Every week, I see men who have been told that they have prostatitis. Naturally, they think there’s something wrong with their prostate gland that’s making it inflamed – bacterial infection, injury, autoimmune disorder. After all, “itis” is a suffix that means “inflammation,” and “prostate” means, well, “prostate.” Arthritis is inflammation of the joints. Colitis is inflammation of the colon. Bronchitis is inflammation of the lungs. But often prostatitis isn’t inflammation of the prostate. It’s tightness or dysfunction of the pelvic floor muscles that lie beneath the prostate.
When the pelvic floor muscles dysfunction, it may cause pain in the lower abdomen, back, perineum, scrotum, testicles, or anus. It may cause painful or frequent urination. It may cause erectile dysfunction or make orgasm painful. These symptoms are typical of actual inflammation of the prostate, hence the confusion. Unfortunately, many who seek help for these symptoms are prescribed round after round of antibiotics without even being tested for bacterial infection. The antibiotics don’t solve the problem because bacterial infection isn’t causing them.
Pelvic floor physical therapy is among the treatments that are helpful in decreasing symptoms of “nonbacterial prostatitis” because the symptoms aren’t coming from the prostate, they’re coming from the pelvic floor!
