The prevalence of prostatitis among men is quite high, which is associated with a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, a large number of risks present in the life of a modern person. According to doctors, treatment of the disease should be started as soon as possible. To do this, every representative of the stronger sex should know what the first signs of prostatitis in men are. About what symptoms accompany different forms of the disease, what an exacerbation is like, an acute and chronic process and a little about the treatment will be discussed in the article.
General information
The signs and symptoms of prostatitis, as well as its treatment, are quite diverse, which is associated with the presence of various types of the disease. Firstly, prostatitis in men is:
- Spicy. It often has a purulent character. Signs of inflammation in men, general and specific, are expressed to the maximum, and the causative agent is the pathogenic (pathogenic) flora. Therefore, the treatment for men in most situations is the prescription of antibiotics.
- Chronic. It can be the result of an acute process if a man's treatment was carried out incorrectly or out of time. The bright symptoms that accompany the purulent process disappear, the symptoms are much less pronounced. In remission, the characteristic signs of the process may disappear completely. With an exacerbation of chronic prostatitis, symptoms increase, but more often with less intensity than with acute inflammation.
Chronic prostatitis in men can form initially without previous signs of acute inflammation. In this case, prostatitis usually has a stagnant character, that is, arising from a sedentary lifestyle of a man, the presence of chronic diseases that affect the rate of blood circulation in Organs pelvic organs.
It is very important to know and be able to understand the early signs and symptoms of prostatitis, as this will affect the treatment of the disease that will be needed in the future. If in the case of bacterial prostatitis, which will be more indicated by general toxic symptoms, the treatment must necessarily include antibiotic therapy (it does not matter if it will be pills or injections of antibacterial drugs), then in the case of a stagnant process, the treatment of stagnant phenomena comes in first, that is, lifestyle modification and treatment of comorbidities.
Enlarged photo with prostate prostatitis:
- Violation of the function of the urinary tract. Otherwise, this group of symptoms is called "dysuric disorders". This should also include symptoms that indicate the development of an inflammatory process in the prostate.
- Prostatitis-specific sexual disorders.
- Changes in the nervous system due to the main process. characteristic of the disease.
More details about each group of signs of prostatitis will be discussed below.
specific expression
The main and often the first sign of prostate inflammation is pain. The pain can be of another nature. The nature of pain can vary significantly. There are stabbing, aching and cutting pains of characteristic location. If this is an acute process, they can significantly affect men's lives, lead to sleep and performance disruption. In chronic prostatitis during the period of remission, symptoms are mild, if not completely absent.
A typical location of pain in prostatitis is the pelvic region. A man may experience pain in the perineum, lower abdomen, lower back. Often they give to the penis, scrotum, testicles. Pain may accompany urination and defecation, and may also increase during erection and ejaculation. A first characteristic sign of calculous prostatitis can be pain, whose intensity and time of occurrence depend on movement. They appear or intensify if a man walks quickly, jumps, bends. A similar symptom is due to mechanical irritation of the duct walls with stones.
No less frequent signs of prostatitis are various violations of the urination process. Dysuria is manifested by the need for frequent urination, feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder, false urge to urinate. The very nature of urination can also change: a man complains of a slow or intermittent stream of urine, the need to make efforts to urinate normally. A terrible, though not the first, sign of prostatitis is acute urinary retention. The symptom develops with acute inflammation, accompanied by severe swelling of the prostate.
Urinary retention occurs when prostatitis is combined with adenoma. In the case of an exacerbation of chronic prostatitis in a man, an acute condition may also occur, but urinary retention is less severe and the condition is less common. More often than not, a man simply cannot hold a large amount of urine and there is a need for frequent visits to the bathroom.
Dysuria and pain are the most common early signs of any form of prostatitis. They are most often the first and most prevalent in the clinic for acute prostatitis or chronic exacerbation.
Unpleasant for most men, although rarely the first sign of prostatitis is sexual dysfunction. Disorders of the intimate sphere are most often a manifestation of a chronic inflammatory process and are of a different nature, therefore, the treatment approach is also different. First of all, there are problems with the erection. She may become lethargic or the man may not be able to complete intercourse. Ejaculation is disturbed: premature is more common. Over time, the usual sharpness of sensations fades. The problem of purely physiological becomes psychological. Disorders of sexual desire (libido disorders) develop, problems with orgasm arise. These signs negatively affect the general state of the nervous system, causing a decrease in mood, depression and sleep disturbances. A man ceases to feel his own usefulness.
Being constantly under stress and being overwhelmed by your own condition can trigger aggressive behavior, irritability and a tendency to conflict in many men. In such a clinical situation, sometimes the treatment of prostatitis alone does not lead to normalization of the mental sphere. A representative of the stronger sex may need an experienced psychologist and even pills from the antidepressant group, which must be taken even after treatment for the underlying illness has ended.
Along with disorders of the sexual sphere, there is a change in the sperm. For example, purulent prostatitis will be accompanied by a change in color, smell of seminal fluid. Depending on the pathogen that caused the process, the biological fluid can turn yellow, green, yellow-green. Sometimes there is a discharge from the opening of the urethra and outside of intercourse. They also differ in color, smell, and other characteristics, although mucus and clear discharges that appear in the morning are more common. A man himself can detect pathological impurities in the urine after urination. We are talking about the appearance of mucous threads, also more often in the morning portion of the urine. Various pathological impurities in various situations remain the first and only manifestation of the inflammatory process.
The only sign of slow chronic prostatitis may be infertility. Often, already during the examination of a man about the inability to conceive a child, a representative of the stronger sex reveals an old inflammatory process that led to an interruption in the process of normal sperm formation. During the examination, a decrease in full-fledged sperm in men is found, as well as a decrease in the mobility of male germ cells.
Impurities in the semen can be bloody in nature, which is a sign of calculous prostatitis. The condition is called erythrospermia. There is a symptom due to traumatization of the walls by stones and it is transient. As the first sign of prostatitis is rare, therefore, when a mixture of blood in the semen appears, all other diseases that cause a similar symptom should always be excluded.
General manifestations
General signs of prostatitis usually mean general inflammatory reactions, indicating the development of an acute inflammatory process in the body. Of course, in chronic prostatitis, these manifestations are not expressed, only if we are not talking about a pronounced exacerbation. Signs of an active inflammatory process are:
- Increase in body temperature. The degree of increase correlates with the activity of inflammation. In acute bacterial prostatitis, especially accompanied by the formation of an abscess, the temperature can reach 39-40 degrees. This condition is accompanied by other pronounced symptoms of the disease. Temperature can also be the first sign of viral prostatitis.
- General weakness, headache.
- Goosebumps. Shivering chills are characteristic of bacterial prostatitis.
- Muscle pain.
General signs of inflammation are rarely the only sign of prostatitis, but there are exceptions. A slow chronic form of the disease with low severity of specific symptoms sometimes leads to a long search for the cause of the subfebrile condition (increase in temperature to 37. 2-37. 3 degrees), which is actually prostatitis. The diagnosis of the disease in such a situation is established after examination and further studies, including the sowing of the prostate secretion for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms in it.
The dependence of the clinic on the stage and type of disease
It has already been said above about the dependence of the clinical picture on the type of prostatitis and the stage of the course of the disease. Let's touch on each of them in more detail.
The first phase of the process is characterized by the predominance of general symptoms of inflammation over changes in the sexual sphere. The main signs of the disease will be pain, intoxication, dysuric disorders (mostly colic, painful urination). Some of the representatives of the stronger sex appear changes in sperm and urine, as well as discharge from the penis. If at this stage the man does not receive adequate treatment, the signs disappear and the prostatitis moves on to the next stage.
The inflammatory process without proper treatment rarely ends with the full recovery of the organ. Basically, the result of the disease will be the formation of fibrous or connective tissue that replaces the normal tissues of the prostate. For a visible improvement in the general condition, a man may not notice the worsening of dysuric disorders. A person needs to go to the toilet more often "in a small way", sexual changes gradually increase, but the symptoms are not pronounced.
In the absence of due attention to the manifestations and signs of the inflammatory process still present, prostatitis passes to the next stage. In fact, it is a chronic process, whose clinic is characterized by alternating processes of remission and exacerbation. The first signs of chronicity may be absent, as the disease does not always proceed actively. However, the progression leads to the formation of coarse fibrous scar tissue in the prostate tissues, which will cause the main signs of the disease.
First among the symptoms are dysuric symptoms, manifested in the form of a slow flow of urine, frequent need to urinate, feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder. The disorder of the sexual sphere comes together: erection problems, premature ejaculation, impossibility of full sexual intercourse.
Certain forms of prostatitis also have their own course features. About the acute and chronic phases of the bacterial process has already been said. What are the signs of congestive prostatitis, will be listed below:
- Prolonged pain syndrome (up to 3-6 months) of low intensity. Pain is limited.
- Inflammatory changes in prostate secretion and urine are absent.
- When interviewing a man, it may happen that he has predisposing factors for the development of blood stasis in the small pelvis.
- In the clinical picture, as first symptoms of the disease, violations of the sexual sphere and dysuric phenomena are revealed.
Asymptomatic prostatitis also has features. Of course, the process does not have a clinical picture. The disease is suspected after the detection of changes in the general analysis of the urine. After the examination, it becomes possible to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe treatment.
Whatever form of prostatitis is revealed in a man, the process at any stage can lead to the development of formidable complications. They can be inflammatory processes of any organ of the urinary system (kidneys, bladder), which in turn will lead to the appearance of urolithiasis or even the development of chronic renal failure. Therefore, in order to avoid formidable complications, it is necessary to treat prostatitis in a timely manner, and for timely treatment, of course, you need to recognize the first signs of the disease and contact a specialist in time.