This non-profit site is dedicated to the cure of bacterial prostatitis and chronic prostatitis caused by the male andropause, and improper balance of hormones dihydrotestosterone and estradiol. It will reveal that American Medicine has remained 30 years behind most third world countries in the prostate health field and that the focus on antibiotic treatment should be: how do I get more blood into the infected areas of the prostate and how do I break loose encapsulated bacteria? The information contained herein is based on significant research on line and personal experience. Untested theories are presented. This site will not discuss the various symptoms associated with prostatitis. There are hundreds of web pages devoted to telling you where you hurt with absolutely no advice on how to get better. Understand that the VAST MAJORITY of prostatitis cases do not involve infection. This site allows the reader to take a pro-active role.

Webmaster: bill3320@yahoo.com Iowa, USA. Created 02-25-2001/Updated 09-29-2005.

Contents:

BACTERIAL PROSTATITIS: ITEMS 1 - 23

MALE ANDROPAUSE AND HORMONE BALANCING: ITEMS 24 - 27

MY TWENTY DAYS IN HELL COMPLIMENTS OF MY FRIENDLY UROLOGIST: ITEM 29

ANTIBIOTIC INDUCED DIARRHEA: ITEMS 12 & 16

DISCLAIMER
THE INFORMATION IN "HOW I CURED BACTERIAL PROSTATITIS" IS NOT INTENDED TO REPLACE THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN. ANYONE SEEKING TO TAKE ANY OF THE THERAPIES DISCUSSED IN THIS SECTION, OR ANYWHERE ON THIS WEB SITE, SHOULD ONLY DO SO UNDER THE CARE OF A PHYSICIAN OR OTHER HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL

1.ANTIBIOTICS: Once you have concluded you have bacterial prostatitis you need to be on an effective antibiotic that will kill the primary bacteria, yeast or other organism responsible.. The choice of the antibiotic is important: the pH (6.4) of the prostatic liquid and the lipid membrane constitutes a barrier for most antibiotics. Only basic and liposoluble components, e.g. quinolones have a satisfactory intraprostatic penetration rate and a significant antibacterial effect.You need to keep track of your symptoms to see if you are actually improving so as to evaluate the effectiveness. Improvement is often very slow if not using the following techniques which improve antibiotic penetration. See: http://matweb.hcuge.ch/matweb/endo/Reproductive_health/Male_tract.html

See numbers 12 and 16 for information on antibiotic induced diarrhea.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECT: Many antibiotics fight inflammation which gives the user a false belief of improvement. One should monitor other areas of the body to see if there is a corresponding reduction in pain such as in a bad back.

2.URINE, SEMEN TESTING AND DIAGNOSTICS: Demand that your doctor do a sonogram in addition to a digital exam. A swollen and warm prostate is still the best evidence of infection. Swelling the day after a DRE with fever, chills, fatigue is also a sure sign of infection even if the prostate is cool. The sonogram is probably the best test for identification of prostate issues, but don't stop there, ask for exam of the bladder, testicles and any other place that hurts. Have the examination when symptomatic and not on antibiotics so that any defects are not masked.

Most doctors send out a urine specimen for culture for a standard 2 day culture. This is ridiculous! A true prostate infection will only show in the urine in small amounts. If you are currently on or have been on antibiotics for any period prior to the urine specimen being taken your culture will be negative. Cultures rarely show positive results, especially after a prolonged course of antibiotics. Nevertheless you need to try. The prostate is not part of the urinary tract but is attached to it. You must ask your doctor to send the specimen out for a 5 or 7 day culture if there is any hope of growing the responsible bacteria.

It is also wise to take the urine sample after the digital rectal examination is performed because some seminal fluid is often pushed into the urinary tract. A specimen taken first thing in the morning will also have more bacteria especially if you emptied the prostate the night before and didn't urinate afterward.

Many bacteria such as anaerobes are hard to culture. A negative culture doesn't mean you are a non-bacterial prostatitis patient. Rely on your overall symptom complex. Fever, swelling, fatigue, odor, and a sick sex partner are often signs of an infection. Also categorize your antibiotics to see what works and what doesn't as this will often tell you what you are fighting as many antibiotics are specific to certain types of bugs. Experiment with saw palmetto and or soy isoflavones to see if this completely resolves your symptoms which is an indication of a non-bacterial and hormone related prostatitis. Remember that micro organisms are responsible for just a handful of prostate issues. Very unlikely you have bacterial prostatitis. That is why it is important to diagnose before taking antibiotics.

Consider a semen culture as a first line test for bacterial prostatitis. It is necessary to get the sample to the lab as fast as possible. Do the culture before you go on antibiotics if possible or go off antibiotics for a week or two and give a specimen after 2 or 3 days of abstinence. Cleanse your hands and privates before collecting the sample and take all steps to avoid contamination.

Blood in the urine after sex will discolor the semen and show very readily. Blood in urine will discolor the urine and again is easy to detect. Coagulated blood pellets in urine usually show up a few hours after sex in the urine and come from an area near the ejaculatory ducts which indicates the location of part of your infection or a hormone imbalance with elevated estradiol. This is easily treated with soy isoflavones. The red/brown pellets will sting on their way out and will vary in number from one to a half dozen or so. Most doctors ignore such symptoms but this is an important sign of the location of some of your complaints.

A PCR test also my be warranted to see if you have had any sexually transmitted diseases. Some insurance companies don't want to pay for the PCR test.

A hormone panel is a must for prostatitis and hormone related ageing problems in men(such as hair loss, low libido,erectile disfunction) and must be taken when not using saw palmetto, medications or other herbal remedies for a period of several weeks. Probably 70% of all prostatitis cases in men over age 35 are caused by elevated levels of DHT and estradiol. See this site for a potential cure: http://www.oocities.org/bill3320/hormones.html

3.WARM AND BOGGY PROSTATE is the gold standard for determining whether the prostate is infected. This is based upon subjective examination by a digital exam and is fickle. False negatives are usual because of use of anti inflammatory medications which reduce the fever. Antibiotics can also suppress the warm and boggy nature of the prostate. Most doctors especially urologists will ignore you if you state that the "normal" state of the prostate is due to recent use of medication. Unfortunatly most urologists are business persons first and patient advocates last. Don't trust your doctor if he or she states that nothing can be done for your pain. It is also possible that you could have a yeast infection that causes prostate symptoms and not have a warm and boggy prostate but a lower body temperature. Still it is necessary to have the DRE as a warm prostate is infected. It can give an answer. If the prostate swells the day after or you get fever, chills and fatigue it is a strong sign of infection.

4.EMPTY THE PROSTATE OFTEN while on antibiotics. For example if you are using Levaquin, which is taken one time per day at about 500 mg, you should empty the prostate about 30 minutes to one hour after taking the medication on an empty stomach with a large glass of water.(Some say the antibiotic Tequin works better than Levaquin and with less side effects. But has it been taken off the market?) Why? Because the prostate is essentially dormant if full but when emptied it will fill with blood in order to recharge. Who says being sick is all bad! Now sex is best but do what you must to force the blood into the prostate when the antibiotic level is at its zenith. While most research studies note the poor penetration rate of antibiotic into the prostate only a few indicate the need to encourage blood flow by emptying the prostate often.

PROSTATITIS IS TRUELY: "a wastebasket of clinical ignorance", Stamey TA. Pathogenesis and treatment of urinary tract infections. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1980.

5. RESEARCH YOUR ANTIBIOTIC to see what makes it work better and to determine the time of the peak blood level after administration for reason 4 above.

6. PROSTATIC MASSAGE DRAINAGE should be performed after you are certain that the antibiotic you are on is effective as such will relieve congestion and increase blood flow into the prostate. NEVER and I mean never massage a prostate that is potentially infected without being on antibiotics or you will go septic (bacteremia). See below: My Twenty Days In Hell Compliments Of My Friendly Urologist. For methods of prostatic massage go to www.prostatitis.org. Prostatic massage may not be appropriate where calcifications exist.

7.HERBAL REMEDIES and vitamin supplements should be accessed where they don't conflict with the antibiotic. Saw Palmetto will shut down the prostate (it will shut down your libido if taken in larger amounts but also can enhance sexuality if smaller dosages are used especially in conjunction with anti-estrogen supplements) and often relieve pain and urgency of urination in just a few days. This is not a cure but a treatment of symptoms in most cases.(See 24 below.) You should on the long term use zinc with copper, vitamin C, E and selenium for good prostate health. Echinacea and Goldenseal are good for stimulating the immune system while taking the treatment but are temporary immune system builders.

8. THE CAUSE of the pain is often(but not always) the plugged pores inside of the prostate, (aggravated by an increase in dihydrotestosterone, estradiol and rarely an infection) which must be unplugged by the painful and embarrassing prostatic massage. Trust me, the embarrassment will go away when the pain starts during the first drainage. Yet the second and third will be easier. Generally you need drainage massage for 4 days in a row and then every other day for another 5 drainages or 10 days. It is imperative that you explore the drainage massage if you have an infection. Wait on the dihydrotestosterone and estradiol treatment until later as that is the easiest of problems to resolve. and you want the extra inflammation during antibiotic treatment.

Some Doctors believe that the massage should be preceded by anti-inflammatory medication and a warming of the body by sauna, bath or shower to loosen up the prostate. What you will get is a lot of fluid the first time with an occasional pin prick in the prostate as these pores burst open. What you are doing is popping zits in your prostate. In later treatments the fluid will diminish to nothing but maybe a drop or two which indicates success. Pain should diminish dramatically with each treatment. If you have calcifications in the prostate massage should be avoided.

The cause of prostatitis varies so greatly that you may never know what really triggered your episode. Yet most cases are multi-factorial and usually involve several of the following: disease organism, inflammation, encapsulation and hormone imbalance. Prostatic calculi, yeast over colonization, lyme disease, depression and urinary tract strictures are also suspect. Experiment, document and study! Never give up!

Also consider that your infection may be seeding from some place near the prostate and not actually originate in the gland itself. The ejaculatory ducts and inguinal rings are a prime hiding places for bacterial cysts as are the urinary tract and bladder.

ORAL SEX: Theory: I believe that a significant number of men contract the prostate infection through oral sex. This is based upon reading thousands of posts from discussion groups and personal experience. It could be the lesions caused by teeth that allow a situs for incursion of organisms. Some urologists dismiss this theory indicating that it is trauma or guilt that precludes the onset. Have her use mouth wash before and instead of after(Joke!).

9. MULTIPLE BACTERIA STRAINS may be responsible for your infection. Many doctors suspect that clearing up one infection just to have it come back stems from a second micro-organism. Without competition the second disease has the opportunity to take the place of the first in the healing but damaged prostatic tissue. Thus, it may be necessary to go through the whole process of experimenting with antibiotics to see what will work on the second episode. Often the second organism is a yeast or fungus which common antibiotics won't kill. More often the lingering symptoms are the second factor such as hormones or candida. Diflucan is the only good anti fungal agent but lamasil may work. Never give in to the "non-bacterial" theory until you have tried antibiotics for anaerobic bacteria, virus, yeast and fungus.

10. TREAT YOUR PARTNER as she may be the source of the infection. For example if you have a foul fish odor about your semen that flairs up the day after sex you may have caught a common vaginal an-aerobic bacteria. The foul odor may also be a sign of a fungal or candida infection. Such bacteria rarely cause women problems but in the prostate such an infection will make your life miserable. Oriental/Asian doctors often look to the partner first and then to the patient. On the other hand American medicine subscribes to the theory that you don't need to treat the partner. (Stupid) Perhaps this is why American men have such a high reoccurrence rate!

Theory: after reading thousands of posts I am convinced that a huge number of prostatitis cases are caused by oral sex which introduces the responsible bacteria into the urinary tract. I have no research to back this up but far too many men report prostatitis symptoms just a day or so after oral sex.

11.PROSTADYNIA ( prostatodynia ) is a fancy word used by the lazy and stupid urologist when they don't have a clue and don't want to treat your prostate pain. (Again , the waste basket of medical ignorance.) What it means is: prostate pain of unknown etiology. Most prostate pain begins when men hit the mid forty year range and the body starts producing a different testosterone called dihydrotestosterone. About 70% of prostatitis cases are hormone induced. This new hormone is very powerful and causes the prostate to start growing once again and to keep growing for life. It also makes a mildly symptomatic prostate very symptomatic and lets low grade infections flare out of control. This is probably why most men get relief with saw palmetto which blocks production of the hormone. If you have non-bacterial hormone induced prostatitis you can easily be treated to the point of being symptom free in probably 3 days. See: http://www.oocities.org/bill3320/hormones.html

If a hormone blocker cures all of your problems you are the lucky one. Generally most who have a symptomatic prostate have multiple issues that must be dealt with including estradiol, poor nutrition, alcohol, depression, stress, caffeine, obesity, smoking and infections.

12. ACIDOPHILUS supplements must be taken at each meal when on antibiotics to avoid digestive tract problems. Continue the acidophilus for about 14 (42 days preferred) days after you end the antibiotic treatment. Taking the acidophilous supplement at the same time you take the antibiotic may reduce effectiveness as it will be neutralized by the antibiotic. Take an extra dose of acidophilus at least 90 minutes after taking the antibiotic. Antibiotics, especially those most effective against prostate infections, can kill all the digestive tract bacteria and leave you with diarrhea as such they will also kill the live culture in acidophilus supplements. Worse yet it could leave you with an over growth of yeast which also causes prostatitis and chronic fatigue syndrome. Treat such an infection with difulcan a prescription anti fungal.

If you have a severe case of antibiotic induced diarrhea you may need to modify your diet and take acidophilus tablets every two to three hours day and night. I found that you need a very strong 500mg acidophilus tablet as stomach acid kills most before it gets to the intestine. You should buy your supplement with a variety of bacterial strains guaranteed.

See also number 16 below.

Antibiotics can have some good side effects. The Levaquin I used cleared up some infected skin infections that I had for years. The Clindamycin healed some patches on my scalp that were always itching and flaking with dandruff. But it also let a yeast infection rage through my colon and into my stomach causing pain near the gall bladder.

13.DOCTOR SELECTION should be based on references and not based upon who can see you first.

14.EXPERIMENT with different treatments one at a time so that you know what works and how good it works. Then later you can combine the remedies to get the best results.

15. DURATION OF ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT varies greatly based upon the studies that I have found. Recommendations vary from two weeks to 90 days. Generally, you need to stay on antibiotics for at least 14 days after all symptoms disappear. The re-occurrence rate of bacterial prostatitis is huge and once you have it on the run make sure its dead before you quit. Injections direct into the prostate area are becomming more popular, see:http://www.prostatitis2000.org/eng/terapia.htm.

16.ANAEROBIC BACTERIA are implicated in many cases deemed non-bacterial. Again it must be stressed that the vast majority of prostatitis cases are non bacterial. DON'T USE ANTIBIOTICS UNTIL YOU ARE CERTAIN IT IS BACTERIAL. You should attempt to culture an anaerobic bacteria and attempt treatment with anaerobe killer antibiotics before you give in to the "non-bacterial" diagnosis. Culturing the anaerobic bacteria is difficult and tricky. Make certain your doctor understands the difference between a normal culture and that used for anaerobes. Some anaerobes die instantly on contact with air. Usually a 3 hour time frame exists for the culture to enter the incubator before the collected bacteria die. Even if you get a negative culture for anaerobes try an anaerobe killer to see if your symptoms improve. Document and study your results.

Clindamycin has been proven to have excellent absorption into the prostate and is an excellent anaerobe killer. There are plenty of antibiotics to choose from. Experiment. See: http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic2/clindam.htm

Clindamycin is a very dangerous antibiotic with the real potential for fatal colitis. If you are going to use it you must use acidophilus tablets every time you eat or drink anything and to restrict your diet to rice , apple sauce , bananas, mint tea without caffeine and saltine crackers (Bread may be ok if toasted to the point that no yeast remains alive.). Start the acidophilus and this diet a few days in advance. It is generally ok to take double or triple the recommended dosage of acidophilus. To avoid confusion set yourself on an acidophilus dosage that gives you one supplement every two to three hours day and night. It is especially important that you get up at night to take your acidophilus as that is the time that gets most in trouble. Continue the acidophilus for 14 days after antibiotics end and preferably 42 days after the antibiotics end at 3 times a day. Also evaluate yourself for a yeast infection, candida albicans infection, and use difulcan plus nystatin for treatment plus diet modificatioin. There are many sites on the web which list symptoms of chronic yeast over growth in the digestive tract.

TAKING THE ACIDOPHILUS AT THE SAME TIME YOU TAKE CLINDAMYCIN MAY REDUCE EFFECTIVENESS AND REQUIRES ANOTHER DOSE. YOU MUST USE THE ACIDOPHILUS MIDWAY BETWEEN EACH DOSE OF CLINDAMYCIN. IF YOU MISS JUST ONE DOSE OF ACIDOPHILUS YOU WILL MOST LIKELY EXPERIENCE DIARRHEA OR COLON PAIN. THIS USUALLY REQUIRES THAT YOU GET UP AT NIGHT TO EAT SOMETHING AND TAKE SOME ACIDOPHILUS. METRONIDAZOLE OR VANCOMYCIN ARE USED AFTER CLINDAMYCIN TREATMENT TO CURE THE COLITIS THAT RESULTS and DIFULCAN PLUS NYSTATIN MAY BE NEEDED FOR THE YEAST INFECTION.

Never use anti diarrhea medicine when on clindamycin as it may exacerbate the toxic effect of the diarrhea thereby causing death. For a discussion on clindamycin diarrhea research Clostridium Difficile. Metronidazole (may give you a headache for a day) has excellent activity against anaerobes, but the absorption rate into the prostate is a unknown by this author. Never consume alcohol or even use mouth wash with alcohol as it reacts with this drug causing severe reactions including vomiting. See: http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/metronid.htm#sect-Dosage_and_Administration

Dr. Attila Toth is a New York obstetrician/infertility expert who suspects immunogenic anaerobic bacteria are often the cause of prostate infection. He does extensive anaerobic culturing of semen and places patients on intravenous antibiotics for 10 days with two antibiotics simultaneously--gentamycin and clindamycin. He believes that he has a 65% cure rate with this technique. Although well published in infertility, he has not gathered his data up for a prostatitis paper. Again this is a case where a large study needs to be done, and funds probably need to be found for it. His focus, however is on infertility, and I do not know if he takes patients strictly for prostatitis. A. Toth, M.D.Obstetrician,Gynecologist, & Pathologist 65 E. 79th Street New York, NY 10021 voice 212.717.4444 fax 212.717.1868 email drtoth@fertilitysolution.com .

Dr. J. L. Durier, a Canadian physician, suspects that anaerobic bacteria too fastidious to culture easily, are often the cause of prostatitis. He developed a regimen of anti-anaerobic antibiotic (AAA) therapy where several antibiotics are given in sequence as he follows a symptom score. Dr. Durier has become frustrated in his attempts to find funding for his research, and at this time is considering dropping out of research altogether.

See the following for information on the fastidious nature of anaerobic bacteria: http://emedicine.com/MED/topic2945.htm

17. WRITE your congress person as funding is needed in these long neglected men's health issue. See this congressional record for an interesting history on prostatitis: http://home.swipnet.se/isop/kongress.htm

18.CLINICAL DEPRESSION is present in over 50% of all chronic prostatitis cases. Symptoms include but are not limited to: mood changes, chronic sadness, dwelling on the negative, fatigue, uncontrollable crying, suicidal thoughts, lack of desire for food and sex or other pleasures, emotional changes that interfere with activities of daily living. Depression may be multi-factorial as dihydrotestosterone and pain often bring about similar symptoms. Professional assistance is always indicated. Depression is one of the leading killers of adult males and should not be self treated.

19. TESTING FOR ABSCESS: The possibility of a prostatic abscess should be considered in patients with a prolonged treatment that does not respond to appropriate antibiotics. The doctor can often detect an abscess as a fluctuant mass during the digital rectal examination. You can also self examine your own pelvic area with a gentle digital massage to see if a cyst is seeding from some other area in the pelvic region. Do the right and left sides simultaneously so as to detect deviations. Computed tomography (CT scan), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scan) or trans rectal ultrasonography (ultrasound or sonogram) usually provide an adequate image of the prostate to evaluate for abscess. IT IS BEST TO HAVE SUCH TESTS PERFORMED WHEN SYMPTOMATIC AND NOT ON ANTIBIOTICS. Transurethral drainage or resection may be necessary. See: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20000515/3015.html


20.VALIUM / diazepam may be an effective treatment for prostate pain. Some doctors believe that treatment with valium for 6 months will cure many cases. Still this is dangerous as valium is a highly habit forming drug. It should be used without regret but with deference to its habit forming characteristics. It may be the best treatment for stress and neurologic prostatitis. Experimenting for a week or two probably won't hurt much so talk to your doctor.

Theory: since valium is a very effective muscle relaxant perhaps its prolonged use is a substitute for physical drainage of the prostate. In essence a chemical drainage.

21. ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION in large quantities has been known to provide temporary relief of prostate swelling and pain. Whether this is due to bactericidal effects or its muscle relaxing nature is unknown. Perhaps alcohol is toxic to the weaker anaerobic bacteria. (Perhaps it just transfers the pain to the head. Joke!) This is not a good long term solution and not endorsed.

Beer is the worst alcoholic beverage that you can drink for prostate issues. Never consume any beer or malt beverage when suffering from prostate issues.

22. SLEEP as much as you can and drink a lot of water. Fighting an infection takes a lot of common sense. Eat good foods and avoid alcohol and caffeineated drinks. Keep your stress at a minimum and laugh as much as you can. I swear on a bible the the most effective pain killer, when my symptoms were at their peak, was a funny movie that made me laugh. I hear this same type of story over and over. Don' get confused and feel that stress causes prostatitis. Stress clearly will aggravate such but rarely causes a case of prostatitis

23. QUINOLONE AND JOINT PAIN: The most effective antibiotic for prostate infections is from the quinolone family (levaquin, cipro, Tequin etc.) because of the high absorption rate into prostatic tissue and the broad spectrum activity. Still a common side effect is the severe joint pain which must be reported to your treating doctor immediately. Many also note a loss of libido with long term use of Levaquin caused by lowered levels of LH and Testosterone (secondary hypogonadism). Some believe that treatment with clomid or tamoxifen citrate can cure the secondary hypogonadism and chronic fatigue caused by Levaquin. Best to avoid the drug if you have any loss of libido when on the medicine. (Tequin has not been as bad as others some say but i heard that it is being criticized for kidney damage. Tell me your Tequin story if you have the time.) Take your medication at night time when physical activity is over and then the next morning use 2 ibuprofen or aspirin which will help relieve the joint pain. This works best with levaquin because it is taken one time per day. Never engage in physical activity or heavy exercise within 8 hours after a dose. See your doctor any time you have a reaction to medication. Many report such side effects as permanent yet in my case the joint pain was short lived.

MALE ANDROPAUSE AND HORMONE BALANCING
(Hormone replacement is inaccurate for men as it is actually hormone balancing which men must accomplish.)

This section has been moved to its own page due to overwhelming demand. Please link to this page and the hormone page below. It will help get listings on other search engines.

24.- 28..http://www.oocities.org/bill3320/hormones.html


WEBMASTER: bill3320@yahoo.com


29. MY TWENTY DAYS IN HELL COMPLIMENTS OF MY FRIENDLY UROLOGIST (This really happened to me! Darn!)

I will tell this story in chronological order of the actual events but be assured many facts were discovered only after treatment had ended. Parentheticals will help the reader with this history. My treatment lasted about 10 months and included 6 types of antibiotics for 220 days of antibiotic therapy.

About 10 years prior to 2000 when I was married I contracted a prostate infection from my spouse. She had sores in her mouth when she performed oral sex. The next day i had a rash which developed and a foul fish odor. The rash was probably a secondary opportunistic fungal infection that flared when the bacteria was killing my immune system. Prostatitis symptoms developed shortly there after. The problem seemed minor and would go away after two weeks of antibiotics. The infection was an an-aerobic bacteria that caused a foul fish odor about the semen and sometimes would even cause a skin infection on the glans. (The skin infection may have been fungal/candida related caused by stressed immune system.) It didn't bother me too much. I treated several times over the years for a few weeks with antibiotics. (At the time I didn't associate the fish odor or skin infection with a prostate infection. How foolish!)

In mid year 1999 my body did a little trick on me by increasing the production of dihydrotestosterone. This is the normal change in my family at age 44. My brother at the exact same age had the same turn of events. This new hormone racing through my body forced my prostate to start growing and initiated a terrible series of events.

I began having pain and swelling after sex that would last 3 to 4 days. It grew worse. Soon even ibuprofen and Tylenol wouldn't help. I would get sick with fever, nausea and chills if I had sex just 2 days in a row. I was constantly run down and fatigued. I finally broke down and sought treatment when the swelling became so bad that it felt like I had a golf ball in my rectum 24 hours a day.

My family doctor put me on a double sulfa drug (TMP-SMX) which made me sick in just 2 days. I then changed to doxycycline and was on it 2 times for 14 days each to no avail. Finally he put me on the one a day Levaquin tablet. My fever broke in just 24 hours but the progress was very slow.

After 20 days on Levaquin I did some research on prostatitis sticking mainly to the USA medical studies. I found one article that recommended emptying of the prostate often when on antibiotics. I then researched the medication Levaquin and discovered that it had a short half life in the body of just 7 hours and hit its peak at about 1 hour. So I called my trusty girlfriend and asked her for help. (A medical necessity mind you.) She willingly complied. I would take my pill with a large glass of water and then fool around after a one hour wait. This worked wonderfully as Levaquin was a one a day tablet. In just 3 days the swelling was completely gone. I had had little reduction in swelling over the past 20 days. Thus, in just 3 days of this technique I had greater improvement than in the prior 20 days. Yet the knife like pain continued.

On my next visit to the family Dr. he foo fooed me on the idea that emptying the prostate helped. He said there was no medical data that would confirm my outcome but that it did make sense.

For the next 10 days I continued the program as much as I could stand but found less and less improvement. Still at the 40th day mark I was 98% symptom free. That 2% scared me and my Dr. So an appointment was set with a urologist.

On about day 45 I saw my first urologist. I barley got a word in before he cut me off. "What is wrong with you today?" is all he would say. I never even got out a medical history over 10 words. He did a DRE and proclaimed that since my urine sample was negative and since my prostate wasn't hot that no infection existed. He went on to say that I never had an infection and should have never taken antibiotics. He tried to frighten me by stating that I could permanently injure myself if I didn't stop the antibiotics immediatly.(Some truth to that statement.) I then told him about how the fever broke after starting Levaquin and about the chills and fever but he kept interrupting me and telling me I had Prostadynia. So I left and called my two personal doctor friends who directed me to find a new doctor. (If I had listened to the urologists I would certainly have been sick and totally miserable for the rest of my life. Yet Levaquin killed the libido each time I took it. At the end I was left with a body that was very low in total testosterone and had to do a jump start to get the endocrine hormones working again. Levaquin is well known for damaging the ability to produce testosterone yet no doctor I know will admit it. Almost every man I have spoken with who used Levaquin for 30 days or more has suffered a significant loss of libido while on the antibiotic.)

The day after the urologist examination my prostate swelled up bigger than I had ever experienced before. I decided to stay on Levaquin another 5 days until the swelling went down even though I didn't have pain this time. As it turned out this was a great idea.

A few days after I went off Levaquin I started to get sick. At first I thought it was a cold but then pains started up all over my body mostly in the groin and from two hot spots in the lower groin straight down into my testicles. OUCH! This happened over the Christmas holidays and when I was out of town. I was off antibiotics for 10 days before I was able to get back in to see my family Dr. The pain in the groin and testicles was bad but not as bad as the fatigue. I could hardly climb a flight of stairs without huffing and puffing. I had chills constantly. Sleeping was my only comfort. I was so miserable that I would lay on the bed thinking: "This must be what it is like to die."

My family Dr.wanted me to go back on Levaquin but I refused. (Quite foolishly I might add.) I was scared to use it again after 50 days of continuous use and some side effects of painful joints. I started on Erythromycin at 1330 mg per day. This stuff made my stomach sick all the time but it stopped the progression of the disease. After 10 days my fever broke and I was almost symptom free again in the prostate but not in the rest of the body. I had pain all over the groin and even a hot spot under the left arm. Miserable! Totally miserable!

My next medical visit was with a different urologist. He was the first urologist I could get in to see at a different clinic than urologist number one. My doctor's office had to beg and fight to get me the appointment with only a 10 day wait.. The result was pretty much the same as urologist number one except this one listened a little and then inferred that I was a liar. By this time I had finally figured out that the fish odor was coming from the semen and not a skin infection. The urologist said that fish odor was common with semen. (Wrong!) But my fish odor was now gone after 90 days of antibiotics. Again I was diagnosed with prostadynia and told that antibiotics were useless, all without any tests. In hindsight I should have demanded a sonogram to look for an abscess.. I explained the chills and fever and pain all over my body but he just said it was a coincidence. He also diagnosed my groin pain as a hernia. (Another piece of bad advice. No hernia existed. The false positive was caused by infected muscles in the groin. I have been checked by multiple doctors since and I promise that I have no hernia.) His advice was to take pain medication much the same as urologist number one. He offered a test that would have him stick a periscope up my penis just to look at my bladder. I told him that such was foolish because my problem was in the prostate and not in the bladder. To that he agreed. (So why did he offer? Money!) (If I had listened to the urologists I would certainly have been sick and totally miserable for the rest of my life.)

Neither urologist ever mentioned that an anaerobic infection is very difficult to culture and that such requires different antibiotics than the average infection. Jerks and pricks indeed!

I again went home and ignored his advice staying with the antibiotics for another week. I then in total desperation started taking two antibiotics at the same time. I researched drug interactions on the net and found that Erythromycin and Levaquin have no known interaction. I took a half dose of Levaquin and 3/4 dose of Erythromycin. In just 3 days all the pain left my body. It killed the infection so fast that it shocked even me. I did this technique for a total of 7 days. Don't do this yourself. This is life threatening behavior. Totally foolish. Mixing antibiotics may also create antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. (I tell you this to show how desperate I really was.)

I was healed after some 100+ days of antibiotics.( Or so I thought.) I was still using saw palmetto at about 4000 mg of raw fruit per day and had been since day one of antibiotic use. I slowly reduced my usage to 1500 mg per day before some soreness returned. I chalked up the soreness to my dihydrotesterone. I could live with this much discomfort since a couple of tylenol would solve the problem. (Big mistake!)

Things went great for about 6 weeks until the girlfriend was over for a weekend with sex 3 days in a row. A greater soreness started which turned into increased problems with urination and ultimately a fish odor about the semen. I know the first time I noticed the odor that the infection was back. I was so depressed. In the last 6 weeks I had found a renewed health. I felt 10 years younger. My workouts were easier and sex was wonderful.(Is there such a thing as bad sex?)

I called in for a Levaquin prescription but this time my doctor wanted me to stay on it for 30 days even though I was asymptomatic in just 7 days. Actually in just 3 days it was under control and I felt I was cured after 7 days but this time I changed the system to include both prostate drainage and emptying the prostate when the antibiotic blood level was at its peak. Drainage was painful at first with a lot of expressed fluid but as the days went by the pain left and the fluid became less and less down to nothing. The relief was noticeable in just 24 hours. I dropped the saw palmetto completely with no increased urgency of urination or swelling and experienced a spurt in healing .(It became obvious that saw palmetto was not only masking my pain but was inhibiting the antibiotic treatment by shrinking the prostate.) Pain was present from the massages but he symptoms were disappearing with each massage.

After the 30 days of levaquin I changed to clindamycin 150 mg for 3 times a day and 14 days.. I changed because we had suspected an anaerobic bacteria since correlating the fish odor with the flareups. It worked! even though I thought I was cured many mild symptoms disappeared and a fever broke on the second day of Clindamycin use. (I woke up soaking wet on the second night which I correlate to the breaking of a fever.) It was obvious that I either had not killed the bacteria completely or there were several bacteria responsible for the infection. At this point I had no symptoms. To this date and all the other times I experienced mild soreness in the afternoons and some mild points of pain in the groin and testicles. What a relief to be pain free. The lesson is that unless you are completely pain free there may be bacteria lurking.I had constantly attributed my chronic and very mild complaints to dihydrotestoserone but that was wrong!

Within a week after going off clindamycin I had a relapse starting in the right testicle and moving up to the
prostate and urinary tract along with fever chills and fatigue. This time I immediatly set an appointment with a third urologist who turned out to be a wonderful person. He put me through a sonogram which revealed evidence of past inflammation and confirmed that the prostate was healed. At this point I suspected that my complaints were not seeding from the prostate but to the prostate. The digital rectal exam started a throbbing pain into the right testicle and no burning or swelling in the prostate. After a PSA was negative I started on Clindamycin again for 30 days at 900 mg per day. This was difficult as it produced diarrhea within 2 days. I had to go on a rice and apple sauce diet for a week until the acidophilus seemed to kick in and stabilize. I also used ibuprofen to help with the gas pain in the colon.

The breakthrough came on the 3rd day of clindamycin when I did a self examination of my pelvic area and discovered two small lumps around what I call the right inguinal ring. This is the spot where the testicular muscle and tubes enter the abdomen. The next day I went septic again with all the symptoms of a whole body infection. It appears that the bacteria was encapsulated in such a way that any palpation with the finger would break it open and let it drain. Much the same thing happened with the prostate. The symptoms disappeared within 2 days unlike before when I was on the wrong kind of antibiotic. The prostate infection turned out to be the easiest part of the infection to cure with locating the other seeding cyst as the more difficult task.

After some 10 months of antibiotics (6 kinds of antibiotics for a total of 220 days) I was finally cured. Still the clindamycin caused a colitis and required 7 days of metronidazole. A burning pain remained in the left lower colon which required some laxative treatment for a couple weeks but eventually resolved. After a couple of years I finally went on Difulcan and Nystatin for 90 days with a no sugar and no carbyhydrate diet to cure the over growth of yeast, candida albicans infection, in my colon caused by all the antibiotics. I probably had this candida syndrome all my life but the antibiotics for 10 months made it much worse. I had used acidophilus for years but it never completly cured the yeast issue. The antifungals alone did not cure the problem. I maintained the anti-fungal diet and use enzymes to keep the candida under control until I found a cure. See: http://www.oocities.org/hcraiga/candidacure.html I also did 20 days of Clomid to bring back the testosterone level to normal after Levaquin. Later I used Effexor ER for 30 days at a very low dose to restore testosterone production again.

The moral of the story is that main stream American medicine is out of touch with the needs of the prostatitis patient. My successful treatment was primarily the result of research on the internet and trial and error treatment.. These healing techniques have been around for 30 years yet are ignored and laughed at by our American doctors. The second best research resource was from Sweden, Germany and then the eastern block countries. Germany has conducted a lot of research with herbals as a supplement to conventional medicine.

Ironically the Dr. with the best advice was a general practitioner and the worst advice came from a pair of experienced urologists. If I had listened to the urologists I would certainly have been sick and totally miserable for the rest of my life. Nevertheless if I had proper testing I probably could have been cured in two to three weeks of antibiotics instead of 220 days worth.

Am I permanently cured? Yes, of this infection at least. If it happens again I have a method of quickly getting it under control when it flares up. Most men who get this type of infection must constantly be on guard and hit the infection fast and hard when it flares up. Still, I am cured with no signs of infection for years. The fallout was from secondary infections including colitis, yeast and secondary hypogonadism caused by levaquin and the prolonged use of many antibiotics.

I now use anti-DHT,vitamins, minerals and anti-estradiol supplements and alternate for good measure. I have also dropped coffee and started a low carbohydrate diet. See recipes on the hormone web page. http://www.oocities.org/bill3320/hormones.html

P.S. The girlfriend did eventually leave me for a younger man, as they all do. Years after the fact, 2008 I discovered that Splenda, the artificial sweetener aggravates my prostate. I have seen a few posts confirming my suspicions. But, this is not a condemnation of Splenda just an observation that many things in the diet can aggravate the prostate. Splenda made the prostate sore and caused me to cease certain herbs and medicaitons. Too early to tell if there is permanent damage.

More information on Candida or Fungal infections of the digestive tract can be obtained here: http://www.oocities.org/hcraiga/candidacure.html
and here: http://www.oocities.org/hcraiga/candidacure.html/