Prostatitis

Prostate infections in men can be acute (sudden onset and severe) and require urgent antibiotics.

Symptoms

• Prostate Infections

  These infections are associated with:

  • chills
  • fever
  • pain in the lower back and genital area
  • urinary frequency
  • painful urination
  • body aches
  • a clear infection of the urinary tract

  These are relatively uncommon, and are easily diagnosed and treated by most physicians.

• Prostadynia

  Much more common is low grade prostate pain, called prostadynia or Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome (CP/CPPS), or chronic nonbacterial prostatitis.

  These account for 90 to 95% of prostatitis diagnoses, and are poorly understood and treated by many physicians.

Diagnosis

If pain is coming from up in the rectum in a male, one can use a finger to check up inside.

Feel for a rounded area on the front part of the rectal wall near the end of your finger, when the finger is all the way in.

Normally, pushing on it will cause you to feel like you have to urinate. It should, however, not be painful.

If it feels boggy when you push on it, or is painful — especially if it reproduces your pain — the prostate may be a major cause of your pelvic pain.

Treatment

• Medications

  • Antibiotics

    If chronic pelvic pain is associated with prostate tenderness, especially if you have urinary urgency with low volumes or burning when you pass water:

    1. Take Cipro 500 to 750 mg twice a day or Doxycycline 100 mg twice a day (both are antibiotics) for six weeks. After six weeks stop the antibiotics.
    2. If your symptoms have improved and then recur when you stop the antibiotics, continue to take six-week courses of antibiotics until they stay gone.
    3. If they didn't improve with the first course of antibiotics, switch to the other antibiotic.

    This may be a very helpful treatment for you.

    Precautions

    Do not use Doxycycline that is expired or out of date. This is one of the few times that an expired prescription can cause you harm or kill you.

    Do not take magnesium within 4 to 6 hours of taking Cipro or it will block the absorption of the Cipro. As Cipro is more expensive (Doxycycline is cheap) it is even more important to not lose any of the absorption.

    Take the Cipro first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, and take the magnesium in the middle of the day, while you are on the Cipro.

• Recommended Supplements

  • Antifungals

    When on either of these antibiotics it is critical that you be on antifungals (like the medication Diflucan and/or an herbal antifungal mix) and a low sugar diet to prevent yeast overgrowth. Otherwise, you will initially feel better and then you will get worse and worse with the antibiotics.

    The Diflucan dose would be 200 mg a day for 6 to 12 weeks and the herbal antifungal mix would be as directed each day for 2 to 5 months. Also note that coffee can aggravate the symptoms of prostatitis.

Other Therapies & Advice

If symptoms persist despite the antibiotics, see the sections on:

• Pelvic Pain, Males
• Rectal Pain