All About Chronic Prostatitis

What is Chronic prostatitis? First of all, you need to understand what the prostate is, it’s the prostate gland. This is an organ that only males have in their body, it develops even during intrauterine development and persists throughout life. The prostate is an external secretion gland, i.e. develops its secret and brings it out. Due to its location, it is not visible externally, because located in the small pelvis in men.

It is a formation of a rounded shape, which is located under the bladder and at the same time is located in close proximity to the muscles of the pelvic floor, rectum, ureters, urethra and choroid and nerve plexuses of the small pelvis. Since this organ is an exocrine gland, it is necessary to understand what functions it performs. First of all, it produces a secret, which is one of the important components of sperm in men. This secret contains a lot of protein, amino acids, etc.

Unfortunately, the prostate receives little attention from both men and doctors.

So what is prostatitis, chronic prostatitis in particular

This is an inflammatory disease of the prostate gland. This inflammation can be both acute and chronic. Not a single chronic disease begins spontaneously, it is always preceded by acute inflammation transferred to one degree or another.

In some cases, a man may not notice the appearance of the disease, but it will exist for a long time and will not be cured, and then will lead to serious morphological and functional disorders.

Chronic prostatitis usually develops at least three months after acute inflammation of the prostate gland. As a result of this inflammation, the morphology of the cellular composition is disrupted, as well as the functions in the prostate.

Epidemiology

This disease is one of the most common inflammatory diseases among men. The disease is quite young, that is, males of various age categories are exposed to it. If prostate adenoma occurs more often in old age, then chronic prostatitis can appear in men even at the age of 20. The average age at which symptoms of this disease are detected is 40-50 years.

By old age, almost every man suffered from this disease, but many of them might not even have treated it and did not go to a doctor with complaints about the appearance of certain symptoms.

At the same time, symptoms of chronic prostatitis may not reveal themselves immediately, and a man may turn to other more serious problems in his opinion. And only before the treatment of another disease, the original cause is revealed. If, in case of acute inflammation, the wrong treatment was carried out, chronic prostatitis is inevitable.

Causes of chronic prostatitis

First of all, when identifying the cause of the development of inflammation in the prostate, it is necessary to determine the predisposing factors. There are a lot of them and they are very common in the modern world.

This is the first role of infectious agents. Most often, the cause is of microbial etiology. Microbial infection can be either nonspecific or carry a specific pathogen. Specific agents include sexually transmitted infections. And if we consider that many of these infections in men can be absolutely asymptomatic, then they can persist in the body for a long time. Even the most seemingly unexpressed chronic infection can lead to prostatitis.

The appearance of nonspecific pathogens in causative factors may be due to non-observance of the rules of personal hygiene, rare washing of the glans penis both after urination and after a short time after intercourse.

In some cases, vaginal dysbiosis in a partner, or some of the conditionally pathogenic microorganisms of a woman, play a huge role in the development of prostate inflammation for a man.

Among the most common causative agents of inflammation are the following: chlamydia, Trichomonas, gonococcus, gardnerella, E. coli, staphylococcus and enterococcus.

Don't forget about the likelihood of viruses and fungi being involved

In this case, the pathogen enters the body ascending, i.e. through the urethra.

In addition, there is another important way of penetration of an infectious agent - hematogenous. Many men have any inflammatory diseases, sometimes a flu or SARS can also provoke an inflammatory process.

Hypothermia, decreased immunity and even overheating against the background of an infection already present in the body can provoke the development of inflammation.

Sexual behavior also plays an important role in the development of the inflammatory response.In this case, prolonged sexual abstinence has a negative effect on the condition of the gland, it promotes stagnation of blood in the pelvic organs, blood supply is disrupted and blood perfusion of the organ also slows down.

Interrupted sexual intercourse, incomplete expulsion of sperm leads to stagnation of secretions in the organ, as an overcrowded, enlarged organ affects the blood supply processes and can even cause a slight edema of the surrounding tissues. In rare cases, the disease is immunological. An autoimmune factor is not excluded. Chronic somatic infection should also be excluded.

Chronic prostatitis symptoms and treatment

Symptoms of chronic prostatitis in many men may be completely absent. Some cannot even name one or another predisposing factor for sure. Nevertheless, there are a lot of symptoms of this disease. The most popular of these is pain relief. Pain syndrome can be quite long sometimes it is months.

The pain is often not localized in a certain place. It is usually diffuse in nature, with a tendency to irradiation to the lower back, perineum, organs of the scrotum, groin areas. But by no means are they point-like. Most often they are pulling and aching, the pains are not permanent. They tend to increase or decrease, depending on the state of the body and the impact of environmental factors.

Another important sign is violations in the sexual sphere. Men often complain of erectile dysfunction, at first it can be almost imperceptible, and in later stages it comes much later, even when all the predisposing factors are involved.

But never with chronic prostatitis there is complete impotence. Ejaculation also suffers. At first, it can come much faster than planned, and at a later stage, on the contrary, it slows down, almost to a complete cessation. Orgasm becomes less vivid and emotionally pronounced. Sometimes problems related to the sexual sphere can affect the partner. A very common reason after which men are diagnosed with chronic prostatitis is infertility.

Also, quite often men can experience problems with urination. It becomes more frequent, sometimes resembling signs of cystitis. An urge to urinate can disturb a man at night. Sometimes they are accompanied by painful sensations, cuts, etc. A man can detect symptoms of chronic prostatitis on his own.

How to diagnose chronic prostatitis on time and start immediate and effective treatment?

Usually it does not cause difficulties among specialists of this profile. When a man presents with any symptoms, the doctor can make this diagnosis without additional examination.

Usually, the minimum scope of the examination is limited to the collection of anamnesis, laboratory tests and digital rectal examination. A digital rectal examination does not require additional training for a man. The doctor can determine the size of the prostate, its consistency, soreness in a particular area.

Laboratory indicators are not limited to a general blood test. Urine analysis is also necessary, in this case it has certain features. A man needs to pass the very last portion of urine, the so-called terminal. In it, the laboratory assistant must determine the number of leukocytes and the presence of bacterial cells. In some cases, the pathogen is not found and you have to be tested for sexually transmitted infections.

A smear from the urethra is also taken. Another very important diagnostic aspect is ultrasound. It is carried out through the rectum using a special sensor. It is also important to check the blood supply to the organ.

In some more severe and asymptomatic cases, an invasive biopsy procedure may be required.

In order to exclude oncological disease, a man may be sent to determine in the blood a tumor marker of prostate cancer. It's called PSA. But you need to take it no earlier than 10 days after the digital rectal examination.

Chronic Prostatitis Treatment

The earlier treatment for chronic prostatitis is started, the more likely it will be to remove the disease from its chronic form. You should never resort to self-treatment, because prostatitis should be treated by a qualified specialist.

This pathology is treated by a urologist. Usually, treatment does not require hospitalization. Treatment of all existing chronic diseases is required.

The first step is to start with a lifestyle change. It is necessary to exclude casual sexual intercourse, diseases of the partner.

You need to follow the rules of personal hygiene. Thoroughly rinse the glans of the penis to prevent the accumulation of bacteria under the foreskin. Sex life should be regular, with full ejaculation.Interrupted intercourse should be avoided.

In addition, physical activity should be increased. Move more often to prevent blood stagnation in the small pelvis and prostate.

Nutrition should also be normalized. Try to avoid eating fast food, spicy, smoked and salty foods. Sweets should also be limited. Alcohol and drugs should be avoided altogether. Men should also stop smoking.

Treatment of prostatitis is also subdivided into medical and operational. First of all, with chronic prostatitis, of course, they begin to treat the cause. And since it is most often infectious, antibiotics are the main drug. Its choice depends primarily on the pathogen that was found during the diagnosis. It is best if they immediately take and determine the sensitivity of the microorganism to antibacterial agents.

Then the treatment will be more effective and shorter. Antibiotics can be given with different routes of administration. With an asymptomatic course of the process, tablet forms are usually prescribed. If there is an exacerbation of the chronic process, then they resort to injectable drugs. Chronic prostatitis can be treated with more than one remedy.

Anti-inflammatory drugs are an important component in complex treatment. This is usually a class of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Vasodilators are usually also very much needed, they are used to improve blood supply to the pelvic organs, restore microcirculation. They prevent stagnation.

Another class of drugs used are immunomodulators. Vitamin therapy should also be included in the complex treatment.

Surgical methods are rarely resorted to, but still sometimes only this way remains. Among these methods, prostate resection is used. In some cases, complications that have appeared have to be surgically treated. This can be a peeling of a cyst or an opening of an abscess.

The treatment of chronic prostatitis also includes various physiotherapy procedures. In order for a disease such as chronic prostatitis to have a favorable prognosis, the identified disease should be treated immediately. The effectiveness of the treatment should be monitored by a specialist after some time.