Prostatitis

What is Prostatitis?

Prostatitis is swelling and inflammation of prostate gland. It is not prostate cancer and is different from Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH) too.

What are the causes, symptoms, and treatments for Prostatitis?

There are four types of Prostatitis. Each has a different set of symptoms, causes, and treatments.

Acute Bacterial Prostatitis

Acute bacterial prostatitis is caused when the bacteria in the urinary tract reach the prostate and cause severe infection there. This is a sudden and rare condition.

Symptoms of this condition are:

• High fever
• Chills
• Muscle pains
• Lower back pain
• Groin pain
• Painful urination
• Weak urine stream
• Blood in urine

Acute bacterial prostatitis is treated with high doses of antibiotics; in many cases through IV at the beginning and oral antibiotics later, for a few weeks. Alpha blockers, anti-inflammatory agents, and anti-depressants are used to manage the pain.

Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis

Chronic bacterial prostatitis is caused by recurring bacterial infection in the prostate.  More often than not, it is an after effect of a Urinary tract infection or Acute bacterial prostatitis. The condition is tricky for diagnosis and treatment because its symptoms are too mild or absent for most of the time.

Some of the symptoms of this condition are:

• Urgency of urination
• Painful urination
• Rectum pain
• Lower back pain
• Blood in semen
• Urinary blockage

The treatment for this condition is antibiotics to be taken for a long time.

Chronic Prostatitis

Chronic prostatitis is the most common prostatitis. Its symptoms are similar to those of bacterial prostatitis, but, it is not caused by a bacterial infection. In most of the cases, its cause is not known at all.  Stress, a physical injury, a damaged nerve, chemicals in urine, past history of UTI, and immune disorders are potential triggers.

The symptoms of chronic prostatitis are:

• Pain at the tip of the penis
• Lower back pain
• Abdomen pain
• Frequent urination
• Urgency of urination
• Weak urine stream

Alpha blockers and antibiotics are used to treat this condition.

Asymptomatic Inflammatory Prostatitis

Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis is prostatitis minus any symptoms. This condition is identified when diagnostic tests to check the prostate health are run. Elevated prostate-specific antigen in blood and increased white blood cells or pus cells in urine indicate this prostatitis. In many of the cases, asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis does not require treatment at all. In some cases, antibiotics are used to treat it.

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