BPH volume: does it fluctuate?

by Quarry

Ron,

I recently entered the hospital system because of a urinary retention event, which took me by surprise. My prostate was measured at 59g/ml by ultrasound several days after the event. Just two months later, on my usual vegan/organic/ketogenic diet, but now using Ayurvedic herbs, including Ayurstate, which are supposed to shrink prostate volume, my prostate volume was measured at 170g/ml. How is this even possible?

It took me 72 years of mostly careless living to get to 59g/ml, but only 2 months to shoot up to 170g/ml, which is an increase in volume of nearly 300%.

It is very depressing to find that a recognised cure for BPH has increased the prostate volume by nearly 300% in just two months.

This would suggest that BPH is enormously volatile. If prostate volume can go up by 300% in such a short time, it would seem that it might be capable of going down rapidly too. The only different element in my life in those two months was the presence of a catheter running through the prostate, and herbs supposedly formulated to shrink prostate size. What makes this calamity even more bewildering is that at the end of the two months, before the second ultrasound, I was feeling much better than I had in years - full of energy.

Do you have any explanation for such a rapid increase in prostate volume under mostly optimal conditions? Do you know of rapid fluctuations up and down in prostate size? You yourself have explained urinary retention events as being triggered by a food "allergy"/negative reaction. This would seem to suggest that the prostate has been temporarily swollen by the negative reaction to a specific food (or herbs), and as in all allergies once the event has run its course the swelling will subside.

My bladder size was also measured at the same time by ultrasound at 400ml. Apparently bladder size can only be measured by its contents at the time, as the bladder expands and contracts to accommodate the amount of urine entering it and exiting it.

Two hours prior to the ultrasound, my catheter was clamped off and I was required to drink a litre of water. As the catheter constantly voids the bladder, the bladder would have been empty at the time the catheter was clamped. Within 2 minutes of the catheter being unclamped after the ultrasound, there was 600ml of urine in the catheter bag. This could only mean that the ultrasound measurement of the bladder had to be enormously inaccurate. The ultrasound measured the bladder at 400ml, yet the amount of urine immediately released from the catheter was 600ml. I wonder why the hospital bothered to measure the bladder volume by ultrasound, when the contents of the urine bag before and after clamping could be more accurately measured by the actual urine flooding into the bag when the catheter was unclamped.

I was hospitalised because of the sudden appearance of a lot of blood in my urine over several days, turning the urine nearly black. After several days of this, the blood started clotting, causing urinary blockage even with the catheter in - a pain worse than kidney stones.

The bleeding started after heavy exercise (lifting and moving quite heavy logs). I was feeling so good that I felt like working again. I have not been able to obtain any sensible explanation for the bleeding. The urology surgeon "explained" that my urinary retention event would have stretched the bladder, causing the bleeding. However the bleeding started two months after the urinary retention event - after heavy exercise, not a urinary retention event.

Would you know if vigorous exercise is possible/advisable with a catheter in place, or if exercise while catheterised can cause bleeding?

My own GP thought the bleeding was probably coming from the prostate, with an 80% probability, not the bladder. Mainstream medicine seems to be quite ignorant of how the urinary system really works, and seems to be complacent about its lack of knowledge.


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Ron here...

These are very good questions but I am not a doctor and cannot really answer them... all I can do is speculate.

Yes volume of prostate can fluctuate as it reacts to things.

A catheter could add to volume size because of more infections inside prostate and bladder.

No herb will cure your prostate quickly and may never to be able to despite the ads. It could help lower some symptoms but could also increase them if you react to that supplement. That is why I teach Personal Testing on this site and my books.

Why differences in readings from ultrasound and liquid is a good question too: limits of ultrasound, limits of user, old tech?

I would go to 3dProstate Clinic with these questions. They would be the only ones I can think of that can help you.