How does prostatitis manifest: symptoms and signs

Inflammation of the prostate today is the leader of the group of male diseases, transmitted mainly through sexual contact. Its complications threaten infertility, decreased libido, impotence.

The first symptoms of prostatitis in men

Prostatitis is an inflammatory disease. This is one of the most common urological pathologies, which is diagnosed in representatives of the strong half of humanity.

Most often, this anomaly is detected in men over the age of thirty, although recently the disease has become much younger. Treatment of prostatitis should be carried out by qualified specialists (urologists or andrologists), since there is a high probability of developing various complications.

How is prostatitis treated?

With the help of drugs

• NSAIDs - relieve inflammation, fever and fever. They have a mild analgesic effect. With the appearance of prostatitis, a short treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs and taking vitamins is necessary to maintain the gland in a normal state. Men are prescribed: Diclofenac, Nise, Voltaren, Nimesulide. Medicines are produced in suppositories, tablets, injections.
• Antibiotics - designed to eliminate the infectious or bacteriological factor of inflammation. The treatment regimen for prostatitis is signed after the pathogen has been identified and its resistance to antibiotics has been tested. The course of treatment is 7-10 days. In severe cases, treatment is prolonged for up to two weeks.
• Hormones are recommended if the usual treatment with drugs has not been beneficial, as well as if there is a decrease in sexual desire due to advanced disease. It is forbidden to treat with hormones at an early stage. The drugs are taken under the strict supervision of a urologist.
• Symptomatic drugs - to eliminate the pain syndrome, take aspirin tablets. Spasms are eliminated by No-shpa. With persistent severe pain, a blockade with Novocain is indicated.
• Vitamins and medications to keep prostate functions in good working order. During the period of remission, it is recommended to drink drugs to normalize metabolism and improve blood supply to glandular tissues and juice production. For this, phytopreparations are prescribed: Prostamol-Uno, Prostate-forte and the like. To strengthen the immune system, a complex of vitamins and minerals is indicated: Duovit, Vitrum.

Self-medication is dangerous, it does more harm than good. Before taking any of these drugs, you should consult a urologist.

With the use of physiotherapy

• UHF and microwave.
• Magnetotherapy.
• Mud cure.
• Galvanization.
• Ultraphonophoresis.
• Laser treatment.
• Heat therapy.

natural remedies

Diagnostic

To start treatment for inflammation of the prostate in time, you need to contact a competent specialist who will conduct a comprehensive examination and make the correct diagnosis. The list of recommended diagnostic methods includes the following:

• Blood tests - conduct a study of the biochemical composition, for the content of PSA (prostate specific antigen), general analysis and PCR if necessary.
• Urinalysis - the man is asked to urinate into several different containers in order to conduct the study in different ways.
• Scraping the surface of the urethral canal to detect an infectious pathogen.
• Bacteriological culture of prostatic and urethral secretions to determine the bacterial pathogen and its drug resistance.
• Ultrasound of the prostate - allows you to assess the size and shape of the gland, the presence or absence of tissue fusion, adhesions and scarring changes.

A mandatory element in the diagnosis of prostatitis is a digital rectal examination. Examining the fingers allows the doctor to feel the gland and assess its density, structure, shape, and size. Also, during a digital rectal examination, a secret from the prostate is obtained, which is then sent for analysis. Additional examination methods are assigned individually to a particular patient if indicated.

These may include measurements of urine flow velocity, magnetic resonance or computed tomography, x-rays of the pelvic organs, and other methods.

Acute prostatitis

The disease begins with a sharp rise in temperature (up to 40 degrees), excruciating headaches, fever. The symptoms that appear are accompanied by pain in the groin, perineum, back, discharge from the urethra, frequent urination and a constant urge to urinate.

Bladder emptying occurs with a delay, burning sensation. The urine itself becomes cloudy and an admixture of blood may appear in it. There is irritability, fatigue.

The result of acute prostatitis can be a complete resolution of the process (with prompt treatment). Since changes occur in many organs of the small pelvis, they cannot be left to chance, otherwise the corresponding complications will arise:

• Vesiculitis is an inflammation of the seminal vesicles, the origin of pus in the semen, which not only reduces the quality of the ejaculate, but leads to a loss of reproductive function.
• Colliculitis - inflammatory changes in the seminal tubercle become the reason for the development of severe pain during intercourse, interruption of orgasm, impotence of a psychological nature.
• The formation of an abscess in the body of the prostate, its rupture, purulent damage to the rectum leads to an exacerbation of symptoms, powerful intoxication of the body, up to death.
• Stagnation of prostate tissue leads to a change in their structure, disruption of innervation, blood supply, both to the gland itself and to the organs located near it, with a violation of their functions. The erection becomes insufficient for full-fledged sexual intercourse, premature ejaculation is observed, prolonged sexual intercourse without the appearance of orgasm.
• Scarring changes in the gland, the spermatic cord lead to infertility, a decrease in the qualitative composition of sperm and sperm motility. Urethral stricture interferes with the normal process of urination, bladder obstruction can cause acute urinary retention, requiring emergency surgical care.

Main symptoms

As noted above, the disease can be chronic and acute. A common symptom and one of the most important is increased urination. A healthy man usually experiences no more than 10-11 urges to urinate during the day (the normal figure is 5-6 urges).

As a result of the development of inflammation of the prostate gland, a negative effect on the bladder occurs, therefore, in the presence of the disease, the following symptoms will appear:

• An increase in the number of urges (while the daily volume of urine remains the same).
• Urine comes out in small portions, which is associated with receiving false signals from the receptors in the bladder due to the presence of an inflammatory process. Also, therefore, there may be a feeling that the bladder is full even after being emptied.
• Pain during urination, due to narrowing of the urethra due to the inflammatory process in the prostate.
• Difficulty urinating due to inflammation of certain areas of the urethra. In some cases, men cannot empty their bladders at all because of this.
• At night, the walls of the bladder begin to emit false signals, which increases the number of trips to the toilet during sleep.

Part of the diagnosis of prostatitis can also be made by monitoring body temperature, coupled with problems with urination. If these problems are accompanied by an increase in temperature to subfebrile and febrile values, then with a high degree of probability we can talk about the development of pathology. It is important to note that in the later stages of the development of the disease, on the contrary, a decrease in body temperature to 35. 5-36 degrees can be observed, which is an extremely negative and dangerous symptom in any case, which should not be allowed.

In the intermediate stages of the disease, blood can be observed in the patient's urine. This sign is relatively rare and often non-indicative, but extremely dangerous. It can begin to manifest due to purulent melting of the prostate, trauma to the prostate, as well as complications of the inflammatory process with hyperplasia. Healing in this case is complicated (often surgery is required).

Treatment should begin immediately after the first symptoms of the disease appear. If there have been at least a few, albeit insignificant, problems with urination, which in some cases are accompanied by fever and pain in the area of simplicity, you should immediately make an appointment with a urologist to clarify the diagnosis. It is imperative to pay attention to the signs of pathology described above, since it is possible to defeat prostatitis quickly and painlessly only with timely treatment.

Why does the prostate become inflamed?

In fact, there are only 2 main reasons:

1. Infection. Most often, prostatitis develops precisely because of infection in the prostate. Infection can occur through the bladder, urethra, rectum, blood and lymph. It turns out that often prostatitis itself is a complication of an existing disease. Therefore, never self-medicate, you must first cure the source of infection. Cystitis, pyelonephritis, urethritis, STIs (sexually transmitted infections) - it's understandable, they are directly related to the prostate. Even tonsillitis, sinusitis, flu, untreated cavities can also come back to haunt the inflamed prostate.
2. Circulatory disorders. This may be due to structural features and spasms of the urethra, disturbances in nerve conduction and the work of the muscles of the abdomen and pelvis, as well as external factors.

However, whether or not prostatitis develops depends primarily on predisposing factors:

• Chaotic sex life. The abundance of sexual partners, especially unprotected contacts, exhausts the immune system, which constantly has to deal with foreign microflora in female secretions. And sooner or later it fails.
• Long abstinence. It's the other extreme. The lack of sex has a detrimental effect on the general condition of a man, and in particular on the prostate. His secret stagnates, blood circulation is disturbed, an infection develops.
• Masturbation. It happens that men try to escape the lack of sex by masturbation. However, this causes a decrease in the tone of the prostate, it becomes lethargic. It is even isolated in a separate type of prostatitis - congestive.
• Overweight. In overweight men, the load on the pelvic organs is significantly increased, as well as on the whole body in general. The blood supply is disturbed, because of this, prostatitis and hemorrhoids, and a host of other diseases occur.
• Hypothermia. "Don't sit in the cold, " they tell all the girls. However, this also applies to men. Fans of extreme winter fun, avid fishermen, owners of old cars (oh, how often I see men lying on cardboard under the car in winter), even passengers on icy trains, as well as fashionistas withrolled up pants and not a hat. Oh yes, and urinating outside in the winter also has serious consequences.
• Inactivity. Basically, this applies to workflow, when you have to sit in one place for a long time: drivers, office workers. It is especially harmful to cross your legs, since the load on the prostate only increases.
• Stress. Psychological problems, chronic lack of sleep, overloaded work schedule are favorites for infections.
• Retain the urge to urinate. Is the 5 minutes saved in a busy workflow worth the potential issues?
• Bad habits. Well, where without them? Abuse of alcohol and nicotine that only violate.
• Bad nutrition. Fatty, spicy and salty foods attract diseases of the pelvic organs.
• basic illnesses. Any untreated infectious disease can be complicated by prostatitis.
• Tight underwear. As well as too tight "fashionable" pants. They compress the small pelvis, disrupt blood circulation, cause swelling and inflammation.
• Physical overload. Professional athletes, loaders, active visitors to gyms are at great risk.
• Self-treatment. Sometimes men are ashamed to admit their problems even to a doctor, they try to crush the disease with various folk, proven and not so good remedies. However, it happens that without medication prescribed by a competent doctor, one cannot cope here.

How is the disease diagnosed?

Diagnosis is made by a urologist or andrologistafter examining the patient, collecting an anamnesis and studying the symptoms. The doctor should know the patient's method of contraception, the presence of STIs in the sexual partner, the possibility of anal intercourse without a condom. These data facilitate the diagnosis and direct the doctor's thinking in the right direction. Prescribing the appearance of symptoms of the disease or discomfort in the perineum makes it possible to judge the course of prostatitis and its severity. The urologist necessarily examines the patient's genitals and conducts a rectal examination of the prostate. To do this, he inserts a finger into the patient's anus and gropes on the anterior wall of the rectum protruding from the prostate. The pain and its size indicate the intensity of the inflammatory process.

Then the doctor conducts a series of instrumental, microscopic, bacteriological and immunological studies to clarify the cause of the disease. The most common diagnostic method is a urine sample of 4 or 3 glasses. The first method is more time-consuming and difficult to implement in practice, since it requires the patient to deliberately interrupt urination several times. The second modification is simpler: the patient urinates continuously into three different containers in equal portions. The first part talks about the state of the urinary tract, the second about the pathology of the bladder and kidneys, from the third they receive information about the state of the prostate. All collected material is examined under a microscope. With prostatitis, white blood cells and sometimes bacteria are found in the third part of the urine.

For microscopy, the secret of the prostate is also taken.To do this, the doctor performs prostate massage through the wall of the rectum for a while so that it empties into the urethra. Smears are made from material collected in the laboratory, stained and studied under high magnification. A sign of inflammation is leukocytes, a bacterial etiology of the disease is bacteria in a smear. To determine the type of pathogen, the prostatic secret is sown on a nutrient medium. If pathogenic microorganisms are present there, after 3-5 days they form microbial colonies, which can then be studied. The bacteriological method makes it possible to obtain data on the sensitivity of microflora to antibiotics.

Among the instrumental diagnostic methods are carried out:

• Kidney ultrasound;
• Prostate TRUS with dopplerography - an ultrasound probe is inserted into the rectum for better visualization of the prostate, its blood flow is also assessed;
• Ascending urorethrography is necessary in case of persistent recurrent prostatitis. A radiopaque substance is injected into the urethra, after which a series of consecutive images are taken.

In addition to these methods, all types of STI research are of great importance. Among them are:

1. PCR ejaculate, prostate secretion, scraping of the urethral mucosa - the method allows you to detect a wide range of pathogens;
2. Blood ELISA - to detect antibodies specific to STI pathogens.

Types of prostatitis

According to the criteria of the American National Institute of Health (NIH USA) of 1995, there are four categories of prostatitis:

• Category I: acute prostatitis;
• Category II: chronic bacterial prostatitis;
• Category III: chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS);
• Category IIIa: chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome with signs of inflammation;
• Category IIIb: chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome without signs of inflammation;
• Category IV: Asymptomatic (asymptomatic) chronic prostatitis.

Occasionally, chronic granulomatous prostatitis, not mentioned in this classification, also occurs.

In turn, most experts distinguish between:

According to the evolution of the disease:

• acute prostatitis;
• chronic prostatitis;

According to the causes of the disease:

• bacterial prostatitis;
• nonbacterial prostatitis

In most cases (especially in men under 40), bacterial prostatitis is noted.

On this basis there are:

• acute bacterial prostatitis;
• chronic bacterial prostatitis;
• chronic abacterial prostatitis.

Prevention

To prevent the occurrence of inflammation or the recurrence of a chronic pathology, you must follow these recommendations:

• Reduce the amount of alcohol consumed;
• Exercise regularly;
• Avoid hypothermia;
• Stop smoking;
• Avoid stressful situations;
• Treat inflammation in time - first of all, this applies to genital infections;
• Take a contrast shower;
• Avoid lifting heavy objects;
• Use barrier contraceptive methods;
• Have sex regularly;
• Take vitamin preparations;
• Engage in strengthening immunity;
• Consult a urologist twice a year;
• Eat right and balanced.

Function of the prostate in the male body: what is it responsible for?

The prostate is an exocrine gland in the male body.

Iron belongs to the reproductive system and is responsible for the production of a number of specific substances:

• the main one is the secret (prostatic juice), which provides the necessary viscosity of the ejaculate and, accordingly, the normal motility of sperm. When the sperm is too thick, fertilization is difficult and a woman simply cannot get pregnant from a seemingly healthy man.
• other components maintain the normal composition of sperm. These include biologically active substances, immunoglobulins, enzymes, vitamins, microelements, etc. The norms of these substances are individual, and it is the prostate that regulates their content.

Thus, she is responsible for the reproductive abilities of a man, the possibility of having a regular and full sex life and having children. This is the main function of the gland, but there are other, no less important ones.