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Possible Prostititis Diagnosis?

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User
Posted 31 Dec 2021 at 22:08

Hi all

I hope you are as well as you can be and keeping safe in these difficult days. 

I am very worried and anxious about a diagnosis I received today. I just wondered if I could list my symptoms and perhaps it matches somebody else’s, which would put my mind at ease. 

I am on weekly Enbrel injections for inflammatory arthritis and have been for 7 years now. They make me immunosupressed. They work perfectly at keeping the arthritis under control though. 
Around 6 days ago I started to get a constant pain in the head of my penis. It also burned when urinating and I had to go far more than I normally do. Flow was also a lot less than usual, sometimes hardly any at all. I called 111 and got a video consultation with a GP. She thought it was probably a UTI and prescribed Nitrofurantoin. (Hope that’s spelt correctly). 
After 3 days there was no real improvement so I called my own GP (who were open again after Christmas) and went to see him today. 
He was not happy that the NitroF wasn’t working as well as said he would like to do a prostate examination. 
It was extremely tender and he said it was slightly enlarged and a little knobbly to the feel. 
He was undecided whether to refer me to hospital or treat for prostititis with Ciprofloxacin. Because of my immunosupression we felt a visit to the hospital was a little risky with covid as it is currently so he wants me to take Cipro for 2 weeks and then return for another examination. 
He said he thought it may be prostititis, but I felt that was because he did not want to mention cancer at this stage. 
In total my symptoms are:

Constant burning/discomfort at tip of penis (all the time not just urinating). 
Low flow pressure in the morning. 
After drinking 4-6 pints of water through the day I do have to urinate a lot of times with flow seemingly at normal pressure.
Once I have finished urinating for the day and go to bed I usually sleep 5-6 hours without waking or needing to go again. The pain/burn in the tip is also less first thing in the morning and seems to build through the day.

My symptoms seemed to just arrive out of the blue. I have just finished (today) 2 weeks of 4 types of antibiotics to clear an H.Pylori infection so I wondered if that may have killed all my good bacteria and allowed the opportunistic bacteria to take hold? (If it is prostititis of course)

I just wondered does anyone else have confirmed prostititis and suffer the same symptoms or are these symptoms easily crossed over with prostate cancer?

Also has anybody tried the Cipro antibiotic and how did it work for you? The side effects seem quite severe and very worrying. Reviews online for Cipro would be enough to put anybody off ever taking it again! So far I have only had one 500mg dose tonight, but already concerned about tomorrow mornings dose :(

Have been happily married for 25 years now, so no chance of an STD or STI.

Any help or advice would be hugely welcomed as I am extremely worried and anxious about what the future holds for me and my wife.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Take care and stay safe.

Thank you.

 

User
Posted 31 Dec 2021 at 23:33

Prostate cancer is usually painless (unless advanced, but that won't be in the prostate). In any case, you couldn't be assessed for prostate cancer without getting any UTI resolved first. If you do have pain in the prostate, your brain typically refers it to the tip of the penis, or testicles, or rectum, as your brain has no sense of having a prostate organ which can generate pain.

It is difficult to get antibiotics into the prostate - only a small number of them can get in there, and Cyprofloxacin is one of them. Nitrofurantoin is used for UTI's - I don't know if it's effective for prostatitis. However, you really need to get the infection identified by having it cultured and a range of antibiotics tested on the culture in the lab, to find which one is likely to work for the prostatitis (if it's bacterial). Just doing trial and error isn't the way antibiotics should be used.

One of our consultants at The FOPS is a prostatitis specialist (and there aren't many of those). I posted in another thread today about The FOPS support group meeting on Wednesday on Zoom, which you might consider joining.

User
Posted 31 Dec 2021 at 23:36

Symptoms of prostate cancer include slow flow, needing to go often, knobbly prostate. They do not include the pain you describe. Prostate cancer symptoms start gradually and are ignored by most men until a little late. It sounds like yours has came on quickly rather than crept up until it became too severe to ignore.

Prostatitist includes all the symptoms you describe.

So don't even start worrying about cancer until prostatitis has been ruled out, that is top of the list. As far as I know bacteria in the human body are only ever good if in the gut, and always bad elsewhere in the body, so the antibiotics you have just been on for H.Pylori may have caused problems in your gut but not your prostate.

Cipro, can cause tendon problems be careful for many months after taking it. I think you will have to go with the cipro it is the only antibiotic that seems to work. Any test for prostate cancer will be meaningless until the prostatitis is sorted.

Dave

User
Posted 01 Jan 2022 at 12:59

My experience with tendonitis is before cipro never had it. A month after one large dose of cipro, on the Easter weekend I was playing a lot of violin (not very well), and I got tennis elbow which lasted nearly a year. It was not debilitating and hardly affected my life. It may just be coincidence that my first tendon problem in my life was so close to cipro.

Playing a violin is repetitive work not heavy work. I would take the chance with walking it is more likely to be beneficial for the rest of your health than harmful. I would not play sports where you put a lot of strain on your Achilles tendon, for probably year. These are just my opinions based on what I value in my lifestyle.

 

Dave

User
Posted 01 Jan 2022 at 13:45

I just had one large dose the day before the biopsy. It is a precaution against infection when shoving needles through the bowel in to the prostate.

I think with most medicines you just have to accept some small risks.

Dave

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User
Posted 31 Dec 2021 at 23:33

Prostate cancer is usually painless (unless advanced, but that won't be in the prostate). In any case, you couldn't be assessed for prostate cancer without getting any UTI resolved first. If you do have pain in the prostate, your brain typically refers it to the tip of the penis, or testicles, or rectum, as your brain has no sense of having a prostate organ which can generate pain.

It is difficult to get antibiotics into the prostate - only a small number of them can get in there, and Cyprofloxacin is one of them. Nitrofurantoin is used for UTI's - I don't know if it's effective for prostatitis. However, you really need to get the infection identified by having it cultured and a range of antibiotics tested on the culture in the lab, to find which one is likely to work for the prostatitis (if it's bacterial). Just doing trial and error isn't the way antibiotics should be used.

One of our consultants at The FOPS is a prostatitis specialist (and there aren't many of those). I posted in another thread today about The FOPS support group meeting on Wednesday on Zoom, which you might consider joining.

User
Posted 31 Dec 2021 at 23:36

Symptoms of prostate cancer include slow flow, needing to go often, knobbly prostate. They do not include the pain you describe. Prostate cancer symptoms start gradually and are ignored by most men until a little late. It sounds like yours has came on quickly rather than crept up until it became too severe to ignore.

Prostatitist includes all the symptoms you describe.

So don't even start worrying about cancer until prostatitis has been ruled out, that is top of the list. As far as I know bacteria in the human body are only ever good if in the gut, and always bad elsewhere in the body, so the antibiotics you have just been on for H.Pylori may have caused problems in your gut but not your prostate.

Cipro, can cause tendon problems be careful for many months after taking it. I think you will have to go with the cipro it is the only antibiotic that seems to work. Any test for prostate cancer will be meaningless until the prostatitis is sorted.

Dave

User
Posted 01 Jan 2022 at 10:34
Thanks for your replies Andy and Dave.

I will discuss the culture with my GP Andy. I really don’t like the sound of hit and miss antibiotic use, especially as I’ve been on so many this year already. I feel I’m at the point where my stomach just can’t take any more antibiotics.

Thanks Dave. You are completely correct about bacteria, sorry I was an idiot, not got my head on straight at the moment. A lot of that is probably anxiety and desperation to be well.

As I have had so many health problems in the past 18 months, on top of my arthritis, all of them seeming to just appear out if the blue.

I’m 53 years of age so I did not expect so many things to happen at once I must say.

It really is getting me down now.

I will discuss things with my GP again and will speak to my rheumatology team as the tendon thing with Cipro is a worry because the type of arthritis I have already attacks my tendons.

When you say take it easy Dave, I’m guessing you mean no hard exercise or sport? I guess taking a brisk walk is ok?

I’m only on my second dose of Cipro this morning and I’m feeling pretty rough already. Really fatigued and a little light headed.

Which is probably just adding to my anxiety about the whole situation. Struggling really :(

Thank you

User
Posted 01 Jan 2022 at 12:59

My experience with tendonitis is before cipro never had it. A month after one large dose of cipro, on the Easter weekend I was playing a lot of violin (not very well), and I got tennis elbow which lasted nearly a year. It was not debilitating and hardly affected my life. It may just be coincidence that my first tendon problem in my life was so close to cipro.

Playing a violin is repetitive work not heavy work. I would take the chance with walking it is more likely to be beneficial for the rest of your health than harmful. I would not play sports where you put a lot of strain on your Achilles tendon, for probably year. These are just my opinions based on what I value in my lifestyle.

 

Dave

User
Posted 01 Jan 2022 at 13:22

Thank you Dave. 
You are helping to put my mind at rest. 

The most frightening side effect I read was the aortic aneurysm. But my wife has researched on the British Medical Journal website and they suggest that in the 60 day risk period of Cipro 1.2  per 1000 person years (not sure how that works) suffered from an aneurysm. That could be worrying but they also say that 0.7 per 1000 suffer it with Amoxicillin! Amoxicillin doesn’t have any warnings about aortic aneurysms and they are given out like sweets. I’ve been on 3 per day for 2 weeks and didn’t think anything of it, just kept banging then down. 

It seems in the US that Cipro has a “box warning” which means it is in the high risk medication bracket but apparently many have sued the manufacturer after serious side effects occurred. So perhaps there is a financial reason behind some of the caution?

The BMJ also say that normally the rate of aortic aneurysm in the general population is between 1 and 2 per 1000 person years. 

My brain hurts just thinking of it all …. :(

Thank you again for sharing your experience. Out of interest how long were you on the Cipro?

Thank you. :)

User
Posted 01 Jan 2022 at 13:45

I just had one large dose the day before the biopsy. It is a precaution against infection when shoving needles through the bowel in to the prostate.

I think with most medicines you just have to accept some small risks.

Dave

User
Posted 01 Jan 2022 at 13:52

Thanks Dave. 
Take care. 

 
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