Prostatitis Journey

[realdeal1977]

I was on TRT for about 10 years. About 2 years ago, I had a kidney stone that kicked off a long chain of events for me. I passed the 6 mm long x 2.5 mm wide stone after 3 weeks. About a month later, I kept having burning, hesitancy, yellow / chunky semen and urgency. The doctor gave me an antibiotic (Bactrim) as a precaution. I felt ok on that for 2 weeks. It seemed to help for about a month and the symptoms came back. They did a CT Scan. All was fine. I was given another round of Bactrim, and the same occurred. The urologist wanted to then do a cystoscopy. I had that, which he noted nothing. He said, maybe you should see a neurologist. I saw my PCP, and he said I need to find a new urologist. I found a new one. I also stopped TRT to rule that out as a variable. The new urologist did a digital exam and actually expressed semen onto a glass slide and said he saw evidence of prostatitis. He put me on Ciprofloxacin for 2 weeks. It seemed to work but I had terrible side effects. I went back, after a month, told the doctor I felt good for two weeks, but it was starting to come back. He actually said, it's all in your head. The antibiotics I gave you are enough. "Maybe you should seek counseling. You seem like a nervous fellow" (true quote)

Anyhow, I started to do research and actually started myself on Prostamax peptide. That was promising as well, but as soon as I was off of it, again it comes back. All the symptoms.

I do more research and found MicroGenDx testing. I submitted a urine and semen sample. Paid out of pocket for the max testing they do. They did the testing and reported back bacteria found and which antibiotic is most effective, and which antibiotic will not work. I did some research using ChatGPT and found multiple studies on the bacteria I have and chronic prostatitis. I took it all to my family doctor (PCP) in printed form, and explained, throwing myself on his mercy asking if he could follow the recommended antibiotic in the studies. He agreed, and prescribed me Fosmamycin 3 g packets every day for 1 week, and every other day for 6 weeks (per the studies). I am on week 1 1/2, and the change has been incredible. All symptoms completely gone. I have hope for the first time in a while.

I'll report back when more time passes, but so far I couldn't be happier.

 

[BadassBlues]

I was on TRT for about 10 years. About 2 years ago, I had a kidney stone that kicked off a long chain of events for me. I passed the 6 mm long x 2.5 mm wide stone after 3 weeks. About a month later, I kept having burning, hesitancy, yellow / chunky semen and urgency. The doctor gave me an antibiotic (Bactrim) as a precaution. I felt ok on that for 2 weeks. It seemed to help for about a month and the symptoms came back. They did a CT Scan. All was fine. I was given another round of Bactrim, and the same occurred. The urologist wanted to then do a cystoscopy. I had that, which he noted nothing. He said, maybe you should see a urologist. I saw my PCP, and he said I need to find a new urologist. I found a new one. I also stopped TRT to rule that out as a variable. He did a digital exam and actually expressed semen onto a glass slide and said he saw evidence of prostatitis. He put me on Ciprofloxacin for 2 weeks. It seemed to work but I had terrible side effects. I went back, after a month, told the doctor I felt good for two weeks, but it was starting to come back. He actually said, it's all in your head. The antibiotics I gave you are enough. Maybe you should seek counseling (true quote).

Anyhow, I started to do research and actually started myself on Prostamax peptide. That was promising as well, but as soon as I was off of it, again it comes back. All the symptoms.

I do more research and found MicroGenDx testing. I submitted a urine and semen sample. They did the testing and reported back bacteria found and which antibiotic is most effective, and which will not work. I did some research using ChatGPT and found multiple studies on the bacteria I have and chronic prostatitis I took it all to my family doctor (PCP) and explained, throwing myself on his mercy asking if he could follow the recommended antibiotic in the studies. He agreed, and prescribed meFosmamycin 3 g packets every day for 1 week, and every other day for 6 weeks (per the studies). I am on week 1 1/2, and the change has been incredible. All symptoms completely gone. I have hope for the first time in a while.

I'll report back when more time passes, but so far I couldn't be happier.

I admire your tenacity. This is why it pays to do your own research @Vince

Please keep us informed on this thread as this is very good information. I have had 2 prostate infections in my lifetime and even the "easy" ones take a long time to resolve themselves. Your PSA will be elevated for months afterward as well. Thank you for an excellent post.

 

[realdeal1977]

I admire your tenacity. This is why it pays to do your own research @Vince

Please keep us informed on this thread as this is very good information. I have had 2 prostate infections in my lifetime and even the "easy" ones take a long time to resolve themselves. Your PSA will be elevated for months afterward as well. Thank you for an excellent post.

Thank you. I'm getting older now (47) and after having some other orthopedic issues, realized about 10 years ago that you are always your best advocate. No one else cares about your issues more than you. Tools like ChatGPT make research of these topics easier than ever.

Your comment on PSA. My historical baseline is 1.5. The last two years with the infections, it has doubled. Now at 3.2. Once I am through with the protocol, most advice says to wait another 4 weeks of residual inflammation to come down and retest PSA. Also, retest the bacteria via the same initial testing.

 

[Wolverine]

Thank you. I'm getting older now (47) and after having some other orthopedic issues, realized about 10 years ago that you are always your best advocate. No one else cares about your issues more than you. Tools like ChatGPT make research of these topics easier than ever.

Your comment on PSA. My historical baseline is 1.5. The last two years with the infections, it has doubled. Now at 3.2. Once I am through with the protocol, most advice says to wait another 4 weeks of residual inflammation to come down and retest PSA. Also, retest the bacteria via the same initial testing.

Any update on this? Thanks!

 

[realdeal1977]

Hi there. I finished the course of antibiotics and had really good results with it. I felt great and most of the symptoms went away. I did my first PSA test about three weeks after finishing the last course of antibiotics and it went down to about 2.8. I have another one coming up here in a month or so to see if it continues to decrease however about four weeks after finishing the antibiotic, I feel like some of the old issues are coming back again. So it's really hard to say. I may end up seeing a different physician.

 

[realdeal1977]

I had another test and my PSA is down to 2.1. I've done even more research and have just this week re-started TRT at a cautious pace. I have historically very low SHBG. Through research here and other places, having low T, low Free T, low SHBG, low E2, and low DHT, can be just as symptomatic to the prostate as very high values. Easily caused inflammation, low semen output, chunkier semen, yellow semen, etc. I redid the testing that I shared above on the semen and the bacterial load is on the very low side meaning that prostatitis should be gone, as evidenced by the lowered PSA. Now, I'm going to try to restart TRT and see the effects.

Note: I stopped TRT because my Ferritin tanked to almost zero (3) and I could not increase it even following the protocol shared on this site.

 

[realdeal1977]

So now that PSA is dropping, Ferritin is stable, and I think acute prostatitis is gone, I was still having issues. I figured, let’s get bloodwork.

After 1 year of no T:
Total T 175
Free T 50
DHT 9
SHBG 7
LH 2.5
E 20
A few other unnoteworthy items.

It was going to be 1 1/2 months to get an appt with Defy to restart. I had meds in my drawer. I put all my bloodwork in to ChatGPT. Explained everything. All my symptoms. Asked it to review and make recommendations.

It said:
Absurdly Low DHT (mine) is just as detrimental to prostate inflammation as high DHT
Because SHBG is so low I need to take meds every day
Recommended cream only since by DHT is so low and I have ferritin issues, one click of 25 mg per day cream scrotally
I asked about HCG and it said I can take, but only do 200 iu per day.
Go slow and redo bloodwork in 6 weeks
Your prostate will feel worse for 2 weeks
Lower my carbs, exercise and try to lose weight

It was right. I felt burning sensation and had voiding issues for 2 weeks. After 3-4 weeks now, I feel better and seems to be trending towards less issues.

I’ll redo bloodwork and see how it goes.

 

[realdeal1977]

I’ve been doing the DHT cream and hcg daily for about 4-5 weeks. What an improvement in semen quality. It has gone from clear liquid with yellow jelly clumps, to much more typical bright white. The burning in the urethra is getting better. Hesitancy and retaining urine is still there but possibly a little better. Added prostamax and vesilute peptides. Will report back once I get updated labs next week.

I saw my T doctor and think I am going to switch. He didn’t really have any insight and just asked me what I wanted to do. Which I guess is fine with me, since this is the best success I’ve had on T so far.