Prostatitis is an inflammation of prostate gland. The main physiologic role of the prostate is the secretion of part of the seminal fluid. The gland contains mainly thousand of small acinar glands, which produced a part of the semen, mixed to muscular ad fibrous tissue.
Prostatitis is quite common and may affect 2%-16% of male population.
The main cause of prostatitis is a germ, often coming from the vaginal mucosa, reaching the prostate through the urethra, during an intercourse. However is not rare to have prostatitis symptoms without any detectable infective agent.
Gland inflammation can be acute or chronic. Acute prostatitis may cause a strong pain involving the perineum (the area between scrotum and anus), often the suprapubic area, at times irradiating toward the scrotum. Related urinary symptoms with burning feeling during micturition and urinary frequency are not uncommon. At times there can be fever.
In chronic prostatitis the symptoms are less severe, faint, not seldom recurrent, and they can involve the perineum, the suprapubic region, sometimes the inguinal/scrotal region.
Most recent classifications include acute prostatitis, chronic bacterial prostatitis, chronic abacterial prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain (probably nearly 90% of all kind of prostatitis), where the agent of inflammation is not identified or clear , and asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis (an occasional finding with no symptoms).
Lack of exercise, stress and prolonged sexual abstinence may increase the risk of prostatitis.
Sometimes intercourse may prolong genitourinary infection for bacterial swap between partners. In such a case, it would be better to use a condom for 3-4 months, until the infection has been healed.
Acute prostatitis, and to a lesser degree chronic prostatitis, can be successfully treated with antibiotic therapy, especially if targeted. The infective agent of prostatitis can be found with a culture of urine, urethral secretion, prostatic secretion, or semen. Then the most proper antibiotic can be chosen. Not all antibiotics can penetrate effectively the prostate. Sometimes chronic prostatitis therapy can difficult for a tendency to symptoms recurrence, despite of prolonged antibiotic therapy.
Chronic prostatitis can be a tedious disease, though not dangerous for patient´s health.
Despite the fact that recently some Authors have suggested a possible role of chronic inflammation in the onset of prostate cancer, this correlation remains to be proven.