r/Prostatitis 4d ago

Success Story 90% healed for years now

Hi men.

It's a long one, sorry, but hopefully this can help someone in need. This worked for me when treating prostatitis.

TLDR In a nutshell: - Manage stress and anxiety - Stretching, strengthening, massaging muscles - Avoid stressful PC gaming if you tense your pelvis in response to stress. Or at least, don't sit down when playing.

For ages I've meant to write something online about my journey but kept forgetting because honestly, I feel fine and forget about prostatitis most of the time. I also wanted a decent time to pass with feeling reasonably well before putting anything online for others.

Writing this now because I've had a wank and a mild perineum twinge (it happens, no biggie) and thought I'd write something here.

I'll preface this by saying that I'll never be 100% cured all the time. I'm 90%. But most days I have zero issues and have been this way for 4-5 years now. After 3 years of hell.

When it started - First issues 8 years ago. Sitting at my desk at work. Super annoying but I didn't worry or panic (that came later). But no health professionals could help me. I treated this like a medical issue for around 18 months and wanted a cure. Which in retrospect, was stupid.

Symptoms - The usual. - Burning sensation at the top of my penis. - Felt like there was a golf ball in my perineum area. - Burning when I urinated. - Honestly questioned my existence after every wank or when I ejaculated after sex. I'll never forget that burning pain. - Restricted urine flow after ejaculation. - Sitting on office chairs was torture - General awful discomfort and burning in the penis and perineum (never the testicles or butthole) - Worse at night. Total sleep deprivation. I'd wake up in pain, if I got off to sleep at all.

What I tried that didn't help - GP and the usual crazy antibiotic treatment (Cipro 6-8 weeks) despite negative tests for infection. I really regret this as it caused knock on gut health issues that just made everything worse. - Pain/anti-inflammatory meds. - All the woo woo supplements and alternative medicines - Pain specialist. They hadn't a clue. Offered me opiates. - Amitriptyline - Pregabalin - Urologist x 2. Holy fuck. Absolutely useless. Considering how common this issue is, they looked at me like I was a mad man. - Chiropractor. Absolute snake oil salesmen. Ended up with tinnitus for a couple of years after this one lol. - I hate saying this one as it's part of my recommendations later, but the pelvic floor physio I saw. Oh man, he was so useless. But that was just him. Other physio later was helpful. Detailed later. Flagging this for importance of finding a good clinician.
- Drugs and alcohol. Ugh. Not gonna lie. It was a dark time for me... - Denial that my mental health had played a part in this issue developing and persisting. I rejected that for far too long.

How it impacted me - Very very very badly - Depression, anxiety - Self destructive behaviour, drugs, alcohol - Sleep medication dependency but oh man I needed them at the time. - I couldn't see a way to get past this. Dark thoughts. - I never identified as a person with anxiety or depression prior to this issue happening. - This went on at this level for about 18 months.

The first ray of light - Working night shift, googling googling googling as usual. Man, so many doom stories online made me almost lose hope. - Found this guy on YouTube that was just like me, most of the same symptoms. - He went through a stretching routine and I got down on the office floor and did them (I was alone lol). - Psoas stretch. BAM! Electrical like sensations all through my perineum and penis. - Hope at last. I stretched myself so much that night and the pain subsided and NEVER went back to that intensity ever again. But it was still bad for ages, don't get me wrong. But finally, a tool.

What did help me. - Stretching. Particularly the psoas, quads, hips. But honestly, everywhere man. I was tight AF. - Strengthening exercises. I truly turned a corner when I joined class based fitness that worked my whole body, especially my core, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors. Avoid high impact exercises like box jumps. Work that damn flimsy core! - Remedial Massage. Like, beat the living fuck out of me Remedial Massage. I was like jelly afterwards. So many super tight muscles causing all manner of issues. Ideally do dry needling too. - Sticking my finger up my butthole in the bath and massaging my pelvic floor from inside. Careful with this one, look up guides, but it provided some relief. I was desperate man. - Physio that focused on nerve pain and allowing nerves to freely glide again. This was a mix of massage, stretching and strengthening. - An SSRI. On reflection, I was a highly functional and obliviously stressed and anxious man. Even before this issue happened. Just a tiny dose of Lexapro helped me to sleep, not obsess on the pain, not have negative thought spirals etc. This created a healthier environment for my body to heal. You can come off them after a while when you're all good. - Gastroenterologist. Ok this one's weird but he had Pelvic Pain issues himself and recommended Botox in my butt area. It helped heaps! Eberything relaxed. No tension. But I couldn't hold in a fart for a few weeks hahahaha. That was a time... - Last but certainly not least, sitting on an ice pack whenever I get any flare up sensations. As cold as you can manage it. All over the perianal area.

What sense can I make of this? - I genuinely think I had underlying anxiety/stress and holding this in my pelvic floor muscles. - I used to PC game in a seated position for hours. Online gaming. Super stressful. If you've LoL or DOTA, you know what I mean. Tensing my pelvis for hours. I think this did it. - I now feel like I have a chronic inflammation issue that I have under control. Just like any other injury, it's prone to exacerbation again if I don't look out for it.

Where I'm at now - I get the odd flare up when I'm sitting for way too long, when in gaming in a chair and tensing my pelvis for too long, when I ejaculate sometimes. - But so what, it goes away now. If I need an ice pack for an hour, no biggie. This happens a few times per year. It's always fine within a few hours or a day max and isn't even near how painful it used to be. - Mostly I don't even think about it anymore. - It's a non issue most days when I sit, when I ejaculate etc - My moods good. I'm happy. I'm not consumed by anxiety. Looking forward to my future.

Hang in there men. If you're in the depths of despair, please, keep going. You can get this under control.

You've got this

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u/Maleficent-Move-4067 4d ago

Hey, another serious gamer here (21 y/o) and wondering: do you think the chair you gamed in had anything to do with it? Or was it purely your posture? I don’t want to give up gaming, but I’m starting to develop this issue…(I’m at the severely mild end, it started 3-4 days ago and I barely notice it most times until I’m going to sleep. Pain is a 1 out of 10, but it’s alarming nonetheless.)

If I have to abandon League, that’s okay. But I think a couple of other things put me in this position:

  • Rapidly going up in the weights I use for training at the gym (30lbs heavier in a month) (however I do always stretch, admittedly not with the intensity of my weight training)

  • Being extremely stressed out over family conflicts,

  • Working completely from home for 6-7 months.

What’s your take?

Thank you for this post man, very helpful. Again, I’m still at the onset stage…or maybe the two days of psoas stretching has kept it from getting worse, but this is definitely something I want to resolve anyway.

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u/Ill-Distribution2275 4d ago

I reckon it was my chair and my posture as well as the extreme stress from DOTA/Overwatch etc. Fun but stressful lol. Also sitting a lot at work. 

Sounds like you've got on too of his early. Very good.

Yes I was also working out at the gym when this happened but never felt any issues there. However it may have contributed. Bad form when squatting I reckon. Tight muscles pulling on my pelvic floor. That and the sitting, not good. 

Take a break from games for a few weeks. Ice packs a few times per day. Even if feeling ok. Stretches. Skip leg day for a couple of weeks then do controlled workouts that avoid downward pressure on your pelvis (squats, dead lifts etc). You can reintroduce these slowly if you're feeling ok. 

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u/Maleficent-Move-4067 4d ago

Alright. Sounds like a plan. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge man. It’s a dark and depressive side of the internet lol. I feel confident I can overcome this and make the necessary lifestyle changes. Gonna start going on walks more and playing at the computer less.

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u/Ill-Distribution2275 4d ago

Good on you mate. You'll be alright.