The prevalence of prostatitis among men is quite high, which is associated with a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet and many sources of danger present in the life of modern man. According to doctors, the treatment of the disease should be started as early as possible. To do this, all representatives of the stronger sex should know what the first signs of prostatitis in men are. What symptoms accompany different forms of the disease, what exacerbation looks like, an acute and chronic process, and a little about treatment will be discussed in the article.
general information
The signs and symptoms of prostatitis, as well as its treatment, are quite varied, which is related to the presence of several types of the disease. First, prostatitis in men:
- Spicy. It is often purulent in nature. In men, the signs of both general and specific inflammation are maximally expressed, the causative agent is pathogenic (pathogenic) flora. Therefore, the treatment of men in most situations is the prescription of antibiotics.
- Chronic. It can be a consequence of an acute process if a man's treatment was done incorrectly or out of time. Bright symptoms accompanying the purulent process disappear, the symptoms are much less pronounced. In remission, the characteristic signs of the process may disappear completely. As chronic prostatitis worsens, the symptoms increase, but often with a lower intensity than in the case of acute inflammation.
Chronic prostatitis in men can initially develop without previous signs of acute inflammation. In this case, prostatitis is often stagnant, that is, it results from the man's sedentary lifestyle and the presence of chronic diseases that affect the speed of blood circulation in the pelvic organs.
It is very important to know and understand the first signs and symptoms of prostatitis, because this affects what kind of treatment the disease will require in the future. If in the case of bacterial prostatitis, which will be indicated by general toxic symptoms, the treatment must necessarily include antibiotic therapy (it does not matter whether it is pills or injections of antibacterial drugs), then in the case of a stagnant process, the first priority is to treat the stagnant phenomena, that is, thelifestyle modification, treatment of co-morbidities.
Magnified photo of the prostate with prostatitis:
- Violation of urinary tract function. Otherwise, this group of symptoms is called "dysuric disorders". This should also include symptoms indicating the development of an inflammatory process of the prostate.
- Sexual disorders characteristic of prostatitis.
- Changes in the nervous system due to the main process. characteristic of the disease.
Below, we discuss each group of signs of prostatitis in more detail.
specific expression
The leading and often the first sign of prostatitis is pain. Pain can be of a different nature. The nature of the pain can vary significantly. There are stabbing, aching, cutting pains with characteristic localization. If this is an acute process, they can significantly affect men's lives, leading to disturbances in sleep and performance. In chronic prostatitis, during the period of remission, the symptoms are mild, if not completely absent.
The typical localization of pain in prostatitis is the pelvic area. The man may feel pain in the perineum, lower abdomen, lower back. They are often given to the penis, scrotum, and testicles. Pain may accompany urination and defecation, and may increase during erection and ejaculation. The typical first symptom of calculous prostatitis can be pain, the intensity and time of which it occurs depends on movement. They appear or intensify when a man walks quickly, jumps, bends down. A similar symptom is mechanical irritation of the walls of the canals with stones.
No less common signs of prostatitis are various violations of the urinary process. Dysuria manifests itself in the need to urinate frequently, the feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder, and a false urge to urinate. The nature of urination may also change: the man complains of a sluggish or intermittent flow of urine, and efforts must be made to urinate normally. Acute urinary retention is a terrible, although not the first sign of prostatitis. The symptom develops with acute inflammation, which is accompanied by severe swelling of the prostate gland.
Urinary retention occurs when prostatitis is combined with an adenoma. In the case of exacerbation of chronic prostatitis in men, an acute condition may also occur, but urinary retention is less intense and the condition is rarer. More often, a man simply cannot hold a large amount of urine, and frequent visits to the toilet are necessary.
Dysuria and pain are the most common first signs of any form of prostatitis. Most often, they are the first, and they prevail in the clinic in cases of acute or worsening chronic prostatitis.
Although uncomfortable for most men, the first sign of prostatitis is rarely sexual dysfunction. Disturbances of the intimate sphere are more often a manifestation of a chronic inflammatory process and are of a different nature, therefore the approach to treatment is also different. First, there are problems with erection. She may become lethargic, or the man may not be able to fully complete sexual intercourse. Ejaculation is disturbed: premature ejaculation is more common. Over time, the usual sharpness of sensations is erased. A purely physiological problem becomes a psychological one. Sexual desire disorders (libido disorders) develop, problems with orgasm arise. These signs negatively affect the general state of the nervous system, causing low mood, depression and sleep disorders. Man ceases to feel his own usefulness.
The constant stress situation and the overload of one's own condition can cause 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 the normalization of the mental sphere. A representative of the stronger sex may need an experienced psychologist and even pills belonging to the group of antidepressants, which must be taken even after the treatment of the underlying disease has been completed.
Along with disturbances in the sexual sphere, the spermatozoa change. For example, purulent prostatitis is accompanied by a change in color and the smell of seminal fluid. Depending on the pathogen causing the process, the biological fluid may turn yellow, green, or yellow-green. Sometimes there is discharge from the opening of the urethra and outside of sexual intercourse. They also differ in color, smell and other characteristics, although the slimy, transparent secretions that appear in the morning are more common. The person himself can detect pathological impurities in the urine after urinating. We are talking about the appearance of mucous fibers, more often in the morning part of the urine. Various pathological impurities remain the first and only manifestation of the inflammatory process in many situations.
Infertility may be the only sign of chronic, slow prostatitis. Often, the representative of the stronger sex reveals an old inflammatory process, which led to the disruption of the normal sperm formation process, already during the examination related to the inability to conceive a child. During the test, in men, the amount of full-fledged spermatozoa decreases, as well as the mobility of male germ cells.
Impurities in semen can be bloody, which is a sign of calculous prostatitis. The condition is called erythrospermia. A symptom occurs due to trauma to the walls by stones and is temporary. Since the first symptom of prostatitis is rare, if a mixture of blood appears in the semen, all other diseases that cause similar symptoms must always be ruled out.
General manifestations
General signs of prostatitis are often 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. The signs of an active inflammatory process are as follows:
- Increased body temperature. The degree of growth correlates with the activity of the inflammation. In acute bacterial prostatitis, especially with 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.
- Chills. Shivering is characteristic of bacterial prostatitis.
- Muscle pain.
General signs of inflammation are rarely the only signs of prostatitis, but there are exceptions. The chronic, indolent form of the disease with specific symptoms sometimes leads to a long search for the cause of the subfebrile condition (37. 2-37. 3 degree temperature increase), which is actually prostatitis. The diagnosis of the disease in such a situation is established after an examination and further tests, including the sowing of the secretion of the prostate for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms.
The clinic depends on the stage and type of the disease
Above, we have already mentioned 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 stage 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 are pain, intoxication, dysuric disorders (mainly cramps, pain during urination). In some representatives of the stronger sex, changes occur in sperm and urine, as well as in secretions from the penis. If the man does not receive proper treatment at this stage, the symptoms will disappear and the prostatitis will progress to the next stage.
The inflammatory process without proper treatment rarely ends with the complete healing of the organ. Basically, the outcome of the disease will be the formation of fibrous or connective tissue that replaces the normal tissues of the prostate. Due to the visible improvement of the general condition, the man may not notice the aggravation of dysuric disorders. A person needs to go to the toilet "slightly" more often, sexual changes gradually increase, but the symptoms are not pronounced.
In the absence of sufficient attention to the manifestations and signs of the still existing inflammatory process, prostatitis enters the next stage. In fact, it is a chronic process, the clinic of which is characterized by alternating remission and exacerbation processes. The first signs of chronicity may be absent, since the disease does not always progress actively. However, progression leads to the formation of rough fibrous scars in the prostate tissue, which is the main symptom of the condition.
Among the symptoms, dysuria symptoms are the first, which are manifested in a slow flow of urine, a frequent need to urinate, and a feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder. Disturbances in the sexual sphere are added: erection problems, premature ejaculation, the impossibility of a full-fledged sexual relationship.
Certain forms of prostatitis have their own characteristics. The acute and chronic stages of the bacterial process have already been discussed. The signs of congestive prostatitis are listed below:
- Prolonged pain syndrome (up to 3-6 months) of low intensity. Pain is limited.
- Inflammatory changes in prostate secretions and urine are absent.
- When asking a man, it may be revealed that there are factors that predispose to the development of pelvic blood stasis.
- In the clinical picture, the first symptoms of the disease are violations of the sexual sphere and dysuric phenomena.
Asymptomatic prostatitis also has its characteristics. Of course, the process has no clinical picture. The disease is suspected after changes in the general analysis of urine are detected. After the examination, it becomes possible to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe treatment.
Whatever form is revealed in a man's prostatitis, it can lead to the development of terrifying complications at any stage of the process. These can be inflammatory processes of any organ of the urinary system (kidneys, bladder), which in turn leads to the appearance of urolithiasis or even the development of chronic kidney failure. Therefore, in order to prevent terrible complications, it is necessary to treat prostatitis in time, and for timely treatment, of course, you need to be able to recognize the first signs of the disease and contact a specialist in time.