I'm 48 years old and was diagnosed with bacterial prostatitis about 11 month ago. Initially it was treated as UTI with 1 week of antibiotisc. The symptoms were improved but I continued to have irritation and discomfort in the head of my penis. I did some research and found it might be a prostatitis. I went to the doctor and the blood test showed the PSA level was 15.3. He gave me another week of antibiotics and after one month the PSA level was 10.5. He said you need to see an urologist. The appointment with the urologist was about two month later. The blood test just before the urologist appointment was 8.63. So in three month the PSA level went down from 15.5 to 8.63. The urologist performed DRE and he said the prostate seems OK but a bit tender and that I had prostatitis. He gave me a 3 weeks of antibiotics and asked me to see him in 3 month. The blood test just before the visit showed the PSA level went down to 6.8 ( 3 month after the last PSA test). The urologist said that come back in three month. I though I might need to get another opinion. I went to see another urologist and did a blood test just before the visit. psa WAS 4.7 (now that is about 7 month after the infection started)The second urologist did a DRE and said it's not cancer. and gave me a 4 weeks antibiotics and asked me to come back after 6 weeks. He also asked me to do ultrasound on the UT system. The blood test showed the PSA level at 3.45 and the ultrasound didn't show anything unusual in the UT system. The prostate was 19cc. The urologist said that the PSA level is still too high and he wants to perform cystoscopy. He also said that if the PSA doesn't go down more, he will perform a biopsy. Now after 11 month and during this 11 month I had lots of pain in the penis head and shaft, urethra, and in the perennium area. And I also had lots of pain in my joints. I'm a bit worried about this. The last blood test (a moth later)showed that the PSA level was 3.73 and free PSA was 5%. It has been going on for so long and making me a bit worried. Can bacterial prostatitis take all that time to heal. Is it cancer (free PSA 5%)? Thanks in advance.
Chronic prostatitis can linger for years. Sometimes it goes into remission and recurs. Yours sounds like it responds to antibiotics, which is a good thing. My friend has chronic prostatitis without bacterial infection -- he takes flomax, tricyclic antidepressants, and uses mindfulness relaxation techniques, but it never completely goes away.
Free PSA is pretty meaningless. A better indicator is that your PSA keeps going down, which is also a good indicator. Prostate cancer is typically painless and symptomless in early stages. If it does metastasize to the bones (usually many years later), they are usually bones in the local area, not remote joint pain.
- Allen
Last edited by Tall Allen; 09-29-2010 at 06:53 PM.
Chronic prostatitis can linger for years. Sometimes it goes into remission and recurs. Yours sounds like it responds to antibiotics, which is a good thing. My friend has chronic prostatitis without bacterial infection -- he takes flomax, tricyclic antidepressants, and uses mindfulness relaxation techniques, but it never completely goes away.
Free PSA is pretty meaningless. A better indicator is that your PSA keeps going down, which is also a good indicator. Prostate cancer is typically painless and symptomless in early stages. If it does metastasize to the bones (usually many years later), they are usually bones in the local area, not remote joint pain.
- Allen
Thanks Allen for the reply. I also forgot to mention that My PSA in 2009 was 0.95.
