[gott1936]

Are your urinary symptoms worth urethra damage? The urethra is a membranous tube that passes through the prostate gland. Urethral injuries can be caused by catheterism, urethroscopy, cystoscopy and urological surgery.

My question is when should we agree to invasive surgery which can damage our urethra and create worse problems than we already have? Blood in the urine will normally have the urologist to perform a cystoscopy which can damage the urethra and start you on a course of more invasive surgery. Blood in the urine can be caused by exercising, etc.

My point is just beware. I had blood in my urine almost three years ago and still show blood in my urine. My urine symptoms are minor, but my prostate gland is about 63 grams.

My research tells me that if your prostate gland is large, but your symptoms are minor stay away from invasive surgery. This just my own opinion, due your own research!

[mrcoyote]

I would agree to a point. I think it's accurate to say that until the urinary symptoms become intolerable and you can no longer get substantial relief from drugs, you should postpone surgery. This was the opinion of my urologist as well, so he felt surgery was the only alternative at that point. But to say that surgery itself necessarily damages the urethra may not be entirely accurate. Many people have BPH surgery without damage to the urethra, including myself. Thanks for sharing your opinion!

[gott1936]

mrcoyote, thanks for your response. I have come to appreciate and respect all your responses. It is just that nowhere have I found information explaining how the urethra is not damage during a TURP or similiar procedures. How can they destroy prostate tissue without damaging the urethra which is a membranous tube? Also, it may be why it takes so long to recover from surgery because the patient has to wait for the urethra to repair itself. Just a thought.
gotts1936

[mrcoyote]

Thanks for the support! Actually, it took only about a week for me to "recover" from my laser
surgery (TURP) and what pain I had in my urethra was from the larger catheter being in for that week
and not damage done by the laser. At least that's what my doc said after surgery when I asked him.
The pain I felt went away about another week later and then I was good to go. Pardon the pun.
Have you had or are you considering surgery at any point? Sorry, can't remember.

[gott1936]

mrcoyote,
my urinary symptoms for the last three years are not that bad even though my prostate is about 63 grams in size. Therefore, I am not thinking about surgery. I believe that a cystoscopy look at my prostate may cause a stricture so I have not agreed to this procedure at this time.

After, your comments I did more reasearch and found the following:

Post-Prostate Strictures

Membranous urethral strictures occur in up to 6% of patients who under go turp. The stricture is caused by the trauma of using too large a resectoscope/catheter or from overly aggressive distal prostate resection. Turp (simple prostatectomy) will damage the internal urethral sphincter and this continence is subsequently dependent on the external striated sphincter.

My concern is that that first cystoscopy procedure can cause trauma , Therefore, requiring additional invasive surgery which may not be necessary. Just my opinion.

gott1936