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Animus, I just thought of an important question that may give us more clues. I assume you had your prostate scanned before surgery. Have you ever had it scanned since? Or are there other tests like blood work that can determine the size of your prostate that you did before surgery, after surgery and years later? Lastly have you gone months without taking your prostate reduction supplement or BPH medication?
What I would like to ascertain is how sick you would be if your prostate grew back to pre-surgery size. As I said before it would have given us more clues if you have the TURP and SV maybe 1 year apart. I am wondering if the SV was the ultimate cure. The way to know if it is not is by you having symptoms still if your prostate enlarged again and it produced the same amount of semen. If you have never experimented with not taking the reduction meds then you may be taking it for no reason and can stop it. If symptoms return then we know for sure the prostate is as important a clue as the SV.
As I am gathering a Medical Think tank of sorts this information will be very useful. Plus one thing I am trying to wrap my brain around is that if Semen Volume is a cause/trigger then how did you get such a big reduction in symptoms because as you well know it doesn?t represent a amount of volume. It could be a threshold thing so I?m not convinced it?s not volume that is the problem. The more clues the better for any puzzle including medical ones.
Looking forward to your response
Thank you,
D
Hi Disaster,
Those are great questions..! Happy to shed light on that. Good questions about the Prostate...
So, I did have mine scanned by a urologist early on. There are various methods to check the size of the Prostate.. the most common is simply the "finger through the anus" method.. Basically the doctor will feel the size there- it's very close to the anus.
Before my surgeries, I had it checked that way, and I also had it scanned.
The other way is to have the patient pee, and then do an ultrasound to see if there's any urine left in the bladder.
That's what I did, and they found a lot of remaining urine in my bladder-- indicating that it was indeed enlarged, and I wasn't able to empty the bladder fully...
I haven't had it checked in a couple years. But I can tell when it's enlarged because of the symptoms.
If it's enlarged, you'd have trouble holding your bladder- incontinence. You'll get up at night to pee. Or you'll have to rush to the bathroom often. I've gone as far as losing control of my bladder too-- and pissing in my pants! So that's an obvious sign.
Your second question is great too... yes. I have neglected to take my prostate meds over the years in a few instances. For one reason or another. And I've discovered the importance of staying on them.
If I go off my prostate meds, I will get incontinence. And it's a real pain. Even after a week without them, I will feel a marked change. 2 or more weeks would not be advisable at all for me.
So, additionally... if I go off my Prostate pills for a longer length of time, and I ejaculate, I do notice that there is more fluid in the Ejaculation, and Yes, I will feel some mild POIS Symptoms, such as feeling very tired for a day, or getting a little depressed and antisocial...
So those are great questions, Disaster. I currently take Avodart (Dutasteride) daily, and also an herbal supplement called Super Beta Prostate. I'm pretty vigilant about keeping the regimen, because it's an easy way to ward off any problems for me. When I'm taking them, I have no incontinence, and no POIS symptoms, and everything is fine. My prostate reacts fairly quickly to the medicine, and will improve within a matter of Days.
And additionally, I do think it is a seminal volume issue. And I doubt/ am not sure whether it is a single organ... ( testes, seminal vesicles, prostate) which is responsible for POIS, but rather all three. That is my thought.
Because I can honestly say that I had a Major improvement after the Castration (only the testicles). It was significant, but not 100%
Hope that helps.
best regards,
Animus