Hello, I'm new to the forum.
This all started about 2 months ago, one night I was getting up about every 45 minutes to urinate, flow was fine, not really any pain, but this went on until the morning (sometimes in the past when I'd have a cup of tea quite late after 9pm, I would be up a few times in the night, but it would subside by morning), anyway I was fortunate to get a GP appointment that day. They did a pH test of my urine but it was a bit inconclusive, he said there was a 50% chance it could be an infection (I also had minimal traces of blood in urine), the GP prescribed me antibiotics to take for 7 days.
During this 7 days, I was getting a lot of bloating (I'm guessing because of the antibiotics) and it was a bit uncomfortable to sleep, but it seemed to gradually stop my frequent urination. After this, I was fine for a week with no symptoms, then it kicked off again, I had to go to the Urgent Care Centre on a Saturday, the GP there did a rectal examination said my prostate was fine but prescribed me with some more antibiotics, different ones this time, but they didn't seem to work, went back to the GP at the surgery, another pH test of the urine, just minimal traces of blood again, but referred me to the Urology team (during this time they did two urine culture tests at the lab both came back negative for a bacterial infection).
Had an ultrasound, everything was normal, then a week or two later, I actually saw a Urologist, he gave me another rectal examination and said I had an enlarged prostate, but I was also constipated. A cystoscopy was booked in for me to rule out anything else. I was dreading this, but knew it would put mind at rest either way. During this time I would say I was also getting mild bladder spasms, and a bit of pain in the kidneys (sometimes). Had the dreaded cystoscopy, I did not enjoy it, felt like someone was stabbing me from the inside, I had my eyes closed at the start while the DR was carrying out the procedure, commentating what I was seeing on the screen, managed to open my eyes a few times, but wasn't taking much interest, just wanted the thing over with.
Anyway, all he had to say was my prostate was slightly enlarged, that's it. He wasn't talking like it was something to be concerned about, and said I should start taking tamsulosin and finasteride. I'd rather not take them to be honest, and he kind of laughed that I was taking Saw Palmetto ( did seem to help initially, but the affect has waned) said it was similar to tamsulosin but a much smaller dose. That was a few weeks ago, have been trying to cut out carbs and sugar and just experiment with my diet, only trouble now is, I'm starting to have flow problems and pain/burning sensation at end of penis, feels like it's getting clogged up, and my sleep has gone to pot.
What I wanted to know is, does this sound like an enlarged prostate? Do symptoms occur in that order? It is starting to depress me, as it's not something I thought I would have to worry about at 43. Has anyone managed to reverse this condition without surgery/medication?
(I had a PSA test done as well, came back 0.6)
Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
