Hi All

About two years ago I had the classic symptoms. A feeling of needing to urinate frequently, soreness around the tip and base of the penis of which was aggravated after ejaculation. In my case it wasn't instant pain but usually a few hours after the ejaculation. Also semen appeared clearer and even had a slightly yellow tint at times. I'll be honest the level of pain wasn't anything more than 1-2 out of 10 but the discomfort went on for a while. I also think a major issue was the fact my sexual organs just no longer felt particularly sexual anymore. Refraining from masturbation for long periods, ie a week or so appeared to ease things up although just one ejaculation would bring the pain back. STD clinic did a lot of testing but wasn't an STD. So about 6 months after the symptoms kept coming and going decided to see a urologist. He did a semen and urine culture test and told me the semen had grown a 'bug'. Thus prostatitis. He did inform me that treatment was extremely tricky and that long term antibiotics are considered the best remedy. Two month long courses of Trimthorpim didn't really help at all. Went back to local GP who was able to issue me with a month long course of Cipro. This seemed to help a little but didn't get rid of it. What was apparent was that the first week or so appeared to calm it right down but during the last three weeks the symptoms slowly came back! Had another course of these a few months ago and the same outcome. Was able to ejaculate a few times a day during the first week but lo and behold by week two or so the pain slowly returned.

So still pretty frustrated by it all.

However recently I did see and article on prostate massage. Whilst initially it seems a bit unnerving I thought it would be worth a go as tablets don't appear to really help. First tried with a gloved finger and plenty of lube and whilst a strange sensation I didn't really find it uncomfortable. You should be able to locate your prostate fairly easily although due to its location you have to kind of twist your hand. Then bought myself a regular prostate massage device in an attempt to make things easier. You know when you've found your prostate as you can feel a weird sensation in the tip of your penis. Maybe this also explains why a sore prostate = a sore tip. Usually massage for around 10 minutes with an up and down, side to side and pressing movement. I must admit it does appear to relieve any soreness although an ejaculation will cause its return. I did ejaculate twice in a 'session' and had quite an irritated prostate. However a post prostate massage did seem to take the edge away from this considerably. Will this cure it long term though is still yet to be decided. I will carry on for a month or two and report back.

Thanks for reading.

You're best to be careful since the prostate is a gland, and it could cause a disruption of the gland's functions(s) to overdo it. And the question is, what would overdoing it consist of? It was a procedure done for a long time for prostatitis and similar illnesses, and was stopped in part due to the potential risks. I've done it once, and I think it caused soreness I wouldn't have had if I didn't do it. Never had that same soreness since not doing it again. Some specialist physiotherapists do it internally or externally, but perhaps they know better how to apply pressure and what not to do. I still wouldn't have it done. For one, it doesn't seem effective enough. Though it could yield results in conjunction with medicine and/or other forms of massage.

Have you experienced anything different since doing it? In

Hi

Indeed a sensible approach has to be taken to this method. You could be right, it might not work at all. However I have sensed a reduction in soreness since I started gentle massage every few days. So far though I have not had any fluid discharged from my penis during the massage although I'm definitely locating the prostate. You are right though...what would 'over doing it' be and what are any consequences?? Its interesting that a thread elsewhere alludes to a healthy guy receive prostate massage for sexual gratification and end up with prostatitis. If true, then this highlights a potential risk. For me its a case of now getting pretty hacked off with being unable to ejaculate without a fair chance of having soreness afterwards. Its almost as if spontaneous sex is no longer on the menu. And for a healthy male of 44 thats pretty traumatic. So am now looking for alternative methods. May also look at pelvic alignment too.

My prostatitis did coincide with some pretty strong soap entering my urethra and undertaking a fitness regime with a lot of core work. Still unsure as to whether either of these were responsible for inducing prostatitis.

Am actually going in for surgery on my left testicle of which has developed varicocele. This may also be part of the general discomfort I'm suffering in and around my genitals.

Heavy core work can cause a number of nerve issues. You could research it on an open access journal web site. Free articles, simply read the abstract and compare results of different studies. An impinged nerve is often the cause of a muscular dysfunction and/or pain, which then affects an organ or two. I think in my case, I've had a number of falls in the past which displaced and agitated the nerves in my pelvis, thereby inducing a cascading pain and abnormal sensation effect, which has progressively gotten worse over time. Getting a prostate massage at a parlor or somewhere by a pretty girl may be riskier than doing it yourself because of contamination of furniture and her cleanliness. That would imply an infection though. And some of these bacterial prostatitis cases are determined to be host bacteria, not transmitted via a sexual partner. I read a study in which the majority of cases of bacterial prostatitis they tested for were Staph. epidermidis, which is a commonly occurring bacteria on the skin and is also internally proliferating. If one of these bacteria grow to overabundance, then they could be interfering with nerves and chemical receptors and such, causing prostatitis / CPPS. That's in contrast to a sexual disease such as gonorrhea or chlamydia, both of which are shown to be caused by similarly common bacteria by in vitro studies (meaning in a lab) and by patient cohort studies. That's what brings me to question the validity of blaming it all on a bacteria. It's not to say bacteria don't cause problems or a disease. It's more to say that there are other aspects which aren't understood yet that are more than likely involved.

I was a swimmer in high school, and used to lift for toning muscle at an exceptional level for my age at the time, and something I had never done before. Nervous system breakdown can occur from overdoing exercise, though I wouldn't say it's common. It's more common that a small problem develops into a worse problem, and over a period of time that makes it less noticeable to be the culprit.