The subset of prostatitis that we would treat
is abacterial or non-bacterial prostatitis.
Meaning, there was tenderness on the prostate
in exam, however, the workup was negative
for any prior infection.
So the symptoms that we would see here in
patients with abacterial prostatitis would
often be testicular pain or burning, perineal
discomfort or burning in the perineum, penile
pain, pain with erection or ejaculation or
post-intercourse, as well as urinary symptoms
such as burning during urination or frequency
or urgency.
Some potential causes is inflammation in the
genitourinary system.
From when there's chronic pelvic floor tension
and muscle dysfunction, you essentially get
release of proinflammatory cytokines from
the pelvic nerves.
In addition, there's been some recent research
that has shown the importance of the descending
modulation from the brain going down the spinal
cord to the genitourinary system that can
modulate pain and prostatitis itself and the
overall urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
Therefore, when we do treat patients particularly
with urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome,
we not only treat the peripheral nervous system
and the muscles of the pelvis and the surrounding
soft tissue, but we also treat the descending
modulating signals from the brain.
Here at Pelvic Rehabilitation Medicine, we
work to relieve the symptoms of abacterial
prostatitis as they're intimately connected
to tension in the pelvic floor muscles.
And we work to relieve that tension and increase
blood flow and decrease inflammation around
the nerves that can ultimately help with the
pain and inflammation associated with the
prostatitis.
