I'm sorry to hear about these unpleasant symptoms. It sounds like other than this that you recovered from the prostatectomy relatively well, so that is good. It also sounds like your urologist has done a pretty extensive workup of these symptoms, and has not been able to find the cause.
You don't mention any redness or discoloration at the tip of the penis, so I presume that they aren't present. You also don't mention any back or pelvic pain, or other symptoms.
What you are describing sounds somewhat like urethritis, or inflammation of the urethra. This commonly is associated with certain types of infections (chlamydia, gonorrhea), but certain cases can involve more rare infectious agents - like Trichomonas (which can cause vaginal infections as well), herpes, and human papilloma virus. Now it sounds like you have had substantial testing already, and your urologist may have very well ruled all of these out (note: make sure that your urologist has tested specifically for chlamydia, as well, since many men can have mild symptoms like you describe, and it requires its' own specific test).
Some people can experience urethritis linked to certain foods (spicy foods have been reported), and spermicides as well. And other cases have no known cause.
I think at this point, since you have already had a fair amount of testing, that you should speak with your urologist (or another urologist, if you want a 2nd opinion) about other potential causes of your problem. There may be something else that is triggering these recurrent episodes.
Moreover, since this all appears to have started after your prostatectomy, I think this obviously is also on the list as being related in some way. Prostatitis, or infection of the prostate, can also lead to urethral symptoms; of course, since you don't have a prostate anymore this makes prostatitis unlikely, but I would still worry about an "upstream" trigger to this as well.
So speak with your urologist - maybe a 2nd opinion would be advisable since your primary hasn't provided much help.
Hope this helps, and I hope you feel better. Please let me know if you have any further questions - I'm more than happy to help.
Take care - Dr. Fay
Edited by jcfay on October 13 2006 at 6:06 AM
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