Treatment of Chronic Prostatitis

About the disease

Chronic prostatitis is an inflammation in the men's prostate. It also affects lower urinary tract, because prostate is located below the urinary tract. Prostate is responsible for producing and transporting sperm. Prostatitis is the most common disease of urinary tract in men.

According to American site Medscape, only in the USA there are around 2 million patients annually who experience symptoms of prostate inflammation. 8.2% of all male population has prostatitis at some point of their life, which very often can be asymptomatic. There are acute and chronic types of prostatitis. If acute prostatitis can be sudden and not last for a long time, chronic prostatitis can develop gradually and be an ongoing problem. Chronic prostatitis is much more common, accounting for almost 95% of cases.

It is still unknown what causes prostatis. Nevertheless, it is believed that it in most cases it develops because of prior infections or injuries, which become recurrent and cause inflammation of the prostate gland.  

Symptoms

• Pain in the bladder
• Difficulty urinating  
• Restricted bowel movements
• Ejaculation problems 
• Sexual dysfunction
• Blood in the urine
• Frequent urination

 Diagnosis

• Prostate exam is the most common diagnostic method for patients who have prostatic symptoms. It involves manual examination of the prostate by the doctor, who feels it to determine if there are signs of inflammation and if it is enlarged due to the swelling.
• Tests for sexually transmitted diseases are also important, because such diseases have similar symptoms and doctors need to rule them out to order proper treatment.
• Urine test can detect abnormalities in secretion of urine.
• Sperm test determines if there are problems with its production and if person has sexual dysfunction.

Treatment

Chronic prostatitis treatment usually includes conservative therapy, which can alleviate the symptoms and relieve inflammation. Antibiotics, which are often given in case of acute prostatitis, are not often prescribed for chronic prostatitis patients, which are believed not to have active infection. If it is believed that a particular patient has urine infection, antibiotics can be given as a precaution measure, which can prevent other inflammatory disease.

In order to reduce pain doctor also use non-steroidal inflammatory drugs. Very often patient needs to stay in hospital for one or two weeks to surpass the stage of acute pain.

Chronic prostatitis will eventually subside and with the help of qualified doctors you will be able to speed up the recovery period.

Authors: Dr. Vadim Zhiliuk, Dr. Sergey Pashchenko