Can Kidney Stones Affect Your Prostate
Every year more than 500,000 people seek emergency care for kidney stones. Kidney stones are hard mineral deposits that form within the kidneys when your body is not properly filtering waste and excess water. Kidney stones will eventually exit your body through the urinary tract. Kidney stones typically do not cause symptoms until they start to pass through the urinary tract. When kidney stones pass, it can be extremely painful and cause complications like blockages of the urinary tract, blood in the urine, and problems with the prostate. Were taking a closer look at how kidney stones can affect your prostate.
What Is The Difference Between Kidney Stones And Prostate Stones
Kidney stones are solid stones made of minerals that form within the kidneys when your body is having difficulty filtering excess water and waste. Kidney stones affect both men and women and can result in sudden, severe pain in the abdomen, side, or lower back, a burning sensation when you urinate, and problems with urination.
Prostate stones are poppy seed-sized stones that form within the prostate. Only men can have prostate stones. Some men may experience lower back pain or pain in the penis or perineum. Typically, prostate stones do not cause any problems or symptoms. However, if prostate stones become infected, it can lead to urinary tract infections or prostatitis.
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What Will I Learn By Reading This
When you have treatment for your prostate cancer, you may have erectile dysfunction also known as impotence. Erectile dysfunction is a very common side effect . Side effects from prostate cancer treatment are different from one man to the next. They may also be different from one treatment to the next. Some men have no erectile dysfunction. The good news is that there are ways to deal with erectile dysfunction. In this booklet you will learn:
- What erectile dysfunction is
- Why prostate cancer treatment can cause erectile dysfunction
- What can be done about erectile dysfunction
- How erectile dysfunction may affect your sex life
- What your partner can expect
It is important for you to learn how to deal with erectile dysfunction so that you can continue to have a satisfying intimate relationship.
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How Are Prostate Cancer Stages Determined
Once all testing has been completed, your doctor will tell you the stage of your cancer, or how much it has progressed and whether it has spread beyond your prostate. The stage will help your medical team decide which treatment is best for you. The higher the stage, the more advanced your cancer. The most common way to stage prostate cancer is the TNM system, developed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer, which hinges on three important factors:
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T : How much of your prostate the tumor affects
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N : Whether the cancer has spread beyond your prostate to nearby lymph nodes
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M : Whether your cancer has metastasized, or spread far beyond your prostate to your bones, to nearby organs such as your bladder or rectum, or to more distant organs like your lungs, liver, or brain.
The TNM system also includes your PSA level and your Grade Group, based on your Gleason score. With your stage designated, which is labeled in a range of T1 to T4 , a treatment plan can be developed.
Review Of Current Literature About Cpps Risk Factors And Preparation Of A Vademecum Of Rules Regarding Diet Sexual Habits And Diet Modifications
After an extensive and careful review of the literature, we found several risk factors whose role has been documented in the etiopathogenesis of CP/CPPS and its related conditions. We focused our analysis on 16 articles regarding prostatitis, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and on four papers concerning IC/BPS., , , When reviewing such articles, we found a total of 13 potentially eliminable risk factors: five came from diet four were related to sexual habits one on lifestyle and three related to perineal traumatism causing pelvic floor muscle tenderness.
Such risk factors are reported in and will be individually discussed in the following text.
Table 1 Risk factors for CPPS identified in medical literature
also reports level of evidence of every risk factor and grade of recommendation of suggested measures according to the principle of evidence-based medicine.
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What We Dont Know
While research is promising, thereâs still a lot scientists need to learn. Some things to consider:
- Thereâs no proof that ejaculating more actually causes lower chances of prostate cancer. For now, doctors just know theyâre connected. It may be that men who do it more tend to have other healthy habits that are lowering their odds.
- Ejaculation doesnât seem to protect against the most deadly or advanced types of prostate cancer. Experts donât know why.
- Scientists donât know if ejaculation during sex vs. masturbation has the same benefits. Some research has found that the makeup of semen is different for each. For example, semen during sex has higher levels of sperm and some chemicals. Itâs possible that these could make a difference in a manâs odds of having prostate cancer.
- Not all studies have found a benefit. The 2016 study got attention because of its size and length . But some smaller studies have not shown the same good results. A few even found that some men, specifically younger men, who masturbated more had slightly higher chances of prostate cancer. Some researchers wonder if a manâs age may affect whether more ejaculation helps.
Erectile Dysfunction Recovery After Treatment
You may be offered an ED recovery package soon after treatment. This is usually called penile rehabilitation. You regularly use one or more treatments, such as tablets or a pump, to encourage blood flow to the penis after surgery or radiotherapy. This is to help the penis recover it is not just for sex. When you are ready to start having sex, you should have a better chance of getting an erection. Your doctor or nurse can tell you more about this.
We have more information on managing ED.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer
Nearly all men diagnosed with prostate cancer learn they have the disease while its still in its early stages, before symptoms occur. Screening for prostate cancer, which well get into next, picks up as many as nine out of 10 cases.
So, what happens when the cancer is not caught in early stages? More advanced prostate cancer can cause the following symptoms:
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Frequent urination, especially at night
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Difficulty urinating
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Weak stream when urinating, along with dribbling or interrupted flow
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Blood in your urine or semen
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Pain in your bones, where prostate cancer often first spreads
See your doctor if you have any of these symptoms. While they could signal cancer, some symptoms may arise from other conditions. For example, benign prostatic hyperplasia causes your prostate to grow. It is a common and non-cancerous culprit of urinary difficulties in men over 50.
Vaginal Walls And Lubrication
If youâre a woman whoâs gone through menopause, you have another reason to keep having sex. Without regular intercourse, your vagina can tighten and its tissues can get thinner and be more likely to get injured, tear, or even bleed during sex. This can be so uncomfortable that women with these symptoms avoid having sex, which can make it worse.
Changes related to menopause, such as vaginal dryness and irritation, can be treated with lubricants, moisturizers, or low-dose estrogen.
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Sexual Side Effects Include Erectile Dysfunction And Premature Ejaculation
An enlarged prostate is often treated with medication or surgery. However, these approaches can have sexual side effects that are not always discussed with patients, according to a recent report in the World Journal of Urology.
Many patients are unaware of the possible sexual side effects as a result of prostate cancer treatments.
The association was especially strong for younger and older men, the study found.
Erectile dysfunction and ejaculatory disorders like premature ejaculation are among the most common side effects.
When researchers surveyed 245 healthcare providers , they discovered that many did not discuss the sexual side effects of BPH treatment. In addition, many did not discuss treatment alternatives if their patients had sexual concerns.
Some treatments for an enlarged prostate and related urinary symptoms have sexual side effects. However, doctors dont always let patients know about them, according to a recent survey.
The medical term for an enlarged prostate is benign prostatic hyperplasia . As men get older, their prostate gland grows inward. For some men, the process causes urinary problems, since the enlarged tissue squeezes the urethra.
For the study, researchers surveyed 245 healthcare providers who were attending the 2015 World Congress of Endourology in London. Eighty-one percent of the respondents were urologists, specialists that typically treat an enlarged prostate.
The study was published online in April in the World Journal of Urology.
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If You Have A Partner
If you have a partner, talking openly with them can help you feel closer. It can also help you make changes to your sex life together. Talking about things can help you avoid misunderstandings and find ways to cope with problems.
There are different ways you can show your partner you care about them. This can include spending time together and showing affection through touching, holding hands or putting an arm around their shoulder. You may also find new ways to share sexual pleasure.
Talking to a counsellor or sex therapist may help you and your partner adapt to changes in your sex life. You can ask your partner to come to appointments with you. This will help them understand the issues you are dealing with.
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Symptoms Of Prostatitis Can Include:
- needing to pee urgently, often in the middle of the night
- pain when peeing or after you ejaculate
- blood in your urine
- a feeling of heaviness behind your scrotum
- a urinary blockage, which means you cant pee when you need to.
There are different types of prostatitis. Bacterial prostatitis is caused by a bacterial infection, and can be treated with antibiotics. Then theres chronic prostatitis, or chronic pelvic pain syndrome. Doctors dont know yet what causes this condition, but it can be trigged by things like an injury, nerve damage or stress.
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Other Cancer Treatment Effects On Ejaculation
Some cancer treatments reduce the amount of semen thats produced. After radiation to the prostate, some men ejaculate less semen. Toward the end of radiation treatments, men often feel a sharp pain as they ejaculate. The pain is caused by irritation in the urethra . It should go away over time after treatment ends.
In most cases, men who have hormone therapy for prostate cancer also make less semen than before.
Chemotherapy and other drugs used to treat cancer very rarely affects ejaculation. But there are some drugs that may cause retrograde ejaculation by damaging the nerves that control emission.
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Changes To Orgasm And Ejaculation
After prostate cancer treatment you will still have feeling in your penis and you should still be able to have an orgasm, but this may feel different from before. Some men lose the ability to orgasm, especially if they’re on hormone therapy.
If you’ve had radical prostatectomy, you will no longer ejaculate when you orgasm. This is because the prostate and seminal vesicles, which make some of the fluid in semen, are both removed during the operation. Instead you may have a dry orgasm – where you feel the sensation of orgasm but don’t ejaculate. Occasionally, you might release a small amount of liquid from the tip of your penis during orgasm, which may be fluid from glands lining the urethra.
If you’ve had radiotherapy, brachytherapy, high intensity focused ultrasound or hormone therapy, you may produce less semen during and after treatment. With radiotherapy, brachytherapy and HIFU you may also notice a small amount of blood in the semen. This usually isn’t a problem but tell your doctor or nurse if this happens. Some men on hormone therapy say their orgasms feel less intense.
Some men leak urine when they orgasm, or feel pain. Others find they don’t last as long during sex and reach orgasm quite quickly.
What Exactly Is The Prostate
Here are some basics about the prostate:
The prostates job is to produce fluid that, together with sperm cells, makes up semen. The muscles of the prostate then provide the force needed for ejaculation.
Two smaller glands called the seminal vesicles are attached to each side of the prostate they secrete the fluid that partly comprises semen.
The prostate is the size of a walnut and weighs about an ounce.
It can be found just below your bladder and in front of your rectum.
It surrounds part of your urethra, a tube that runs from your bladder through your penis. Urine flows through your urethra when you pee.
Your prostate, then, plays an essential role in both sex and reproductionits helping to deliver sperm in search of an egg along with a great orgasm. But things can go wrong with it. The cells in your prostate can start to grow out of control. As those abnormal cells accumulate, fed by male sex hormones like testosterone, they can clump together to form cancerous tumors.
However, prostate cancer can sometimes be aggressive and fast-moving. It can spread beyond your prostate to other parts of your body. First, it may reach your prostates neighbors, like the seminal vesicles, the bladder, or your rectum. It can then move on to your lymph nodes, organs, and, commonly, your bones. Once it has traveled from the prostate, it becomes tougher to treat.
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What Is The Gleason Score
So, how do you know where your biopsy stands? Your biopsy samples will be assigned whats called a Gleason score, the most commonly used way to grade prostate cancer, which will help your doctor make treatment decisions.
It works like this:
Your doctor compares each of the tissue samples taken during your biopsy to normal, healthy prostate tissue.
He or she gives each sample a score, or grade, ranging from 3 to 5.
The more abnormal your cells, the higher your grade. A 5 represents the most aggressive cancer.
Once each sample has been graded, your doctor then takes the two most common scores from all the samples and add them together. These two numbers are then weighted for prevalence. This is your Gleason Score, which can range from 6 to 10, with 10 being the most aggressive cancer.
To make it super clear, lets walk you through an example.
Lets say a man has a biopsy in which 12 tissue samples are removed from his prostate.
After careful study in a lab, each tissue receives a score. Eight of the tissue samples score a 3, while the other four samples each receive a 4.
His doctor then writes the two most common scores, 3 and 4, as the final score: 3+4=7. He writes 3 first because more of the slides were graded as a 3, thus giving these readings more significance.
Psa For African Americans
REFERENCE
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Why Erectile Dysfunction May Result From Prostate Disease
In the past, it was thought that most cases of erectile dysfunction were psychological in origin, the result of such demons as performance anxiety or more generalized stress. While these factors can cause erectile dysfunction, doctors now think that 70% of the time the problem can be traced to a physical condition that restricts blood flow, hampers nerve functioning, or both. Such conditions include diabetes, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis, vascular disease, and alcoholism.
However, some types of prostate disease and treatments may also be responsible.
Questions To Ask Your Doctor Or Nurse
- How could my prostate cancer treatment affect my sex life?
- How soon after treatment can I masturbate or have sex?
- Which treatments for erection problems would be best for me? Can I get them on the NHS?
- Is there anything I can do to prepare myself before I start my prostate cancer treatment?
- What happens if the treatment doesn’t work? Are there others I could try?
- What other support is available to me?
- Can my partner also get support?
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A Chicken And Egg Situation
Sadly, this is a chicken and egg situation. For men facing lower urinary tract symptoms of frequency, urgency, slow flow, and dribbling, the first-line treatment are alpha-blockers. They are known to relax the prostate to ease urine flow.
If medications do not work, doctors will try surgical methods starting with minimally invasive techniques. However, they may sometimes recommend removing the prostate altogether.
This is known as radical prostatectomy. Transurethral resection of the prostate is a surgical procedure that is known to relieve symptoms of BPH.
Men who have this procedure often experience sexual side-effects after surgery. According to the Harvard Medical School, between 50 to 75% of men who underwent TURP experienced retrograde and dry ejaculation.
Most men will experience relief of urinary problems. Some even experience improved blood pressure.
One of the complaints encountered by sufferers is retrograde ejaculation. This is caused by the easing of the prostatic sphincter, resulting in the semen going backward.
The operation to correct the BPH can either be carried out with TURP or laser done by simply coring out a cavity to allow a better flow of urine with minimal resistance.
The adverse effect of retrograde ejaculation is both undeniable and unavoidable. But the degree of compromise on erectile rigidity is still unclear and hotly debated.
For more information on prostate surgery click here.