Hello, I am new to the board, although I have been reading for the past month. This has been quite an experience to say the least as most here definitely relate. My story is, at 36 yrs. old (2006) I started feeling very worn out and easily irritated for about a months time, had a days worth of fever in between. Over the following two weeks the symptoms somewhat disappeared except for the feeling that something wasn't quite right in the genital area. Weak erection but still good to go, a little bit of aching in the perineum and spasms above the pubic bone, mild aches in the pubic region, and then "holy _hit" brown streaks in my semen(hematospermia which I later found out). Straight to the doctor I went (urgent care) and I explained what was happening. He felt my prostate, said I was bulky. Then he decided to express some fluid which came out no problem, he handed me a slide and asked me to rub the head of my penis on it so he could get a sample. OK..I was mortified at this point. He took it straight to a microscope, said it was full of pus and put me on Cipro for 10 days. All symptoms went away except for the hemotospermia. So I made an appointment with a Urologist. Before being seen you have to pee in a cup, that came back negative for anything. He felt my prostate and said it was fine. Said I probably had a seminal vesicle infection and put me on 1 month of Bactrim. Went back for the follow-up in one month and I told him I was still having some episodes of blood in the ejaculate and now pain in my testicles after sex. The pain only occurred a handful of times but eventually went away. He then put me on 6 months of low dose bactrim. Antibiotics did not work for the hematospermia and I became more worried. I then made an appointment with a different Urologist, explained the situation, and he did a cystoscopy and TRUS (all normal) and said my prostate was slightly enlarged but normal for my age. Also had a PSA done and it was normal. The hemotospermia would come and go over the next several years but after a while that just kinda went away on its own. I still went to the Urologist every year for check ups (DRE and Urinalysis) everything was normal. Then in July 2013, while lifting weights I felt pain in the left testicle and above the pubic bone. I thought I had a hernia but couldn't find anything to back that up. So I dismissed the pain as something that would just go away. It didn't and only got worse. I made an appointment with the URO to explain what was happening. On appointment day I peed in a cup, they checked that and it came back negative. The doctor checked my prostate and said it felt boggy and I probably had a prostate infection. He prescribed a two week course of Cipro and it somewhat killed the pain but I had to lay off the weights. I told him I run a lot and asked for a different type of anti-b and was given 3 weeks of Bactrim. After the 3rd week of Bactrim everything seemed normal again. About 6 months later after working out I noticed that I would have to pee about every 30 minutes or so, but I did drink a lot during workouts which lasted about two hours so I blamed it on that. No pain at this point. So from 2013 till October 2015, there wasn't a lot of pain but if there was any it was usually was caused by working out, certain movements only, and was very mild. For the most part everything seemed normal. On October 3rd, 2015 is when things went bad. During a workout, you think I would have learned by now, the left testicle started aching and didn't stop. If I leaned over for any reason, the pain set in around the waist line area, testicles, either right or left upper thigh and would alternate throughout the day. Tip of the penis pain, pain in urethra, frequent urination, along with the feeling that you have to go again 10 minutes after you just went, dribbling, sometimes hesitant to start but I think that was because I didn't have to really go. Basically I had every symptom in the book for prostatitis. Pain on a scale of 1-10 was about an 8 for 3 or 4 days. I made a call to the Uro and asked for a course of antibiotics because I figured it was another prostate infection, from what I had been told upon each visit to the Uro. He called in a 3 week course of Cipro. Two weeks into it I figured it wasn't helping since the symptoms weren't budging. Called again and he said to come in. He asked the typical questions, and I answered by giving him each textbook symptom of prostatitis, and he said it sounded like a Prostate infection and sent me on my way with a prescription for 3 weeks of bactrim, needless to say this didn't work. Went back again and this is went it got serious. He said that I was a perfect candidate for surgery since I keep getting infections. I said I wasn't ready for that yet and I felt it a little premature to go to that extreme at this point, especially when I have never had any type of bacterial culture done, EVER. He then said, yes, your only 44 and I wouldn't feel comfortable doing a procedure on someone your age. This is when I started to realize something isn't quite right. I thought you only had surgery if you absolutely needed it, especially in that area. Well out the door with 3 weeks of levafloxacin, which made me feel worse than my original symptoms, and a bottle of prostate vitamins that the doctor said he didn't know much about. During the last week of Levafloxacin the tendons did swell in my left foot surrounding my ankle. It still takes a minute to walk normal after getting up. After the 3 week course of Leva. was over, the genital pain symptoms pretty much subsided to nothing but I realized at that point it was just the inflammatory affect. The 3 week course ended Dec. 23rd, since then if I lift something heavy or if I sit too long I will get a short-lived pain in either the right or left testicle, or in the penis. The main problem I have now is frequent urination, which seems to come and go every other day. Diet in the beginning played a huge role, if I ate anything unhealthy, my trips to the bathroom increased. I thought I had possibly had a breakthrough last night, I did not have to get up once to use the bathroom(first time in a long time), had sex this morning, and today the urge to go is persistent along with irritation in the urethra. Some pain also occurred in the testicles, but was not bad and went away fast.
- I am currently taking Quercetin, Saw Palmetto, probiotics, and multi-vitamins. Hard to tell if it is working or not because the symptoms come and go so often and vary in intensity.
- Ordered Head ache in the pelvis and have read about half of it at this point.
- Stretching everyday to see if it will help.
- I ordered a prostate massager (sonic massage). It seems to help as it immediately kills the urge to have to urinate but the urge does come back. It differs from day to day as to how long the affects last.
Right now the worst symptom is having to urinate frequently and having the feeling that you have to go just after going. Irritation and pain in the urethra seem to alternate from pee to pee. Somedays it is there, some it isn't. If I hold it for a while there is no irritation afterward, If I go before I really need to then there seems to be more irritation mixed with pain. I can see now this is going to be a long road to feeling normal again. I have reached the point that if I don't feel the need to go, then I overthink it until I do.
Anyone similar to this story?
