life as apparently most with bladder neck or urethra stricters have to. Like everything to do with prostates there are side effects and other issues to consider. In Australia it seems we are over a decade behind with BPH treatment. My many contacts since my PCa have only ever heard of medication or TURP. It seems everybody else is way past that in options. You may want to check them all out but your idea seems OK if that's the way you want to go. Keep us informed. Barrie

Fred, I have been catherizating for over a year now and I also noticed that "stretching" effect after using larger size, but it's not as much as you called it "great". Some people on this forum used catheters as dialators for their strictures. I think you can go as high as you are comfortable with, without irritation or bleeding. Hank

I use 18 Fr latex and 16 Fr plastic catheters.  These are considered fairly large by folks in the forum.  I don't notice any benefit from the stretching that you experience.  I have been self cathing for over 4 months, and I have not had a natural void since I started.  Prior to that, I was retaining over a liter and a half of urine in my bladder with small natural voids.

Hi Fred,

Prior to using a larger diameter catheter, what FR size were you using and how often? Then what size did you move up to? You should empty the same regardless of catheter size, so I assume the "symptons" you are talking about are something else?

Jim

I've wondered about this sort of in passing.  Sometimes when inserting one could get the notion that the passage may be easier to navigate; but then I'll do it the next time and it will be different.  You're saying that if you use a larger size just one time it releives symptoms?  If I could pee normally for three days by using a FR16 one time I do it for sure.

Hi Fred, why bother with a life of catheters and the more one pushes to pee the more one destroys the bladder and in turn the kidneys, I have had bph for years and tried drugs briefly and quickly stopped using them, I tried natural suppliments to no avail as my prostate growth grew upwards hard against my bladder causing a blockage I studied all options and chose not to use turp as in my case what they proposed was as follows -they slice up your penis to fit in the tooling to minimize urethra damage, cut away half your prostate including the prostate urethra and cut much of the bladder neck away to unblock the (in my case) median lobe pushing against the bladder which results in sperm going into the bladder and out with urine rather than the normal exit, and the upper sphincter valve is no longer functioning as a bladder neck valve because its been cut away, so that leaves the prostate full of urine 24/7 and only one lower prostate sphincter valve to hopefully hold the urine from incontinence so without explaining more sad points about the type of turp I was in for I chose focal laser ablation which does none of the above but carefully under live mri gently removes some of the prostate tissue only, which in turn allows a free flow of urine,  done through the rectum so not damaging or removing the body parts that turp does, and allowing one to pee with minimal damage, I have chosen Dr Karamanian in Houston Texas as he has very good reviews and highly respected by his patients, hope this helps.

Fred, I have had the same happening and believe that the catheter sometimes pushes the Prostate back over until it creeps out again. Just a theory.

Group,

 Many, many thanks for your responses!  I wasn’t sure if anybody would respond but this was great!

I was in my mid to late 50s when I first began having issues.  It was becoming difficult for me to completely void my bladder.  The problem was particularly bad at night for some reason.  It seemed like staying active during the day kept me “loosened up” or something.  But if I awoke during the night with a strong urge to urinate, sheesh!  I could spend 10 minutes in the bathroom!

Concerned that I might have cancer I decided to see a urologist.  You can imagine my relief when my PSA turned out to be almost zero !

But I still had a problem.  He basically gave me two options.  Drugs or surgery.  They could do a “roto-rooter” on me – one day’s stay in the hospital.  I chose the drugs.  He put me on “Avodart” and “Flomax”.  I have to admit that it really helped.  After six months my urinating was pretty much back to normal.  But after nine months, I suddenly developed some bad “vitreous eye floaters”.

I asked my urologist if the floaters could come from the Avodart.  He basically laughed at me.  “There’s no way that Avodart will give you eye floaters”.  Oh yeah? I told him to “Google” it.  There are pages and pages on the internet where prostate patients have complained about floaters after being on this drug.  So, I stopped taking it but continue to take the Flomax.  I have also discovered – entirely back accident – that a zinc supplement helps.

That brings me to the catheters.  A few years ago my neighbor got BPH so bad that he wasn’t able to urinate at all and had to go to the E.R.  They put him on an “indwelling” catheter which, for some unknown reason, came back out again after a couple of weeks.  Was he ever surprised!  He said “I can pee as well now as I could when I was 18!”

That is what gave me the idea.  So, I went to the hardware store and got some 3/8” surgeon’s tubing, thoroughly rinsed it inside and out with hydrogen peroxide, and inserted it into my bladder for a few hours.  Oh my!  It worked!  I encountered NO difficulty urinating for a day or two afterwards.  Trouble was, in spite of my best efforts with the peroxide, it was still kinda “dirty” and I got a urinary tract infection.  No good.

Now recently I have discovered that it is possible to buy catheters online that are 100% sterile.  I have been trying “Foley” indwelling catheters that are 30fr.  I like the Foley type ‘cause I think the material is less irritating than the raw latex intermittent catheters.  However, I just tape ‘em to stay in.  I have never tried to inflate the balloon.  Not sure I’d want to try and do that.  This treatment does seem to help.  But, sadly, I am probably only succeeding in postponing the inevitable.  One of these fine days I will probably have to get my prostate removed.  After all, my dad had to.  Ah, yes, growing old is so much fun, eh?

Regards,

Fred

The net of this is that it probably means that one of the procedures for BPH would probably help. I went into retention once, got stuck on a foley for three days and for a day, peed better than I had in years. My doc told me that meant a procedure would probably help.

If you decide to pursue it (you may not feel the need yet, depending on how much of a bother you think it is) the less invasive ones are Urolift, Rezum, PAE and FLA (which was mentioned on this thread). All have a low side effect profile and are in office procedures that can be done with minimal or no sedation. The last two are done by interventional radiologists, so your urologist won't mention them. If you have an enlarged median lobe, urolift and PAE are not indicated.

IF you decide to pursue this, get a full workup - urodynamics testing and prostate size via scope at least. If your doctor recommends TURP, Holep or Greenlight laser, find another doctor. They are all more invasive, require anesthesia, have much worse side effects and are pretty much outdated, particularly as a first option.

This is purely elective in your case, so if your quality of life is fine, there is no need to do anything right now, if you would prefer to avoid any procedure.