Urology

First, it's extremely unusual for men to get UTIs, only three reasons. Fortunately you have not had another, so that probably eliminates one of those three.

Moving on, I'm not sure where you got the impression that there were so many people with your same issue. It certainly isn't being discussed here, so it would be interesting to hear what has lead you to this impression.

I don't think anyone here knows what PATM is (people allergic to me) so it sounds like you're jumping in at the middle of a conversation that prevents us from knowing about any surrounding issues or experiences.

Not fully emptying your bladder is a very serious problem, and as this has persisted, combined with your reported issue involving painful ejaculation, certainly indicates it is time to visit a urologist (not your general doctor).

Nocturnal emissions are not uncommon nor are they something anyone typically needs to worry about, however the combination with pain is seriously concerning. There is no normal reason that you should ever experience pain during ejaculation, so it bears medical investigation.

Strange odors can be caused by a number of things from yeast infection (or other skin infection) to simply a poor diet (too much red meat and sugar).

Generally nocturnal emissions can be stopped if you masturbate regularly, as they are an expression of a system that is otherwise 'charged' and not being used. Certainly many if not most men don't continue to have nocturnal emissions if they ever had them at all, once they are sexually active, or if they masturbate with any regularity (which most men do). It's a completely natural mechanism.

I'm sorry to hear this is something that you were not able to discuss with your parents when it started several years ago, as they should have taken you to see a urologist at that time and prevented your discomfort and worry.

Please make an appointment to see a urologist. And also fill in more details if you are inclined so the whole of the situation is more clear. We can only evaluate things based on the information you share and can't guess at what else hasn't been included.

Right...Well, I was basically going off on a tangent about the PATM stuff. I have previously read countless posts from people on medhelp.com about the subject.

Generally when I think prostate, the first thing that comes to mind is age (40/50s). Is it possible that a young person could have prostate problems, like infections?

I have read that masturbation is good for prostate health. Can the prostate ever be over used?

Is there any connection between the prostate and digestive disorders?

The odor started out fecal at around the age of 15-16. It slowly began to change into more of a garbage like smell. Now it's a morph between barf and mildew. Showers do not help and it gets worse in public. Some people don't notice it at all or have been around me long enough to build immunity to it. Most people have reactions such as coughing, hacking, sniffling, sneezing. It seems to be localized to those that are directly behind me or within 5-10ft of me. As their reactions get worse it begins to spread around the room very rapidly.

Just imagine going to church on sunday and sitting smack in the middle of everything. The women behind you are coughing and snorting loudly. You hear them saying things like, "somebody smells," followed by "It's really bad." Now you are a disturbance in God's house. So you pray that he will have mercy on you for at least the remainder of service...but no. Oh, and then the best part. You have to stand up, turn around, and shake their hands. It's obvious that they want to ignore you so they don't have to shake your hand. You put your hand out and now they are grimacing. After church your brain is fried from all the signals coming in and you just want to forget the day ever happened. That is life with PATM. My life.

Prostate infections can occur at any age. They don't have a known direct cause, and they are typically difficult to treat but are obvious issues when they occur. The idea of keeping your prostate healthy through masturbation (or regular sex) is based on the theory that if a man does not allow fluid to stagnate in the prostate gland, it is less likely to contribute to the types of issues associated with stagnation. There's no study or documented proof of this other than the logical concept.

As far as the generalized issue here, the odor, I would immediately suggest seeing an acupuncturist. The smell you describe indicates a damp heat condition in the bladder/kidney energy system, which in turn could contribute to odd or burning sensations related to prostate or urinary function. Additional symptoms might include a swollen or pale tongue or a greasy-sticky tongue depending on other controlling factors. It may be exaggerated when you eat cold or raw foods or drink beer. Or if you eat a lot of greasy and spicy foods, this is a different assessment. Anyway, damp-heat, cold-damp, kidney xu, there are several ways this might go, but it's impossible to guess without an actual TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) assessment.

I don't think this is something that needs to have persisted more than a couple weeks while you get sorted out. Unfortunately westerners don't always recognize the simplicity of these dramatic symptoms. It may be as simple as a few acupuncture treatments, or you may be able to make adjustments with some herbal medicine. I would leave the decision to your acupuncturist or shiatsu therapist who completes a TCM assessment.

Originally I did not think your distinct symptoms were related, but it appears that they very well may be.

Wow! This is amazing! Thank you for sharing this with me. I recently made a visit to my urologist who suggested it could be prostatis. He has put me on antibiotic meds for 2 weeks but I'm suppost to have a renal ultrasound done (out patient). After that he wants me to come back for a full body scan. Will the ultrasound or scan detect any of this?

He did explain that digestive issues like constipation could lead to changes in urinary frequencies. I do have a burning sensation that originates from my anal area.

Also I am taking meds for acid reflux. My tongue is white in appearance towards the back of my mouth and I have noticed that I spit out mucus or something a lot. Why don't people know about this here?

Oops! I mean prostatitis. Anyways, I am curious about this TCM assessment. It seems silly now when you stop and think about all the doctors appointments I've made over the years. Lots of blank faces, laughs, and people thinking I'm crazy. Not to mention all the time and money I've wasted basically going around in circles over this.

So how exactly does acupuncture work or should I say believed to work?

I have never heard of shiatsu before, is that like the same thing as acupuncture?

Again thank you for replying! I look forward to finding out more from you.

Shiatsu is the same as acupuncture with pressure instead of needles, and you don't take your clothes off for shiatsu. I'm not talking about fake mall massage, I'm talking about board certified Chinese medicine practitioners. This isn't really a forum for describing TCM theory, but it's based on a 12-energy channel system and how your body divides and connects inner workings with outer expressions. It's well documented and understood, but as eastern medicine, not western. You'll get treated with acupuncture in an eastern hospital in addition to having surgery or whatever else. Just because we don't use it here as much doesn't make it less effective.

You'll want to take the full course of antibiotics now that you started them, but be sure to take some probiotics for a month afterwards to recover from the damage they do.

No, I personally think the ultrasound is a waste of time, except to determine whether you have urine retention or not.

You keep adding new information like acid reflux and burning sensation. These play into your TCM diagnosis. They are all related. If you want a referral for a certified practitioner you can search at http://www.nccaom.org or http://www.aobta.org

I just read about damp heat/cold damp on acupuncture.com. It says that wet dreams point to kidney and liver Yin deficiency. It also says that too much sexual activity can damage kidneys. I have never heard that before. Wowzers.

The foul odor would be associated with damp heat I think (you're spot on). It can be true not only in urine but in feces and semen aswell. I feel like a chicken with its head cut off! Clueless.................

If only I knew someone that would understand all of this and take it seriously. There's only so many people I can turn to who will listen. As many doctors visits as I've made displaying the same symptoms, getting the same deer in headlights response it's a joke. I can't believe this!

Hopefully none of the info above is incorrect, if it is I'm sure you can correct me. Thanks!

This would explain why my anxiety kicks in after masturbating(odor coming from semen) and why reactions from people seem to get worse after masturbating. Not to mention the fact that my bowel movements are sometimes very foul smelling. This is just unreal.

Now do you understand my pain? This is PATM, or at least for me. Just imagine all the young people out there right now who have no clue. They do not understand what they could potentially be doing to harm themselves down the road. Most likely they will end up like me if they don't find somebody who can catch the symptoms.

A couple weeks will turn into a couple years really fast. Before you know it you're watching your life through a window and it's all gone. Dreams are gone. Friends are lost. Every day is painful. You are never really there, even if you wanted to be. Living with it would crush anybody. If there are people out there like me, this should be an eye opener.

Is it true that too much sexual activity can damage your kidneys?...Or is this just another theory??

How would excessive sexual activity affect the body? Someone addicted to going solo would make themselves ill?

Doctors will always say it's normal to masturbate, In fact it's healthy, everybody does it. Then they tell you things like masturbation is good for prostate health. Whether this is theory or fact...what I take from all this is, it may be good for one area of the body and bad for the other. You just never hear about the bad.

In this day and age we are too casual about sexuality. It's accepted, you see it everywhere. I just saw a commercial for a pilot on tv and these guys talked about banging someone on a couch. One of the punchlines is horney guys. Seriously, this is where sitcoms are going?!?!

Anyways, I'm going to continue to use this post for as long as I have to. Hope you will stick around. Thanks for all your knowledge and support!

The connection between sexual activity and kidneys is from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Under that system your body is born with a finite amount of "original" life force, which is called Jing. Jing energy is "stored" in your kidneys, the first organ system to form along with your heart (which is why these two are connected). When you ejaculate, you consume some of this Jing which cannot be replaced. The reason Jing is consumed is that you are giving life energy to start a new life. So, under this system, the more "wasteful" you are, the more quickly your body will age, as you depend on Jing for your overall vitality.

In general, your body uses the energy from food (Gu), and from breathing (Kong), and gathers them together into energy you can use on a daily basis to live your life. When you are exhausted, you start tapping into your reserve of Jing. You can replenish the energy you get from food and breathing, but you burn down your supply of original chi (Jing). If you've every played video games where you have a spaceship with a certain amount of structural integrity and you also have shields to protect your ship, think about the Gu & Kong chi as the power of your shields, and the Jing as the actual structure of your ship. You can always recharge your shields, but what wear and tear you do to the actual ship is permanent.

Because in TCM your ejaculations always consume Jing, not Gu or Kong chi, you always erode your storehouse with this act. And there is a recommended schedule of frequency (what you can "spare") of ejaculation based on your age, that will carry you to a "normal" lifespan.

To westerners this probably sounds like a bunch of hooey, and many men would certainly would react poorly to the suggestion that every time they ejaculate, they are taking a step closer to death. But, this is why in many Asian cultures the practices of martial arts including Tai Chi and Qi Gong are popular, because they help fill the body with daily-use chi that means they're not consuming Jing. The ancient man doing Tai Chi is ancient for a reason.

Yes, it's probably true that nearly everyone masturbates, unless they are psychologically punished for doing so. It feels good, and our hands reach. It's also true that frequency of sex decreases with age, and some of that is probably natural since we're not trying to reproduce, and the rest of it is fatigue. Libido is directly tied to the amount of excess energy your body has when it's done its daily work. If you're tired, you're not interested, and if you're not tired, you can choose what to put that extra energy into doing, such as sex.

One of the first questions for a doctor handling a patient with libido issues is or should be whether they are under physical or emotional stress that leaves them physically or mentally tired. If they burn the candle at both ends, their libido will be radically diminished. If they ignore the symptom of fatigue, they will age more quickly because they're then consuming Jing.

Anyway, there is nothing unnatural about casual sexual expression. Those ideas are culturally enforced and not based on anything real. What you don't want to have happen is that freely expressed sexual intent doesn't become abusive or controlling. Addictive and manipulative behavior is bad for people no matter what the rush comes from.

So, to answer your second paragraph, doing any activity that becomes an addiction is bad for you. Any activity that starts to interrupt the normal course of your day or causes you to make excuses is probably bad.

If you listen to your body, it will tell you when it's tired, and you should respect it and replenish its resources. If you ignore the signals and choose to deplete it further before you replenish, you will do yourself some harm whether it's regular wear and tear or something else.

So here's the deal, I have been experiencing pain starting in my left side (ribs/back) for the past few days. It gets worse after laying down or going to sleep. I can feel a constant burning, bubbling effect (also hearing growling) in my lower abdomen. This morning I also felt pressure in this area and the same aching pain in my lower back.

After the steak dinner last night I surprisingly felt weak. Today, after eating two meals I had no energy. I'm still urinating ok and having bowel movements. It's like my body is not absorbing anything from the food or it's just working so hard to fight whatever this is I can't tell.

I wake up with a really dry mouth/throat and I can't drink enough water for it to go away. For the past couple days I've had a mild fever (taking advil helps). Most of this has been happening since before the antibiotics so I don't think it's from the meds (stopped taking for 2 days to see).

My parents would most definetly try to downplay all this and tell me to wait a few days to see how I feel. Then call the doc to go through all the mumbo jumbo of taking more meds, seeing another specialist, or more outpatient stuff. I'm personally sick and tired that nobody in my family knows what an EMERGENCY IS!!!!!!!!! 6 years. 6 years of shutting me up. Telling me what they want to hear, that I'm perfectly healthy, and I must be making it all up. I knew this day was coming. It's going to slap everyone in the face. OMG my kids in pain and why didn't I ever know about this?.......................................................................... Ugh, yea maybe because you didn't listen. In one ear and out the other. Are you kidding me?!?!?!

I apologize. This is a very difficult time for me. Thank you so much for everything. It's been a blessing it really has. I will take care of this. If I end up in the hospital for a few days my family will just have to deal with it. Whatever the outcome it's better than being in the ground.

First mistake, you CANNOT STOP TAKING ANTIBIOTICS IN THE MIDDLE OF TREATMENT! This is dangerous. You need to tell your doctor who prescribed the antibiotics that you did this, and probably have your regime extended as a result.

The fever, lower back pain, additional stress from fatty foods, all sound similar to symptoms of gallstones.

I realize that your situation is complex and that each group of (new) symptoms you describe, by themselves, lead the reader to attribute them to a condition separate from the others.

Taking the whole kit in consideration, it may be something much simpler like food allergies that have gone undiagnosed and uncorrected until they have developed into a chronic inflammatory condition and your body's rejection of what it considers toxic food through your skin, causing a bad smell.

My suggestion is that you seek a good internist who is willing to investigate the myriad issues you have described here and manage all the different directions your descriptions lead, and draw them all together into a unified approach. You're certainly able to try addressing some symptoms, but until there is a professional managing your complex care, each specialist is going to have too narrow a focus to take in the whole picture and put together the pieces.

Your care is going to require a comprehensive interview since it has been developing and unmanaged for several years. Clearly each time we exchange information something new is introduced that changes the assessment. While you may have started in this forum because the most irritating issue was seemingly urologic, it does not appear to be the root cause, and that's hopefully what you really want to investigate. I'm not convinced you will get the help you need on this forum, as it's only lay-person advice, not medical help, but hopefully it will encourage you to take charge of your healthcare on your own and get a real hold on the big picture of what's going on in your body.