Can you explain your personal symptoms, experiences, and how you happened upon discovering your condition? What made you go to the doctor and get diagnosed? I really dislike looking up medical conditions online.
I had the same experience as jtolj. A urinary tract infection that wouldn't go away, even after a couple of months of antibiotics (first one I don't remember, then cipro). Ejaculation would sometimes make it feel better. Sometimes worse. Finally saw a urologist that said he didn't believe it was caused by infection and that I should try pelvic floor Physio therapy. After the first week I felt so much better that I was convinced.
Whenenver I see someone mention it now I try to preach the physio gospel because when I was going through it there were a lot of negative sufferers posting to message boards saying it will never go away, etc.
Also women can suffer from a similar condition - chronic non bacterial urinary tract infections, and most of the pelvic floor physiotherapists are used to dealing with women. Maybe it is more common in women or the option is less known for men, or maybe men are more embarrassed to go see them.
Not sure this is relevant in a coffee thread, but for me it started with urinary tract infection symptoms (frequent, burning urination) which is what brought me to the doctor. I started antibiotics, which improved it slightly but it didn't go away completely. When it returned and got much worse, the doctor referred me to a urologist who diagnosed it as prostatitis. After months of various antibiotics and a half dozen specialist visits at $200/pop I finally gave up on going to the doctor, as he didn't seem any ideas outside of pumping me full of more antibiotics.
As fugoogs mentions, non-bacterial chronic prostatitis isn't well understood and there isn't an effective standard treatment protocol. There are theories ranging from it being caused by nano-bacteria that do not show up in normal tests to it being a muscular tension issue that can be resolved with physical therapy.
Ahh, I mistakenly interpreted your quitting of coffee as coffee being part of the potential cause, rather than a requirement as part of treatment of prostatitis (not that coffee absolutely didn't contribute to it, as you say it's not well understood). I still appreciate learning about your experience dealing with the condition! Thank you.
Whenenver I see someone mention it now I try to preach the physio gospel because when I was going through it there were a lot of negative sufferers posting to message boards saying it will never go away, etc.
Also women can suffer from a similar condition - chronic non bacterial urinary tract infections, and most of the pelvic floor physiotherapists are used to dealing with women. Maybe it is more common in women or the option is less known for men, or maybe men are more embarrassed to go see them.