Q: I am a 37 years old male. Some months back I was told by the urologist that I have chronic prostatitis. He also told me that there is no cure for this condition. There was no evidence for the disease in the shape of some tests/investigations etc. After that I have seen a few more urologists. There are as many treatments available as the number of urologists in town. But nothing seems to work. In my 30 years of life I have never come across anybody who suffers from this crazy disease. If you search the web you come across people with names like Tom, Dick, Harry and John living in far off lands who seem to be suffering from this disease. But no one closer home. In my interactions with the urologists, I have got the impression that most of them are not interested in dealing with prostatitis patients. They seem to be more interested in surgical problems for reasons not very difficult to understand. I don't know the way out?

A:Chronic prostatitis is a condition with dull ache in lower pelvis, at the root of penis and around anal opening, presumably due to prostatic inflammation. It affects young men. There is no element of infection and thus all investigations are invariably normal. Since it is now agreed that there is no infection, the condition has been rechristened as Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome or CPPS. A patient with CPPS need to be educated and assured that it is not a serious disease, has a tendency to wax and wane, with symptoms disappearing for a long time after bothering the patient for a couple of weeks. Anxiety makes symptoms worse (most of us have noted such patients to be highly anxious and on the edge, as you seem to be). Antibiotics have no role, but are invariably advised for a period of 4 to 6 weeks to exclude any low grade infective focus. You are wrong in saying that there are as many treatments for prostatitis as the number of urologists, since there is no treatment for the condition. Treatment is simple and symptomatic, pain killers for the pain and alpha blockers for any associated weak urine flow. You are also wrong in concluding that only Tom, Dick and Harry have prostatitis. CPPS is prevalent in 15 to 20% of young males, meaning that approximately every 5th or 6th man around you has CPPS to some degree. You have probably been trying some blog sites on the net. I would advise you to google chronic prostatitis or CPPS , and educate yourself on the resulting sites. I am in complete agreement with you that most busy urologists would try to evade such highly anxious patients with CPPS, where they do not have much to offer other than making the diagnosis and counselling the patient