Hi Guys, I would welcome insights from anyone who has had surgery for enlarged prostate (100 +)... trying to decide on taking prostate shrinking drugs or a surgical option. cheers joe
As someone who has has surgery for prostate cancer and not the benign issue you have, I highly recommend you explore every avenue other than surgery before you decide on it (in case you do).
Thank you for your considered reply Barney. It is helpful. I am just trying to evaluate surgical options and the use of 5 alpha reductase inhibitors. Trying to decide if I should take the meds first and see how it goes with side effects or just pay and have surgery.
Cheers
Joe
I tried Flomax for 6 months and had some modest benefits. When I came in for a 6-month visit, the nurse practitioner found that the fluid retained in my bladder had increased. She doubled the dose of Flomax and added Finasteride to shrink my prostate. I did not see any improvement from the additional drugs. I cannot say for sure what caused it, but my libido dropped sharply during this period.
I would say that trying drugs is worth a shot, but I would have a very candid conversation with your doctor about side effects.
This past June the fluid retained in my bladder after urination had increased to more than 500 ml after urination despite taking both Flomax and Finasteride. While my prostate was not as big as yours (70 grams), my urologist said it was big for my age (55 at the time). He said surgery for me was a matter of when, not if. Long story short I had Aquablation three weeks ago and am very glad I did.
Michael,
Thank you for your detailed reply. Aquablation was one of my preferred treatment options so your experience is encouraging. I hope you continue to make progress.
cheers
Joe
I formerly had BPH with a 118 gram prostate. I took an alpha blocker, Alfuzosin, for about a year and it provided modest benefit at best as, in part, I had a obstructive medium lobe protruding well into my bladder. I never tried Finasteride or any other 5-alpha reductase inhibitor as I had concerns about the side effects. I had a very effective and safe Aquablation procedure in January 2022. I now have a very good urinary stream and have no long-term sexual nor incontinence complications as a result of the procedure.
@mike19110 How many weeks did you take to recover from the procedure? Are the first 2 weeks really painful as I had read on the net?
I had a 140 CC prostate. Had a HoLEP procedure, you can read my report by clicking on my name. Took 4 months to truly, fully be better than normal. Glad I did it.
Each guy is different. I fortunately had a very easy, 2-3 week recovery with very little pain, bladder spasms, bleeding, etc.
My urodoc is insisting that since my prostate is about 40 gms, I should go in for Urolift and avoid any procedure that shaves off tissue ie. aquablation.
Do you still have some symptoms or no symptoms at all after Aquablation procedure?
No symptoms
I strongly considered Urolift back in 2020 with a local Uro who specializes in the procedure. In the end, we decided that I was not a good candidate for the Urolift procedure due to the size (~118 gr) and shape (non-mobile medium lobe significantly protruding into my bladder) of my prostate. I also wanted a more durable / definitive procedure that what I probably would have gotten with a Urolift procedure.
Hi all
Bit late to the party but here’s my experience…
I had a 175gms enlarged prostate and opted for combined laser/TURP My older brother had the same procedure at the Nuffield in Chichester 3 years ago with excellent results.
I wasn’t quite so lucky as my consultant uses the Priory in B’ham which was awful! Hence my recovery was much longer…as in well over 6 months. But now I have good flow, no problems so very happy. If you have a very large prostate, it seems an excellent solution.
Not sure how large my prostate originally was, but I had 172g of tissue removed after 3 TURPs and have mostly normal function now almost 2 years after the surgery. My cousin took a different approach with his similarly-large prostate. He had a robot-assisted partial prostatectomy which removed a lot of tissue and required rebuilding the “prostatic channel”/urethra. He said it was a tough recovery.
I took drugs until they didn’t work. I may have waited too long since my bladder muscle seems to be weakened after too many years of the bladder trying to push urine out through a tiny channel.
What symptoms do you still have after the TURP?
The only thing I have to monitor is constipation. For some reason, if I get constipated, I notice that the bowel pushes on the prostate and makes it harder to completely empty my bladder. I have a visit to my gastroenterologist coming up to learn more. I heard from someone online that toxins can leach from the bowel and inflame the prostate, which sounds sort of hard to believe.
Also, I was told to avoid seasick medicines since they can impact the bladder’s ability to empty. Otherwise, it all works!
I was in your shoes a few years ago and opted for a robotic Simple Prostatectomy. I had a cath bag for 2 weeks and then normal urine flow. I had the surgery in the fall of 2020 and did not have any leakage of urine and no sexual issues.
How high is your PSA ?
I was at 75cc and came down to aquablation (7-10% chance of RE) but my insurance didn’t cover it. took my 2nd best option which was greenlight enucleation (30% chance of RE). I ended up with RE except for a few drops of semen that I can squeeze out (which the doctor would probably classify as not true RE) so looking back I’d probably fight harder for the aquablation.
It was not as scary as I imagined looking back. I’m glad I skipped the finisteride phase given all the issues with drugs.