I find that my BPH symptoms and/or retention levels vary during the day or even change week by week. Typically at night the Retention is high. During the day sometimes retention level not very acute. Would that mean that the prostate swells up at certain times of the day or what you eat? I am not taking any medications except saw palmetto. I don't want to start taking medication if I can help it.
Saw palmetto doesnt done anything. Dont wast your time. Those systems are typical of bph. Food and the things you drink do matter some what. Sounds like to me you may have to get in some meds to help your condition .
Saw palmetto doesnt done anything. Dont wast your time. Those systems are typical of bph. Food and the things you drink do matter some what. Sounds like to me you may have to get in some meds to help your condition .
2.5 years ago I had a PAE procedure with Dr. Isaacson in North Carolina. It was a simple quick procedure and has made my urinary situation 20-25 years younger. It is now covered by Medicare and most insurance companies. Not everyone is a candidate as it works best on prostates larger than 90 cc. I understand all the posters with problems as I was once in your shoes, however why are you not lining up for this procedure? Many more IR’s now do it pretty much nationwide. Don’t sit there and bemoan the prostate problems. Do something about it. An 80% success rate and another half of the failures get fixed on a second procedure with a 50% rate. Something close to 90% success. No general, just a twilight local. A little urgency for first week or so after the procedure. Easier than a colonoscopy. I do believe that most of the negative posters about this procedure are Urologist, the medieval practioners still trying to screw up your sex life with Turp and other horrendous things. The PAE could put massive numbers of Uros on the bread line, but for some reason many guys shy aware from it. I truly don’t understand but can’t emphasize enough how it changed my life.
Yes, of course, but it’s not that much your BPH that continues to grow once you prone to it as many other men, but you obstructed bladder. It’s worse during the night when you kidney fill it up, amount of liquid you drank, especially beer and wine can make it much worse. Some medicines that help the bladder relax will spasm your prostate and can even cause total urine retention. Especially bad are cold and anti-allergic medicines that will aggravate any BPH symptom . It’s well known and is well outlined in medical warnings that come with the medicine. Saw palmetto did nothing good for me even I used it more than 10 years. BY many studies it’s shown to be close to placebo or slightly better. Use alpha-blockers, they help a lot but the downside is that prostate continues to grow beyond the size when minimal invasive and least damaging surgeries can help. Surgery or PAE is the only ultimate answer to BPH, don’t full yourself. The earlier the better because it works best, produces less complications and improves tha quality of life (including sexual) beyond any wild expectations. If anybody tells you otherwise tehy are lying for one reason or another.
Don’t trust ant fairy tales about Chinese/Aurovedic medicine or natural remedy. To shrink you prostate chemically, once it grown (most likely due to you low T and high conversion to female hormones), you should castrate yourself chemically. Anything else is surgical …
Best. Gene
One Uro said to me that gravity takes effect when you are up and about.
I found that the symptoms of BPH did vary a lot from week to week or month to month but not in any predictable fashion. I think it was maybe worse in the winter. I took tamsulosin and dutasteride for about six years and they helped a lot. However the symptoms gradually worsened but still varied so much that I put off surgery for a long time because I kept thinking the problem was getting better or stabilising. In the end I had a bipolar turp because I was worried about getting a total blockage and fed up with having to visit the toilet so often. Contrary to many of the reports I have read, the operation caused no significant problem and solved the BPH completely.
Often overlooked: the male paunch. Like sleeping at night on a soccer ball with undue pressure on the bladder. . I am trying to lose weight and restrict fluids after 7. A year from now, maybe I’ll have something to report. 5’11" and 235lbs – down from 265 two years ago.
Walking around a few minutes after getting ot of bed helps me. Also, deep knee bends, 10 or so can help me get a little out. Enough that I can’t see having to use an alcohol pad prior to doing cic if I’m already sort of dripping. I can go a long time in the A.M. without feeling having to pee. Often I do cic just because I know its been at least 6 hours. Thank goodness it doesn’t wake me up all night. I usually cic before going to bed.
Saw Palmetto is an unregulated phony that you can get hooked on for years with no improvement in your condition. No doctor will recommend it. Instead inquire about a diuretic that will improve retention almost immediately with no side effects.
I agree about Saw Palmetto. I have already commented on this site. I tried it myself for more than 10 years for no avail, but God forbid don’t advice diuretic for BPH. Diuretic will make you pee often and make you life miserable. Do you men alpha-blockers? Diuretic doesn’t influence the functions of bladder or prostate, just the kidneys, lows the blood pressure and help get rid of extra water in the body. No,no.! And diuretics do have side effects.
Saw Palmetto like medications works for some and not for others. I found that it helped some of my symptoms while I waited for better treatments than TURP to appear. Also like many drugs the quality varies and also depends on when it is harvested. I took it in tincture form that I bought from a herbalist. Doctors in Germany prescribe it for patients..
The patient information leaflet for Furosemide ( Lasix) has warnings for patients with enlarged prostates.
Diuretics are not for everyone. It is only available by prescription and only your doctor can decide if it is for a patient.
I agree about not controlled substances and European doctors recommending saw palmetto. I tried dozens of brands, mostly tinctures from US Health brand stores to no avail. Also read some blind controlled studies by hospitals and universities/insurances. Very close to placebo. Case closed.
If Saw palmetto was doing you no good why did you persevere with it for ten years ?
Did you eventually after ten years have surgery for your BPH or one of the less invasive newer treatments ?
My symptoms sound very similar to yours. Been dealing with this for about 4 years. There’s just never any way to predict it will impact me from day to day. One day I can wake up and pee with a stream like a teenager. The next day I might be so obstructed that I can’t get a drop out, despite a massive urge. Between the hours of 6am and 12pm, some days I might pee twice, other days it could be 12 times. (And I regulate my fluid intake carefully; I always drink about the same amount of fluid at the same times of day, every day).
Most nights I only wake up to urinate once, but on a bad night, it could be 6 times. Seems like overall, I have 5-6 better days per week, 1-2 bad days. Sometimes I get streaks where I urinate completely normally for several weeks, then other times I’ll have 2-3 weeks straight where it’s just horrible. It makes it tough to schedule life around variability like this.
Most of the 4 urologists I’ve seen say this variability is “strange”, but give me no practical help with it. One possible reason is I have an obstructive median lobe (imaged by a prostate MRI). It can act as a “ball valve”, where the protruding part of the prostate flips back and forth, alternatively putting more and less pressure on the urethra, I believe. This apparently is called IPP, or Intravesical Prostatic Protrusion, although I’m still unclear whether IPP and an obstructive median lobe are exactly the same thing. You’d think with 4 urologists, someone could answer that question, but they never have.
Overall my prostate is about 70g, and cancer was ruled out with a biopsy. I’m 55.
<<Sometimes I get streaks where I urinate completely normally for several weeks, then other times I’ll have 2-3 weeks straight where it’s just horrible<<
On those days when you urinate normally, are you including cic? I’ve been doing cic for about 1 1/2 yrs and I can never make a day without it. If I try I know I’ll end up before bedtime retaining @ 400 ml. with no urge to pee but just an uncomfortable feeling. My urges are getting more reliable but still have to go by the clock as well.
I just had a PAE procedure by Dr. Bagla at the Vascular Institute of Virginia ten days ago. I am age 71, had a prostate size of 127 CC, newly married after the death of my wife to cancer, am quite active and take no medications. I had gone to three urologists and could not get anyone interested in anything except what they could do themselves. I was tired of my extreme urgency, of wetting my pants during the day, of getting up at least five times a night, and of wearing adult diapers, of having great trouble with travel and so on. I found an interventional radiologist near my home in Washington State who checked me and told me that I was a good candidate for PAE but that he would prefer to have a referral from a good urologist. We went over names and I went to one that he recommended. That urologist only wanted to check me for cancer and found a Gleason 6 low grade cancer for which he recommended watchful waiting. I called his office and reminded them that I had severe symptoms for which I needed relief, but he would not refer me for a PAE. I called Dr. Bagla and they said that a Gleason 6 CA diagnosis was not a problem with PAE and he accepted self-referrals. I flew across the USA for a PAE and am very pleasantly impressed with this procedure. Dr. Bagla said that he would try to target the area where the cancer was located. I experienced no pain at all and my stream is better already with no more episodes of not being able to pee until I walk around for 10 minutes when I get up at night. My nighttime bathroom visits have only slightly reduced by this time, but I can pee and go back to bed already. Dr. Bagla said that my blood vessels were very clean and he was able to treat me very aggressively. It has not affected my ability to have sex. I hope that my healing continues as well as it has so far. I suggest to anyone who has a large prostate and wants to preserve his sexual function to think about having a PAE. I considered HoLep as well, but PAE is so much less invasive that I chose it. It involves no meat grinders, cutting, or burning. I am very happy with my results so far. Don’t expect your urologist to refer you for this! Be your own doctor and self-refer!