Has anyone had this treatment and what was your experience with this treatment? Iam a new member.
Welcome to the forum Kirk. Green Light is very good for some men. What ever you do you have to look at the full thing. What are the benefits and side effects. Do you have any concerns with retro ejaculation. Also look at how many patients he has done and talk with a few. Was this the only procedure you were offered It is also good to get a second opinion. Good luck in your search Ken
GreenLaser aka PVP, or any other procedure. The uro who works on you
determines the outcome.
Here's a guy that gave a weekly sort of 'diary' as to his experience during recovery after his Greenlight... His outcome was good, great flow... although he did have a meatal stenosis post surgery, and also has retrograde ejaculation. He doesn't seem to mind about the retro though.
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/pvp-greenlight-12-6-16-my-experience--551713?
Cheers-J
I was a patient for it in 2004 in a UK trial when I was 69. I had a 75 grn prostate and had waited for a good laser procedure to get here. No pain overnight Done on a Friday afternoon and catheter out the next morning.. With an empty bladder it took me about six hours to pee and it gushed out red. That lessened as the day went on but as I was sill retaining and had a long train journey home they kept me for another night until I was only retaining 50 mls. I felt fine was up a few tines that night. Life was really back to normal and I went to the races on the Monday. Had several cups of coffee during the afternoon and was surprised that unlike before I did not go to the toilet several times during the afternoon just once before going home. No urgency and just a spurt of red at the beginning of urination and only one biggish clot a few weeks later. My flow was not a good as I had expected but that was not a problem and I still had the habit of wakening to go during the night but not as often as before. I had a check for retention after a month and it was described as minimal. My median lobe had not been the problem area and the team did a bladder neck sparing procedure so I did not have retro. My prostate gradually regrew to 135 grms by 2013 when I had a Thulium/Holmium procedure that is similar to Holep. That did lead to Retro but it had already started when taking Tamsulosin. .
I had it with excellent results: no RE, no retention, great flow and great stopping power. Outpatient basis with catheter over night. Minimal to no bleeding and urgency for a few weeks. I would recommend with an experienced surgeon.
I was just taken aback when I was finally began treatment for incontinence. I put up with that very uncomfortable condition for a few weeks before we finally figured out that I was retaining a lot of urine even after my frequent visits to the john. My bladder nerves evidently were not function anymore (probably because of a stretched out bladder) and I didn't feel it; didn't feel the 500 or 600 cc that I was retaining. Then I got a uti and did two rounds of antibiotics. My GP was telling me that once the A/Bs got rid of the prostititus my prostate would shrink back enough so I could empty. At least that's what I understood him to say.
Of course that didn't happen and when I finally got in to see the Urologist he saw me for about ten minutes and did another digital exam and then scheduled me for a preop in two weeks and the GL laser the next week. I have never tried any of the alpha blockers or any drugs up to that point except for some herbs. I had no idea my condition was that bad but when they cathed me I was holding @1600 ml and couldn't even get out a drop - that is until I fell asleep. So I can maybe think that the Dr. thought this was urgent; but he sent me out with a GL broshure and a GL DVD which went over how great the procedure is with none of the downsides. I asked the urologist while I was there if it "left any scarring or anything like that". He said a definite no. So, when I had to self-cath for about two weeks waiting for surgery I found myself thinking "I'm not ready for this" I wonder if I could just do this for awhile because it felt so wonderful to be fully emptying my bladder. The incontinence stopped (it was overflow incontinence) and I was unsure about surgeons and lasers. We had a procedure done on my wife for endometriosis in the early '90s and I wasn't at all happy the way that came out. The procedure didn't work but the laser surgeon got his money.
I don't know, I still haven't done anything yet. Cathing does get kind of cumbersome and tedious sometimes but at least everything else is still untouched until some of the new procedures become mainstream. I took to cathing pretty easily and the hydrophilic disposable catheters are easy to use. Haven't gotten another UTI since the original one where I was retaining lots of stale urine.
I had it inn 1997 when I was 56; never had a good erection after that.
Tks kenneth, I had Laser treatment for PC 3 years ago, So. I was really interested in Green Light. I like to do my own research as I Find some med people are overly fond of their specialities. None of em liked the idea that I wanted Laser Treatment.
I did and the outcome was not good. I suspect that my doctor was not really qualified to perform the procedure.
Make sure that you doctor does a lot of GL procedures. Ask him how many he does in a year. Ask what the worst outcome he's had, and ask if any patients had permanent incontinence or impotence afterwards.
tks William, If that is your birthdate, you are about 5 years younger than I. nOTE MY 43. You did really well. I had Focal Laser Ablation 3 years ago for PC. Tamsolosin makes my BPH bearable but there are problems with travel and such, so I am looking for the best treatment with the least side effects such as the FLA treatment was.
Thanks Glen, I had laser for PC 3 years ago. I have been on the PC sites since learning what I can and trying to help other guys. I have read the horror stories and intend to research until I am satisfied. Have you heard of any treatments that are as good or better than GL?
tks for your reply derek76. I did a trial for prostate cancer 3 years ago, Focal Laser Ablation, here in Texas. Cancer free since.Still have my prostate as the laser took the cancer only. And still have the BPH. I use Tamsolosin. Please describe your experience with the other procedures you did 2013 and after.Including the bladder neck sparing. I was in England 1962 thru 1965 RAF chicksands and also high wycombe. Loved it.
Hi Jay111 they said the post of 12/6/16 is too old to show now. Thanks for your help. If you have heard of any good new treatments for BPH i would like to hear of them. I had laser for PC 3 years ago and it was a great treatment, no side effects, no downtime, and no pain.
Thanks Geezer. Very sorry to hear of your ED. I had laser for Prostate Cancer 3 years ago at Univ Texas Med and It worked out well for me. I have spent lots of time on the PC sites since then trying to help others. A lot of the guys with PC have ED after their procedures. Keep telling people what can happen, you are doing a good service.
Tks Sansrx, The Uro who works on me will have my complete confidence or he won't work on me!.
I was my Uro's eighth patient in the trial and about the 36th for the team in 2004. The equipment has since gone through at least three upgrades.
The 2013 procedure was also a successful one but as I had been taking Warfarin I bled more and they sent me home with a catheter in. It was supposed to be left in for a week but due to a misunderstanding it was left in for two uncomfortable weeks. It was blood tinged all of that time but crystal clear a soon as it was removed.The surgeon took away 80 grms of tissue and 37 grms was sent off to histology and no cancer cells were found. My PSA went down from around 8.0 to 0.74 and retention was zero. Again my flow was not as good as I had hoped for and no reason has been found for that. For other reasons I sleep badly and get up twice in the night and go to the toilet then. During the day I have no urgency and can drink as much as I want.
I meet a lot of Americans who were stationed in the UK with good memories of their time here.
Kirk, I had it done around 13 or 14 years ago. I had a very large prostate, 141 grams. The greenlight, is not effective for that size prostate. I think the holep, would be for very large prostate. Anyway, no pain, easy surgery for me. After the surgery, went home with a catheter. The next day they took it off and I could urinate easily. The thing with me, was that once I was off the medication {doxazosin} my urination wasn't that good. I still needed to take medication so I could urinate with a decent stream. After two years or around there, I had to go in for surgery again to fix the problem. The prostate, continues to grow even after surgery. So far I've had three surgeries. One Greenlight, and two TURPs. My suggestion to you is to not do any of those, but to self catheter. I am doing self catheterizing now, and it's the best. Better than all of my surgeries. To be objective, there are others, that are very happy with their choice to do TURP.
Hi Kirk,
I had a HoLEp on 14th April this year and it has been a resounding success. I'm 69 and wasn't worried about RE because of my age and I had had RE for a couple of years because of the pills I was taking. I was completely free of all the BHP problems after about 10 weeks and had only a problem with urgency from about weeks 5 to 8. I found a good hospital and consultant here in UK which is key for a good outcome. my prostate was some 70 grammes and I've found out that 35 grammes was taken away. I now am peeing strong, about 300 mlitres in 10 secs, have no retention and can sleep 7 hours without needing a pee.At about 6 weeks, much to my surprise I was producing semen and ejeculating and am continuing to do so. Not much volume but I expect it to improve over time and my orgasms are better than theyve been for years.
If you are younger or want to guarantee not losing your ability to ejeculate then, try some of the other techniques but with Holpep and green laser you are guaranteed a lot of years of being non BHP.