I am 53 years old. I take no medication, although Docs say I should.
Somedays I flow reasonably well, other days it is frequent and difficult. If this BPH is a mechanical problem due to enlarged prostate then why would I have good days? I mean if my urethra is blocked or partially blocked , why wouldn't it give me trouble 100% of the time?
It is common wisdom that flow is slower first thing, prostate seems to swell a little overnight, and also slower when the bowel is full. Might that seem to offer at least some empirical explanation of the fluctuations, think about those things for a few days and see if there seems an explanation from those.
I have similar problems with my Prostate swelling up and blocking my Urethra, then I am unable to self catheterize and then have to have a full time catheter put in. This is normally followed by catheter blocking and bypassing the catheter. Now I am waiting for my prostate to be removed as I now have Prostatitis as well, which causes urine infections.
For me, it depends on my diet. If I go without caffeine, alcohol, spicy, salty I urinate consistently.
I had same issue. Then it got worse. Tryed meds, didn't do a thing. Then at age 53 it got worse. When it got to the point of getting up every hour to hour and a half at night to pee I said that's enough. It gradually gets to the point your not emptying your bladder. Just voiding enough to stop it from feeling like you have to o pee. When you lay back down, you get the feeling back. The retension is stretching your bladder.
Yes, I've heard a lot of people say that ...
In my humble opinion, you could have bladder problem, or acute Prostatitis. I am not a doctor, but used to suffer your problem. You should find a good urologist to check out.
since I had urolift, I do not have these problems, thank God! I am not saying you should have urolift done, that would be your urologist opinion. Hope this help.
before you have your prostate removed, please get a second opinion! You did not mention what is your age, to some people, having intact prostate is critically important. Only a good urologist can give you a complete assessment.
Same here
Great question. I've been struggling with this for several years. I take BPH medicine (alpha blocker) and it still is hit or miss with good and bad nights. What you eat and drink can also add or reduce the blockage. I am now looking at surgical and more invasive alternatives since my 2 PAE's in the last year have not helped to much. I think that they have bought me some time to investigate but inevitably all roads lead to active procedures to unblock the urethra. I'm checking out FLA, TUMT, Holep and Rezum. All have good and bad points.Good luck.
Whether the rectum/low bowel is full or empty can cause a significant variation in your ability to pee. They run right next to each other, so a solid stool can impact the urethra.
Also, I find that even though i stop my intake of liquids by 6:30 or 7 most nights, and get to bed around 11:00 or 11:30, I produce between 1000 and 1300 cc of urine between bedtime and 8 am. Then, in the hours before noon, I produce very little, maybe 300 cc at most, even though I have a cup of coffee, a large glass of water, and cereal and lots of fruit with milk.
This may be academic: but prostatitis IS a urinary infection. My GP told me that urinary infections are much more common in women than men due to a female's shorter urethra. He said that when a man gets a urinary infection it almost always centers in the prostate. He told me I had prostatitis - didn't really go into the cause but seemed to think that antibiotics would solve my whole problem. I had complained to him for months about difficulty urinating. I guess I made a mistake by telling him that I DO drink a lot of black coffee and he apparently focused on that He gave me Sulfameth for two weeks and when the infection was still there, tried Cipro for 10 days. That apparently got rid of the UTI; I decided it had because of the color and smell of the urine looked better. I also felt better but was still having overflow incontinence, and of course it didn't fix my BPH. My GP finally referred my to a Urologist and while waiting I began CIC & took right to it. My creatine level had spiked as did my prostate cancer indicator (I forget what they call that blood indicator). Those spikes all started heading down with CIC.
Sounds like your pituitary gland is mucking about !
Maybe ADH has a very slow build-up and build-down time generally ... or, your pituitary gland is wired up in reverse polarity (joking...)
Do you have the urge to pee when you get out of bed? I also try to stop liquid intake about 3-4 hrs prior to sleep time. Usually don't drink coffee after @7:00 P.M. But when I get up A.M. I don't get much of an urge at all ( I'm still using the urge feeling as an "alarm" when I know its time to cath as to keep bladder at least less than 400cc. Also use the clock. I get definite urges frequently when bladder is fillng up but thank God no incontinence. I was probably using my internal spincter a lot when my bladder next began leaking from being so full. So its probably pretty strong or worn out; I hope the former. Anyway, I wasn't getting those urges at all right before I started self-cathing. Now if the urges are mild enough they will go away so I wait awhile ). I usually have to cath before bed & then again after about 4 hours but then I can sleep a long time. I don't know if I could do this if I had a job. I suspect I could; I'd adjust. But for someone in my situation I think watching/waiting makes a lot of sense.
Hi Mike,
You mention 2 Pae's, Were you in retention? Im just asking because i had the Pae in September. Im doing pretty good.
Bob, where should you start? Well, what size is your prostate? What is your blood PSA score? Any doctor can do a PSA blood test. Do you have any suspicious lesion areas of the gland? Insurance or better yet, Medicare when you are old enough, will pay for an MRI so get a 3T MRI with a pelvic coil that just lays over your lap. This is very easy and it will show a trained doctor and better you what is really inside your body that could be causing this. Then have it read by an Interventional Radiologist who is specialized in Prostate work like Dr. Karamanian in Houston and he will not charge you to review your MRI. He can see any restricted area of the sphincter and or urethra and why your flow may be restricted. Also you should have your bladder function tested and see if you have residual urine in your bladder after peeing. This can be done with an MRI or better yet a ultra sound. Neither are invasive procedures. you are young, and based on the testing if you have a prostate issue you need a procedure that will absolutely not give you any sexual side effects. I would recommend researching the process of Focal Laser Ablation. Urologist will not support this procedure as they cannot do this procedure. It is FDA approved and has been showing really good results. It is very much worth your investigation since you have not fallen into the trap of drugs yet. I am 66 and had BPH for 9 years but refused to take the drugs because of the sexual side effects. The question you ask is why is the problem intermittent, and there are many reasons this could be. It may be Prostatitis, or inflammation that is bad from day to day. Your advantage is that you have not taken the pills yet so now is the time to dig in and do your research. There are many offerings and you need to research the components and the make up and functions of them in the gland. You can then logically realize what each of these possible solutions do to the prostate and how to get results without sexual side effects. You are actually in a good space as you now should study and do your diligence for answers. Do not let anyone talk you into anything. Learn and make an educated logical decision on your situation not based on what someone else did or what is cheapest or what seems like the path of least resistance. You will use all this information and logic when the time is right. Get busy. Ask for help. Educate your self.
Keith & Dan, Thanks for comments and agree that Urinary infections are from Prostate & Prostatitis. Just had a bad 48 hours Catheter blocked with blood clots and that is a week after its insertion so don't think it is trauma but something else and my Apixaban blood thinners do not help. Dr at house at 20.00 hours and does flush out, sends for District Nurse who comes at Midnight and removes Catheter and can't get another back in as Prostate is huge ( One of the largest she has come across now at 01.15 waiting for Dr to arrange for me to go to hospital. All this has gone from 15.00 this afternoon. If Prostate was gone, they could get Catheter in, Prostatitis would be gone, Urine infections from Prostate gone as well, what have I got to lose as have E/D and Incontinence now from last TURP. Cancer would be gone as well, with no further Biopsies and Sepsis again. This is my reasoning what have I to lose ?. Also waiting for new knee which is at risk if I have a urine infection.
David
I get up two or three times during the night. I may be awakened 1.5 hours or 2 hours after going to bed, and measuring 250-300 cc. If I'm fortunate to sleep three hours, it could even be 400 cc. By morning, the rate of urine production has fallen off to 50-75 cc per hour. I get up, shower, put on the condom catheter and collection bag. I can go from 8 until 12 noon, and only have 200-250 cc in the bag, even though my coffee, water and other liquid intake at breakfast is at least 500 cc.
Hi, I would go and see a urologist and do the tests and listen to his plan. I recently did a GL PVP and things got better. Better flow and no retrograde ejaculation. Still need to go up once at night and frequency is better but the volume remains reduced. In any case, I am happy I had the procedure. You need to find a doctor with whom you somehow connect and have confidence and trust that he will look out for you. With age things of BPH are not getting better. It’s better to act than to react.