After years of being blindly prescribed antibiotics for bacteria that were present in my prostate but that weren't culturing out, I was told I may have mild mixed connective tissue disease.
The only positive finding has been an elevated ANA, but I've also had lots of symptoms, including very dry eyes which is a sign of sjogrens. However, my last bout of dry eyes was this past winter, when humidity in my home was also around 20%. I'm Not sure if it was the rise in humidity and or the doxycycline I took along with the omega fatty acids I'm still on that resolved this. My Ana is still elevated.
Does anyone else here have an autoimmune condition?
If so, have you been on long term antibiotics?
I read that some suspect prostatitis is an autoimmune process. Is it the body's reaction to bacteria stuck in the prostate? Or is it the body's reaction to antibiotics often blindly prescribed to prostatitis patients that causes a major imbalance in their gut flora that results in autoimmunity?

I think prostatitis is best described as a chronic inflammatory disease. Yes, it is sometimes autoimmune or sometimes chronic infection related, but I think it relates to the bodies immune system not being strong enough. I don't think antibiotics past a few initial courses are the answer, I think the doctors that just keep on using them again and again are stupid.

Best thing you can do for chronic inflammation is work on diet, like a fish based paleo type diet will support the immune system and remove allergens. Breads, dairy, sugar, and processed rubbished is not good for gut health and the immune system. I think a high quality strict diet combined with certain supplements that support the immune system, perhaps like reishi and cordyceps, probably will help - depending on what the cause of the problem is. If you have a muscle or alignment problem though, this won't help it as much or at all and you need a physio or chiro. If you have a nerve problem - like just a stinging pain and it isn't due to alignment, a different approach may well be needed.

i think the biggest problem with antibiotics is that doctors are not using the right ones.
i went to a lab where they saw several species of bacteria in my prostate but they didn't culture out.
you can't determine antibiotic sensitivity when you can't grow the bacteria.
so doctors blindly throw antibiotics at bacteria they can't identify and when it doesn't work, they claim its non-bacterial, even when the bacterial can be seen.
and then there are cases where a bacterial culture will show bacteria to be susceptible to antibiotics, but the antibiotics won't penetrate the prostate / biofilms / prostate calcification. the stupid doctors are the ones that blindly prescribe antibiotics or give you ones that don't work. i have recently read that augmentin and macrobid won't work for chronic bacterial enterococcus faecalis prostatitis because they don't penetrate the prostate well enough. guess what multiple doctors put me on? yup. augmentin and microbid.

it's infuriating to go through this BS for years and waste time and money seeing doctors who either have no idea what to do or insist that the problem is simply in your head.