Odd urinary symptom

[bti20]

I have noticed a very consistent aspect of my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and I have to say it has totally confused me. If I don't retract my foreskin for a day or two I get a drastic reduction in my pain - almost none. However, without fail, if I have just had a day of no retractions, and therefore no pain, the next morning my urinary stream comes out much more slowly than it does normally. It is not painful to urinate (it never is for me) but the stream just takes longer to finish and is a bit more dribbly. The muscles also feel like they have hit a 'wall' and they can't make the stream get any faster even though it *should* be. In these circumstances I could choose to squeeze really hard but generally there's no point: I just let the stream labour out painlessly until it is done. How the hell do you explain that? No foreskin retraction - no pain - then the next day, diminished but painless urinary stream. This is something I have noticed is very consistent. Baffled, Ben

[J Dimitrakov]

I have noticed a very consistent aspect of my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and I have to say it has totally confused me. If I don't retract my foreskin for a day or two I get a drastic reduction in my pain - almost none. However, without fail, if I have just had a day of no retractions, and therefore no pain, the next morning my urinary stream comes out much more slowly than it does normally. It is not painful to urinate (it never is for me) but the stream just takes longer to finish and is a bit more dribbly. The muscles also feel like they have hit a 'wall' and they can't make the stream get any faster even though it *should* be. In these circumstances I could choose to squeeze really hard but generally there's no point: I just let the stream labour out painlessly until it is done. How the hell do you explain that? No foreskin retraction - no pain - then the next day, diminished but painless urinary stream. This is something I have noticed is very consistent. Baffled, Ben

Consistent with a foreskin problem/stricture (this is a medical opinion since I have seen you in the past and know your condition)

[bti20]

Thanks very much Dr Dimitrakov, and welcome back! To drag on, if I may: Why do I have the problem with urinating (caused by stricture) ONLY when I have been able to stem the pelvic pain by not retracting the foreskin? I have to stress that the urination problem only really becomes an issue when I have managed to get rid of the pain following foreskin retraction - the less pain, the more dribbly the urine stream, and the way to get rid of pain is to leave the foreskin alone. The best explanation I can come up with is that I have a problem with urinating (stricture) which gets fortuitously 'fixed' by the pain and muscle spasms associated with retracting the foreskin. But this sounds wierd: why would foreskin pain, and following on, muscle pain, cause the symptoms of a stricture to dissappear? This is the big question for me - and it could be the clincher, Dr Dimitrakov!!