Is this a prostatitis symptom?

[chuck12717]

I am 23 years old and have had Chronic Non bacterial Prostatitis or so I was been told ever since I was 17. I hope that maybe somone can share some insight about what I am going through. I have searched every website about my certain symptom but can't seem find any answers. I'll just say that this is a very embarrassing issue and some of you will proabably not believe me. But maybe someone knows what I'm going through. I guess I'll start from the beginning. About seven years ago, right after I turned seventeenth, I started taking a supplement from GNC called RIP-fuel. Now banned, this supplement gave me the boost that I needed for my workouts. After about two months of taking it I started to notice that this supplement was really affecting my genitals. My sak had shriveled up and my penis was extremely drawn up. I would describe it as jumping into an icey cold pool. Being only 17 I became extremely worried. I stopped taking the supplement, which helped a little, but my genitals never hung out like they used to before I started taking this crap. As you can imagine I became extremely self-conscious about getting undressed or taking showers in the lockeroom. Hell I can remember when I was a freshman and sophomore and not feeling embarrassed at all. But now everything was shriveled up. It was if I was not getting enough blood flow down there. So I went to a urologists and he told me that I had Prostatitis. That was my only symptom that I had. There was no pain involved.
I didn't know what the hell prostatitis was. I just knew that I wanted my junk back. So I took the antibiotics and hoped it would go away. It never did. This is how it stayed for the rest of high school and until junior year of college. When I was 21 I went back to the same Uro and complained of the very uncomfortable shrinking feeling that I had dealt with for so long. He gave me 2mg cardura and said it would help. I started taking it in the morning and I noticed that it indeed worked. For the first time in 5 years I really felt comfortable with my own body. No longer did my genitals shrink up. Everything hung out like it used to so long ago. It was by far the best two years of my life. So my first question is what did the cardura actually do? Because it definetly supplied more blood flow to my gentials in the flacid state? Which in turn gave a huge boost to my ego.
About two months ago I started to notice that my pee was split steaming, like something was obstructing it. My penis was pointing to the extreme left, which it has never done before.I started having pain in my lower left groin and again the damn drawn up symptom was back no matter how much cardura I took. So again I went to the urologists and again he said I had Chronic Non bacterial Prostititis. He did say that I had a small vericole on my left testicle but that it was not the reason way my penis was pointing to the left. I asked him about a possiable hernia- he checked for one and he said no. I asked him if possiablly a pulled muscle could be doing it and he said no. So Again like a fool I took the antibiotics-which only made it worse, have done the hot baths and tried to cut the caffeine and alcohol. Which leads me to today. Nothing as changed. My symptoms have led me to become very depressed. I am sorry about the long email but I really need some advice on this issue. I know that I am young and most doctors probably would not operate on me, but this condition has ruined my life. Does any one know or have any advise about what is going on with me. Thanks

[webslave]

I've seen another case like this. The product you are talking about is Twinlab's Ripped Fuel with the active ingredient ephedrine. It is classed as a thermogenic. It is also apparently considered a "pro" hormone that is converted in the body to testosterone. There are (or were) some other OTC drugs like this too. They used to be easily available, and have been banned by many sports associations including the IOC, NCAA, NFL, and NBA. Even when permitted, impurities could cause an athlete to test positive for banned anabolic steroid use. Examples of products are:

* Andro-Spray
* Tetrabol
* Ripped Fuel Stack

Another one is androstenedione (click on link to read about how it caused pelvic pain), a direct hormone precursor of testosterone, which is used (abused?) to build muscles in bodybuilding.

[CppsDad]

Chuck,

One of the many causes for chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome is extreme muscle tension in the pelvic region; this can happen from too much tension for too much time. In most of the cases on this board, the tension has been caused by a lifelong habit of tensing pelvic muscles, whether you feel them or not, which could be caused by stress, anxiety, or long periods of sitting. In other cases, the inflamed muslces can be caused by extreme periods of phsyical stress, such as the type of stress that occurs in heavy workouts. While you might have been training your arms and legs to bench 400 pounds, you probably didn't give your pelvic muscles the same attention (and I think some people are predisposed to having weaker pelvic muscles than others). I'm not saying your workouts caused your pain, but if you overstrained your internal pelvic muscles (front, bottom, back, and inside), you could eventually develop CPPS. Everything down there is connected to the muscles; so it makes sense that if you have some chronically tight muscles, that not everything is going to be "aligned" like it used to. The first symptom of this might be just a simple misalignment, but if left untreated and if the extreme stresses keep getting reapplied through workouts, you could end up causing tenderness in the muscles and trigger points, and then the more serious chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome symptoms start, such as testicle pain, groin pain, and very commonly, split streams (due to tension in the muscles surrounding the urethra).

Some antibiotics have anti-inflamatory effects, which could cause some improvement.

I also searched for cardura and found the following:
Cardura is in a class of drugs called alpha-adrenergic blockers. Cardura causes the blood vessels (veins and arteries) to relax and expand, which allows blood to pass more easily through them.

Cardura is used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure). Cardura is also used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlarged prostate). It relaxes the muscles in the prostate and bladder neck, making it easier to urinate.

It sounds like the Cardura was perhaps helping with the muscle tension that was causing your initial problem. But this addresses one of the main problems most of us have in getting treatment for CPPS: often times we find remedies early on that seem to work, at least temporarily, but then fail. While we "feel" better from these remedies, the conditions that are causing the pain are getting worse. So we up the dosage of the remedies but don't ever remedy the source. Eventually, when you finally stop taking the remedy, the cause of the problem has become much worse, and it has never been addressed.

I don't want to diagnose you. But you sound as if you might have chronic muscle tension that needs to be worked out. It might not be anything more serious than that. I would suggest you get the "A Headache In The Pelvis" book and see what it has to say. For most of us here that are trying to deal with the problem, we approach it three ways: 1) Phsysical therapy to stretch the taut muscles and eliminate trigger points, 2) Daily stretching excercises in the affected regions, and 3) Focus on relaxation and avoidance of tensing the pelvic muscles.

If hot baths make your pain better, and if stress makes it worse, then you might be a candidate for the treatments discussed on this board.

Just a side note: I had a doctor look for a hernia in me too when my problems started. And I have the same uneven layout of my genitals as you describe. But I'm not worried about how they look right now; just how they feel.

I hope I've been somewhat helpful.

Good luck,

Mike

[Viking]

I took some androstenedione and worked out pretty heavily when I went to college. Three years ago I also took a supplement for body building called Activator which I got in Sweden. I quit taking it after I got some red small dots right below my eyes. My pelvic pain symptoms started almost a year later though, so I hope that the Activator did not trigger it.

I must also say that I did not stretch at all when I lifted weights and I guess this may have caused my pelvic muscles to become shortend and perhaps even developed trigger points.

I do share chuck`s symptom of shrinkage and it is not fun. Although when erect it has not become smaller..

[boudreaux]

Chuck,
I agree with and affirm all what CppsDad was saying. In my case, too, tons of strength training without stretching I'm conviced was a huge factor in developing Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. Also, being anxious and nervous about the look of your genitals over several years probably caused you to focus a huge amount of tension in that area that you didn't even realize. Please read "A Headache in the Pelvis" - it specifically states that weightlifting in certain predisposed individuals can lead to CPPS. Then feel free to email or call Dr. Wise for some advice about seeking the doctors/therapists that can most likely help you. He is a gentleman and welcomes contact from readers.

Also, while I'm not a doctor and cannot advise you on medical stuff, there's probably nothing wrong with your prostate like most folks on this board. The prostate is simply in the middle of all the muscles that are tight and tense, and thus gets blamed for dysfunction. Loosen the muscles, and the prostaste and bladder start behaving as they are supposed to.

In the meantime, take some hot baths, do some gentle stretching, and try to relax your pelvis as much as possible. But read AHIP as soon as you can. It's very calming.

[CppsDad]

Mabye I'm making light of a serious problem for some, but I have the same shrinkage in my genitals in the non-erect state, and it doesn't bother me at all. When fully erect, I am as large as ever, and everything works fine. If this is the case for you, then you need to look at things from a different perspective and stop being depressed and anxious and tense over the shrinkage. At least you can still use it, and that is saying something. If a woman is going to care about size, then she probably cares about the size "when it matters", and that isn't going to be a problem for you. But if you keep being tense and don't solve some problems, than eventually you will start having pain with sex and that WILL BE a problem. I know, since that has happened to me. You might be lucky; you have caught your problem before it has become very severe from what it sounds like and perhaps you'll be able to head it off before the problem gets any worse. Look at the big picture, read some of the posts on these boards, and start the healing. I'm not saying this to sound dictatorial, but I just want you to not be so depressed over this that you can't see passed it and start getting better.

Mike

[boudreaux]

CppsDad,
I couldn't agree with you more and know throughout my teenage years I had the same problem. I wanted my pecker to look "big" all the time, and that's not natural. I was (and still am) an extremely sexual person - I just have tons of sexual desire; and I think as a result of all that I naturally focused a lot of my attention to the genital/pelvic area, and often seemed to masturbate as a "stress reliever". After AHIP, I'm convinced this was not a healthy way to live. The genitals and pelvic region have two main uses - excrete waste and sexual function - and so if you're not doing either of the two, forget about them, relax them, and who cares how shrunk up they are when not in use. In fact, I think they should be shrunk up when not in use. Before I started consciously relaxing the pelvic muscles through AHIP, I got "no reason boners" all the time because I was "thinking" about using my genitals - since I've started relaxing, I never get them...but I get excellent ones when I need to use it.
Excellent advice you've given to Chuck and any other readers.

[Ginty]

Hi Chuck,

Just wanted to say that I have exactly what you are describing as well.

Some good advice from the other guys although I think maybe they don't quite get where you're coming from?

I'm 26 now, started getting this when I was about 17 also, and before I got any pain I noticed that my penis and testicles would shrink right up when I had to take a shower with the boys after football.
No one said anything but I felt extremely self conscious about it and after this happened a couple of times that was it for me.
It has taken a grip of my life to some extent because I now avoid exercise and team sports in particular in case I need to shower in public.

Luckily I'm ok with my penis when I'm with the wife, and when erect it's fine. It's when I'm around strangers that I worry about it.
Does sound daft, but it's a phobia I guess.

It's definitely related to muscle tension and some sub-conscious need to guard the package in view of an imagined threat. So hopefully as I progress more with my relxation and everything I may learn the ability to turn this off at will.
Also I think maybe age is against us and as you get older you naturally develop more of a "who gives a fuck anyway" attitude about yourself and your body.

Well here's hoping anyway.

All the best.

[CppsDad]

I didn't mean to sound like I was discounting the emotional turmoil that the shrinkage might be causing him. I don't date since I'm married, and so perhaps it's a big issue, perhaps it's not. But what I want him to understand is that he needs to look at the big picture here, and take a little time off from worring about appearances while he makes some progress with his own well-being. I fully understand the magnitude that the condition is causing him, and I feel for him. This condition causes a lot of pain during sex for me and therefore limits my sexual escapades every day. No one has spent more time feeling sorry for themselves then me during the last year and a half. So I understand what it is like to feel bad about something. But I've made a resolution to fight this and get better, and this has improved my attitude tremendously even when I get down. This is a battle, a long one in my case, and I am resolved to see it through completion as long as it takes. That's what Chuck needs to do and that's all I'm trying to say.

Mike