The symptoms of prostatitis in men are not characteristic and specific, as it may appear at first glance. This is why in modern urology and andrology, infertility is increasingly diagnosed among men in the most active reproductive strata - aged 25 to 40 years. The prostate in men is an organ that performs several functions: barrier, regulation of blood clotting, endocrine, reproductive, copulatory (sexual), bladder sphincter function. The signs of prostatitis in men and their symptoms are multifaceted, especially in the chronic form - they cover all organ functions and often make diagnosis difficult.
Acute Prostatitis Symptoms in Men
What symptoms of prostatitis in men should make you pay attention to them and go to the doctor? Every man, especially at a young, sexually active age, needs to know about the signs of inflammation in the lower genital tract and the possible clinical features of incipient prostate disease. Many young people postpone a visit to a urologist thinking that the disease belongs to an older age group.
Important.
Prostate inflammation is based on a complex of factors that start to act exactly at the age of 20 to 30 years.
- Sexual infections are the first thing that triggers an active or slow process of inflammation. Chlamydia, mycoplasma infection, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, gardnerellosis initiate urethritis, against which the development of gland inflammation is possible. Herpes simplex viruses, human papilloma, CMV, if they did not cause gland inflammation, significantly aggravate the course of STIs and "open the way" for bacteria in organ tissue. In the context of genital infections, opportunistic flora (staphylococci, Escherichia coli) often lead to prostate disease. When diagnosed, mixed flora is often found.
- Work accompanied by sitting for a long time is one of the triggering factors for the disease. These occupational hazards or habits adversely affect prostate health.
- Arrhythmic sex life - its rarity or randomness, psychological problems causing delayed or absent ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, frequent masturbation - significantly disturb the balance of arterial and venous blood flow in the gland.
- The impact of cold on the lower back, abdomen and extremities - winter sports and recreation, occupational risks associated with hypothermia, trigger irreversible changes in the gland tissues.
Sexual infections, chronic hypothermia, venous blood stasis and prostatic secretions lay the foundation for the formation of chronic prostatitis. . . The inflammation symptoms of prostatitis in various ways are combined into three syndromes: painful, sexual, and dysuric (disordered urination). The predominance of one of them is the reason for consulting a doctor - urologist, sexologist, therapist or surgeon. The physician's readiness and qualifications will determine the speed of the healing process.
Acute prostatitis, whose symptoms are seen after or simultaneously with an active genital infection, are characterized by the following:
- Discomfort and pain when urinating.
- Cut off at the beginning or end of urination.
- Frequent and false desire to use the bathroom.
- Pain around the anus, especially when sitting.
- Pain during defecation, a feeling of fullness in the rectum.
- Mucopurulent secretion from the urethra.
- Abdominal pain radiating to thigh, scrotum, back.
- Fever.
- Sexual dysfunctions.
Each patient has a different degree of symptom severity. Also, only a certain symptom can predominate. But often the acute process proceeds with few symptoms, which ensures frequent chronicity and an increase in the number of identified cases of chronic prostatitis.
The first signs of prostatitis
Symptoms of prostatitis appear in young men in the guise of acute respiratory infections or in the form of classic genital infection. Depending on the type of pathogen, signs of an acute process may be clear or muted.
Symptoms of prostatitis in men, initiated by gonococci, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, as well as nosocomial infection (after urinary tract manipulations) are characterized by:
- The patient is suddenly struck by a chill, which lasts from half an hour to two hours and ends with sweating.
- The temperature rises to 38 - 40 °C.
- Characterized by weakness, severe weakness.
Early symptoms of prostatitis in men may not be accompanied by the characteristic pain in the pelvic, rectum and groin area.. . . Furthermore, sexual weakness is not characteristic. Rather, the first catarrhal stage of the disease is manifested by excessive excitability and premature ejaculation.
Important.
Urogenital chlamydia, which often causes chronic prostatitis, initially presents with only mild dysuric symptoms.
How does prostatitis manifest in men, initiated by hematogenous or lymphogenic entry of flora into prostate tissue? This type of illness that accompanies general somatic infectious diseases (sinusitis, sore throat, pneumonia, abscesses, pustular skin diseases) may not be noticed by the patient. In the context of the underlying disease, the temperature rises again and the symptoms of intoxication increase, and mild dysuric phenomena and abdominal pain may occur.
Symptoms of Chronic Prostatitis in Men
Chronic bacterial or viral prostatitis, congestive or infectious, whose symptoms vary, are united by the fact that inflammatory processes, although caused by different triggering factors, lead to three basic manifestations:
- Pain syndrome.
- Disorder of urination.
- Sexual dysfunction.
Symptoms of pain with prostatitis are also divided into three types:
- Extragenital - pain in the rectum, lower back, abdomen is characteristic.
- Pelvic - the pain symptoms do not appear as such, but there is pronounced itching in the anus, tingling, paraesthesia, neurosis, excessive sweating - this is due to the involvement of the pelvic nerve plexuses in the process.
- Genital - pain in the scrotum, lumbago in the testicles, groin and perineum.
- Mixed.
Pain symptoms in prostatitis form a concept like "chronic pelvic pain syndrome in men".
The symptoms of inflammation of the chronic form of the prostate are accompanied by violation and suppression of erection, ejaculation and decreased libido. In this context, a syndrome similar to neurosis forms, which develops according to the sympathetic or parasympathetic type. The former is characterized by heartbeat attacks, fever, subfebrile nocturnal illness, sudden mood swings, inattention. For the second - daytime drowsiness, fatigue, insomnia at night, hypochondria, sweating, weight gain, lump in the throat, excessive salivation.
Among the dysuric phenomena are increased urination, difficulty in emptying the bladder, dripping and lethargy of the jet. These signs bear a pronounced resemblance to an adenoma, which sometimes complicates the diagnosis.
Important.
Chronic prostatitis in men over 45 years of age usually occurs concurrently with an enlarged prostate.
In the chronic form, spermatorrhoea and prostatorrhoea are seen - the secretion of secretions from the prostate by the urethra in combination with seminal fluid due to atony of organs.
Asymptomatic prostatitis
Prostate inflammation is not always symptomatic. Often, a man learns of an illness, for example, when performing ultrasound diagnoses when planning a child. They find calcifications in prostate tissue, obliterated ducts, gland enlargement or shrinkage, sclerosis, impaired blood flow on Doppler ultrasound, varicose veins in the prostate plexus, and small pelvis.
Symptomatic prostatitis develops in young men after suffering genital infections, in particular, urogenital chlamydia and mycoplasmosis.Asymptomatic prostatitis is often registered after inadequate and incomplete treatment of these conditions. Often, when examining sperm, a decrease in the number of germ cells, a decrease in actively mobile cells, agglutination, and a decrease in lecithin grains are found. Periodic sexual failures are possible, which the man does not care about.
Symptoms of prostatitis exacerbation
Exacerbation of chronic prostatitis develops when exposed to adverse causative factors - general somatic illnesses, hypothermia, irregular sexual activity, alcohol abuse, exacerbation of infectious diseases of Organs genitourinary organs, rectum.
The symptoms of prostatitis flare-up in men are similar to those of the onset of the disease. Increased temperature, general malaise, fatigue, weakness, chills surface. Pains in the anus, feeling of fullness in the rectum, lumbago in the groin, perineum are growing. Sexual dysfunction and nervousness are also aggravated. When going to the bathroom, the patient notices difficulty and increased urination, weakened flow, pain.
Course characteristics of some types of prostatitis
How does prostatitis manifest itself in men in its various varieties? Conventionally, different types of the disease are distinguished, depending on the prevailing process: infectious, bacterial, stagnant, purulent.
Infectious and bacterial prostatitis
The concept includes several nosological forms of the disease, or rather, it differs according to the types of pathogenic pathogens. Infectious prostatitis, whose symptoms can only be caused by pathogenic bacteria and viruses, can be initiated by an opportunistic and sexually transmitted pathogenic flora. Conditionally pathogenic microorganisms that normally inhabit the male genitourinary tract cause disease only with unfavorable factors. Most of the time, when sowing semen and urine, Escherichia coli, staphylococci and enterococci are found. That's bacterial prostatitis.
Infectious prostatitis is predominantly registered among young people.This type of inflammation of the prostate often causes chronicity and infertility.
The clinical picture is characterized by greater brightness with gonorrhea, and with chlamydia, mycoplasmosis and opportunistic pathogens, symptoms are scarce, therefore, it often leads to chronic prostatitis.
purulent prostatitis
The pyogenic flora is represented by gonococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, a methicillin-resistant strain of Staphylococcus. These microorganisms secrete a series of destructive enzymes, are characterized by aggressiveness towards prostate tissues and, therefore, initiate purulent fusion.Often, purulent prostatitis ends with an abscess, phlegmon, paraprostatitis, paraproctitis.
The purulent process is often initiated by bacteria that have entered the prostate in the following ways:
- From purulent foci in other organs.
- For medical interventions on Organs genitourinary organs. Hospital flora is characterized by multiple resistance to antibiotics, therefore it leads precisely to purulent prostatitis.
Purulent prostatitis, whose symptoms are the most striking, usually causes complications: urinary and vesico-intestinal fistulas. Also, these bacteria easily penetrate the ascending route to the kidneys, pelvis, and calyxes, causing their chronic inflammation.
congestive prostatitis
The isolated course of this type of disease is practically excluded, since in a context of stagnant processes, the microbial flora attaches itself and this type acquires an infectious form of course. Most of the time, urologists make this diagnosis if no bacteria were isolated in the inoculation of the biomaterial. As a rule, an analysis carried out after 2-3 weeks already gives a positive result for bacterial flora.
Venous blood stagnation is often seen with varicose veins, rectal pathology, pelvic tumors, hypodynamic. Violation of the secretion flow from the prostate, which is most often seen in sexual dysfunction and irregular sexual activity, leads to stagnation and the prerequisites for inflammation.Congestive prostatitis, whose symptoms coincide with infectious inflammation, are closely linked and succeed each other.Symptoms will be complemented by varicose veins and rectal lesions.
Obviously, in the chronic form of prostatitis, the manifestations can be of a non-specific nature, which requires a complete and comprehensive diagnosis.
Important.
Any signs of genital infection in a man should be a reason to contact a urologist or venereologist for treatment.
Self-medication or abandoning the situation can serve as an impulse for the formation of a chronic form.