The prevalence of prostatitis in men is quite high, which is associated with a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, a large number of risks present in the life of a modern person. According to doctors, the treatment of the disease should be started as early as possible. To do this, every representative of the stronger sex should know what are the first signs of prostatitis in men. About what symptoms accompany different forms of the disease, what an 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 associated with the presence of several types of the disease. First of all, prostatitis in men is:
- spicy. It often has a purulent character. Signs of inflammation in men, general and specific, are maximally expressed, and the cause is pathogenic (pathogenic) flora. Therefore, the treatment of men in most situations is to prescribe antibiotics.
- Chronic. It can be the result of an acute process if the treatment of a man is carried out incorrectly or out of time. The bright symptoms that accompany the purulent process go away, the symptoms are much less pronounced. In remission, the characteristic signs of the process may disappear completely. With an exacerbation of chronic prostatitis, symptoms increase, but more often with less intensity than with acute inflammation.
Chronic prostatitis in men can initially form without previous signs of acute inflammation. In this case, prostatitis often has a stagnant character, that is, arising from a man's sedentary lifestyle, the presence of chronic diseases that affect the rate of blood circulation in the pelvic organs.
It is very important to know and be able to understand the first signs and symptoms of prostatitis, because this will affect what treatment of the disease will be required in the future. If in the case of bacterial prostatitis, which will be indicated more by general toxic symptoms, the treatment must necessarily include antibiotic therapy (it does not matter if it will be tablets or injections of antibacterial drugs), then in the case of a processstagnant, in the first place comes the treatment of stagnant phenomena, i. e. the modification of the lifestyle and the treatment of associated diseases.
Enlarged photo of the prostate gland:
- Violation of the function of the urinary apparatus. In another way, this group of symptoms is called "dysuric disorders". This should also include symptoms that indicate the development of an inflammatory process in the prostate.
- Sexual disorders specific to prostatitis.
- Changes in the nervous system due to the main process. feature of the disease.
More details about each group of signs of prostatitis will be discussed below.
specific expression
The main and often the first sign of prostate inflammation is pain. Pain can be of a different nature. The nature of the pain can vary significantly. There are stabbing, aching, cutting pains of characteristic localization. If this is an acute process, then they can significantly affect the life of men, lead to disruption of sleep and performance. In chronic prostatitis during the remission period, the symptoms are mild, if not completely absent.
A typical localization of prostate pain is the pelvic area. A man can feel pain in the perineum, at the bottom of the abdomen, in the lower back. Often they give to the penis, scrotum, testicles. Pain can accompany urination and defecation, and also increase during erection and ejaculation. The first characteristic sign of calculous prostatitis may be pain, the intensity and time of which depends on movement. They appear or intensify if a man walks fast, jumps, bends. A similar symptom is due to mechanical irritation of the stone channel walls.
No less frequent signs of prostatitis are various violations of the urination process. Dysuria is manifested by the need for frequent urination, the feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder, the false desire to urinate. The very nature of urination can also change: a man complains of a slow or intermittent flow of urine, the need to make an effort to urinate normally. A terrible, but not the first, sign of prostatitis is acute urinary retention. The symptom develops with acute inflammation, accompanied by severe swelling of the prostate gland.
Urinary retention occurs when prostatitis is combined with adenoma. In the case of an exacerbation of chronic prostatitis in a man, an acute condition can also occur, but the retention of urine is less intense and the condition is less common. Most often, a man simply cannot hold a large amount of urine, and needs frequent visits to the toilet.
Dysuria and pain are the most common first signs of any form of prostatitis. Most often they are the first and prevail in the clinic for acute or worsening chronic prostatitis.
Uncomfortable for most men, although rarely the first sign of prostatitis is sexual dysfunction. Disorders 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 of all, there are problems with erection. She may become lethargic, or the man may not be able to fully complete intercourse. Ejaculation is disturbed: premature is more common. Over time, the usual sharpness of sensations fades. The problem from being purely physiological becomes psychological. Disorders of sexual desire develop (libido disorders), problems with orgasm appear. These signs negatively affect the general state of the nervous system, provoking low mood, depression and sleep disturbances. A man ceases to feel his usefulness.
Being constantly stressed and overwhelmed by one's condition can provoke aggressive behavior, irritability and a tendency to conflict in a number of 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 from the group of antidepressants, which must be taken even after the treatment of the underlying disease has been completed.
Along with disorders of the sexual sphere, there is a change in sperm. For example, purulent prostatitis will be accompanied by a change in color, smell of seminal fluid. Depending on the pathogen that caused the process, the biological fluid can become yellow, green, yellow-green. Sometimes there is a discharge from the opening of the urethra and outside sexual intercourse. They also vary in color, smell and other characteristics, although the most common are mucous, transparent discharges that appear in the morning. A man himself can detect pathological impurities in the urine after urination. We are talking about the appearance of mucous threads, also more often in the morning part of the urine. Various pathological impurities in a variety of situations remain the first and only manifestation of the inflammatory process.
The only sign of slow chronic prostatitis may be infertility. Often, already during the examination of a man regarding the impossibility of conceiving a child, a representative of the stronger sex discovers an old inflammatory process that led to an interruption in the process of normal sperm formation. During the examination, a decrease in whole spermatozoa is observed in men, as well as a decrease in the mobility of male germ cells.
Impurities in semen may be bloody in nature, which is a sign of calculous prostatitis. The condition is called erythrospermia. There is a symptom due to the traumatization of the walls by the stones and it is transient. Since the first sign of prostatitis is rare, therefore, when there is a mixture of blood in the semen, all other diseases that cause a similar symptom should always be excluded.
General manifestations
General signs of prostatitis often mean general inflammatory reactions, which indicate the development of an acute inflammatory process in the body. Of course, in chronic prostatitis, these manifestations are not expressed, unless we are talking about a pronounced deterioration. The signs of an active inflammatory process are:
- Increase in body temperature. The rate of growth is related to the activity of the inflammation. In acute bacterial prostatitis, especially associated with the formation of an abscess, the temperature can reach 39-40 degrees. This condition is accompanied by other prominent symptoms of the disease. Fever can also be the first sign of viral prostatitis.
- General weakness, headache.
- Chills. Shivering chills are characteristic of bacterial prostatitis.
- Muscle pain.
General signs of inflammation are rarely the only sign of prostatitis, but there are exceptions. A slow chronic form of the disease with a low severity of specific symptoms sometimes leads to a long search for the cause of the subfebrile state (temperature rise to 37. 2-37. 3 degrees), which is actually prostatitis. The diagnosis of the disease in such a situation is established after examination and additional studies, including sowing of prostate secretion for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms in it.
Dependence of the clinic on the stage and type of the disease
It has already been said above about 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 will be pain, intoxication, dysuric disorders (mainly cramps, pain during urination). Some of the representatives of the stronger sex show changes in sperm and urine, as well as discharge from the penis. If at this stage the man does not receive adequate treatment, the signs disappear and the prostatitis moves to the next stage.
The inflammatory process without proper treatment rarely ends with a full recovery of the organ. Basically, the result of the disease will be the formation of fibrous or connective tissue that replaces the normal tissue of the prostate gland. For a noticeable improvement in the general condition, a man may not notice the worsening of dysuric disorders. A person needs to go to the toilet more often "in a small way", sexual changes gradually increase, but the symptoms are not pronounced.
In the absence of proper attention to the manifestations and signs of the inflammatory process still present, prostatitis moves to the next stage. In fact, this is a chronic process, the clinic of which is characterized by alternating processes of remission and irritation. The first signs of chronicity may be absent, as the disease does not always proceed actively. However, progression leads to the formation of thick fibrous scars in the prostate tissue, which will cause the main symptoms of the condition.
In the first place among the symptoms are the dysuric symptoms, manifested in the form of a slow flow of urine, the frequent need to urinate, the feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder. The disorder of the sexual sphere is combined: problems with erection, premature ejaculation, the impossibility of a full sexual relationship.
Some forms of prostatitis also have their own flow characteristics. It has already been said about the acute and chronic stages of the bacterial process. What are the signs of congestive prostatitis, will be listed below:
- Prolonged pain syndrome (up to 3-6 months) with low intensity. The pain is limited.
- Inflammatory changes in the secretion of the prostate and urine are absent.
- When interviewing a man, it may turn out that he has predisposing factors for the development of blood stasis in the small pelvis.
- In the clinical picture, as the first symptoms of the disease, violations of the sexual sphere and dysuric phenomena are revealed.
Asymptomatic prostatitis also has features. Of course, the process does not have a clinical picture. The disease is suspected after detecting changes in the general analysis of urine. After the examination, it becomes possible to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe treatment.
Whatever form of prostatitis is detected in a man, the process at any stage can lead to the development of terrible complications. They can be inflammatory processes of any organ of the urinary system (kidneys, bladder), which in turn will lead to the appearance of urolithiasis or even to the development of chronic renal failure. Therefore, to prevent frightening complications, it is necessary to treat prostatitis at the right time, and for timely treatment, of course, you must be able to recognize the first signs of the disease and contact a specialist in time.