Prostatitis is one of the most widespread urological complaints among men, causing pain and urinary problems due to prostate inflammation. At Associated Urologists of North Carolina, the team of board-certified urologists has considerable expertise in diagnosing prostatitis and prescribing the most effective treatment program. The practice has seven convenient locations in Apex, Cary, Clayton, Clinton, Dunn, Raleigh, and Wake Forest, North Carolina, ready to help find the cause of your prostatitis. Call the practice today.
Prostatitis is a condition that causes inflammation of the prostate gland.
Your prostate is in front of your rectum and below your bladder. It goes around your urethra, which is the tube through which you urinate and ejaculate. Your prostate’s chief responsibility is to make semen, the fluid that carries sperm out of your penis.
There are four different kinds of prostatitis:
Treatment for prostatitis depends on the cause of the problem. Acute bacterial prostatitis requires a two-week course of antibiotics. In some cases, you might need to have intravenous treatment in the hospital.
You might also need a catheter, which is a tube that goes into your urethra and helps you drain your bladder. Some men need a longer course of antibiotics or have to try different types of antibiotics if their condition isn’t improving.
Chronic bacterial prostatitis requires a longer course of antibiotics, sometimes up to three months. This doesn’t work in every case, and around one in every four patients needs to take long-term, low-dose antibiotics to ease their symptoms.
Antibiotics don’t usually help if you have CP/CPPS, because the cause typically isn’t bacterial. Anti-inflammatories can help by reducing the inflammation in the tissues and relieving pain in the short term.
Alternatively, medications called alpha-blockers can help relax the muscles surrounding your prostate and the lower part of your bladder.
Other approaches that don’t use medication could also be beneficial. Prostatic massages that drain fluid from the ducts in your prostate can reduce the pressure and pain, and physical therapy can help relax your muscles.
Other treatments that prove helpful for some men include:
Surgery isn’t usually helpful as a treatment for prostatitis. It can be used in rare cases where there’s a specific cause for the condition, such as scar tissue in the urethra that surgery could remove.
If you have any symptoms of prostatitis, call Associated Urologists of North Carolina today.
