With the availability of the Rezum procedure, men should not wait to fully address their BPH.

I am 67 years old, and have had BPH for many years. It continued to get worse over time. I finally went to a urologist about 2 years ago and was prescribed tamsulosin. It helped for a about 6 months, then my symptoms started getting worse again. I did not like the fact that it caused retrograde ejaculation, but felt I had no choice. About a year ago, my urologist added finesteride to try shrink my prostate. It seemed to make very little difference to my BPH, but the fact that it really messes with your male hormones was a problem for me. I need ALL of my male hormones working for me!

So I started looking for how I was going to address this BPH more effectively. The relatively new Rezum procedure looked very good to me, mainly because it had almost zero long term side effects. I discussed this with my urologist, and he was just adding this technique to his practice. He tested me, and reported that my prostate was 56cc and I had a median lobe. I decided to have the procedure.

My procedure had 5 total steam injections, 2 on each side, and 1 in the median lobe. I had a catheter for 2 days. Urination burned for 1 more day. By day 4, no more discomfort.

The last few months before this procedure, I would wake up to urinate 4 to 6 times a night. It was totally unpredictable. These episodes would start very slowly and drag on with many start and stops. It was really impacting my life due to sleep disruption.

I am only in week 3 after this procedure, and should experience improvements for the next several months. In the last 7 nights, I have only gotten up to urinate 2 times each night, and they were quick and complete! I could live with this level, but may still experience further improvement. The other big change is that I stopped taking the finesteride the week before my procedure, and the tamsulosin the week after even though my urologist wanted me to continue on both of them for 4 months. In the last week, I feel that my male hormones are fully functioning again, and the retrograde ejaculation is gone. I could not be more pleased!

Based on what I know now, I would suggest men starting down the BPH road should consider addressing their problem right away, before their prostate gets too large or they damage their bladder. If you know you have a large prostate and it is only going to get worse, why not skip the BPH drugs and try a procedure that has so little long term risk? Reading other men's outcomes, it appears to me that getting this fixed BEFORE you damage yourself greatly increases your chances for a good outcome.

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