5 Years Into Prostatitis - A Positive Story

Hello, I want to share my story about this annoying problem we all share. For me everything started around 5 years ago, around mid 2019, when I had chlamydia from my girlfriend, who had it for years (asymptomatic), we both got treated after I developed symptoms. 3 or 4 months after this, for the first time I had pain after ejaculation. Went to a urologist and was told it is prostate inflammation. I don’t remember what I used but for 3 weeks I took some medicine and it was cured. For 2 years I had no problems at all. Same thing happened after like 2 years and I took one box of cipro, which did not help. During that time, I did a urine test, blood test and a sperm test. All came out negative for bacterial infection. Around a week later symptoms (which was only the burning kind of feeling at the tip of penis) disappeared by itself so I stopped looking into it and I was once again free from all problems for another 2 years!

It all changed around early 2023, when I had a UTI. Started to have pelvic pain, prostate pain, constant urgency to go toilet even right after I pee etc. Went to doctor, used antibiotics and symptoms got a bit better but soon changed into causing problems after ejaculation. Urgency stayed all time, tip pain, burning sensation active all time. Became quite problematic. Did blood test, STI tests, Urine tests, bladder-kidney-prostate ultrasound.. All came back negative for an infection, all tests clear and good.Finally was referred to a Urologist and he told me it sounds non bacterial and I need to do stretches and flexible cystoscopy. I did not want to do the cystoscopy so I stopped seeing the urologist (still scared about the problems cystoscopy may cause). I started looking alternatives so started using Quercetin. It helped unbelievably well. Although I am starting to feel like it is not as effective as before but still helps keeping symptoms low. Since it only manages the symptoms but does nothing to the underlying pelvic problem, I am in search of a pelvic therapist. I will outline the key points below:

What possibly triggered it:-5 years ago I had a sudden change of life style due to my new work, in a new country. I started cycling, drinking(almost everyday, beer etc.), had chlamydia. Also had a UTI later on. I also always had low urine stream since childhood as well.

-Always had very active sexual life, for at least 4-5 years before my first symptoms, I was having sex every single day, most of the times actually more than once in a day. All these combined with the new life style changes I believe pailed up to create the first flare.

What causes a flare and how to manage:-I sit at least 12 hours of a day and this has a major effect on the flares. I try to walk 45 min everyday and I will buy a special cushion soon.-Cold!!! I am currently living in a very cold country and I always have worse flares in winter. Keeping foots warm helps a lot with this. Also hot baths and putting a hot water bottle on pelvic area. Since it is cold, I do not drink as much water as I used to so this is also not good.-Alcohol. This one causes the most problem to me. I completely removed it from my life.-Caffeine and boxed juices. Both these caused flares so I am not drinking these anymore.-Chocolate(essentially sugar). This is also causing flares on me so removed from my life.-Masturbation. This one is a bit tricky and I still could not find an ideal for this. I seems to have worse symptoms if I masturbate than If I have sex. Most of the times after sex I am perfectly fine. Maybe I am working some muscles during sex that helps something, no idea. Trying to keep masturbation low, sex higher.

-Meat. I am not sure about this one, can't really tell if it is helping or making things worse, will make more experiment with this one.

-Stress and fixating on it also seems to be taking heavy toll on this so I just try to ignore as best as I can.

I did try prostate massage a couple of times, had mixed results. Sometimes it helped, sometimes it worsened so can't really say much about this, need more experiments or maybe it is just random.

I don't know if it is a placebo effect or not but I found foot reflexology massages helpful on several occasions.

Supplements:-Quercetin with Nettle Leaf: Life changer. Both Quercetin and Nettle Leaf are anti-inflammatory so they do help a lot. A bit worried about taking for long time so I do periodic brakes on this(taking 6 days a week and after 3 months stop for 7-10 days). The dosage I do is 300mg after breakfast and 300mg after dinner.-Curcumin: Another anti-inflammatory supplement. I do believe it is helping. Also taking brakes of 10 days after 1 month of usage. The product I use is with whole turmeric root with %95 curcumin which is equivalent of 4000mg of Turmeric. One tablet after lunch.-Magnesium Glycenite: One pill before sleeping (70mg elemental magnesium), helps with relaxing and loosen muscles, can take 2 capsules too. Reduces nightly toilet visits. I am not taking any periodic brakes with this one.

-This is because I also developed Tinnitus during this journey, I take B12 supplements too, again with no periodic brakes.

Questions on my mind:

1-) Do you find more frequent (3-4 times a week) or less frequent (1-2 times a week) masturbation helpful?

2-) I come across some research mentioning pelvic floor related problems can cause fertility problems, e.g. can cause damage to the morphology of the sperms and effect overall motility. Anyone have any experience or insights with this?

3-) Any suggestions on the cystoscopy? I really don't want to do it but I also want to learn the cause of weak urine stream I always had even long before prostatitis. Are there any non-invasive approaches for this?

4-) How to assess the situation for a neurological point of view? Do I need to also go a neurologist or a good pelvic floor terapist will be able to diagnose these as well?

5-) I always for many years had yellowish sperm color, thought initially it was normal, then thought it is bacterial problem but now I am thinking the sperm is just mixing with the leftover urine due to inability to completely empty the bladder (weak urine stream). Anyone have similar problem?

Thank you all for reading my journey. I can't say I am completely flare free at the moment but I seem to be able to manage the flares much better (%70) now with no strecthes and work on pelvic floor yet. It is just very hard to find a pelvic physiotherapist here but I do feel positive that once I start some pelvic floor targeted stretches and therapy, things will get much better. Don't loose hope, let's do our best to at least manage the symptoms.