Prostate massage
Prostate massage is the massage or stimulation of the male prostate gland for sexual stimulation or medical purposes.
The prostate takes part in the sexual response cycle, and is essential for ejaculation. Due to its proximity to the anterior rectal wall, it can be stimulated from the anterior wall of the rectum or externally via the perineum.
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[edit] Medical uses
[edit] Digital rectal examination (DRE)
Prostate massage is part of the digital rectal examination (DRE) routinely given to men by urologists in order to look for nodules of prostate cancer and to obtain an expressed prostatic secretion (EPS) specimen for microscopy and microbiological culture to screen for prostatitis.
[edit] Prostatitis
In the late 1990s, doctors tried prostate massage in conjunction with antibiotics for the treatment of chronic bacterial prostatitis with uncertain results.[1][2] In recent trials, however, prostate massage was not shown to improve outcomes compared to antibiotics alone.[3] As a consequence of these findings, prostate massage is not used in the treatment of any medical disorder today[citation needed], and prostate massage should never be performed on patients with acute prostatitis, because the infection can spread elsewhere in the body if massage is performed.[4]
[edit] Risks
Vigorous prostate massage has been documented with consequences that are health- and life-threatening: periprostatic hemorrhage,[5] cellulitis, Fournier's gangrene,[6] septicaemia, possible disturbance and metastasis of prostate cancer to other parts of the body, and hemorrhoidal flare-up.[7]
[edit] Animal husbandry
Electroejaculation is a procedure in which nerves are stimulated via an electric probe, which is inserted into the rectum adjacent to the prostate. It is most commonly encountered in animal husbandry for the purpose of collecting semen samples for testing or breeding.
[edit] Prostate massage as alternative therapy
Prostate massage was once the most popular therapeutic maneuver used to treat prostatitis.[8] According to the Prostatitis Foundation,[9] "it used to be, in the age before antibiotics (before about 1960 for prostatitis), doctors performed massage when their patients had prostatitis. In some cases it was enough to cure them of the disease. ... it fell out of common practice with the advent of antibiotics. It's much easier to prescribe a pill and send the patient home." However, according to WebMD,[10] in many prostatitis cases antibiotics do not work because the swelling and inflammation caused by the infection closes off the acini (or sacs), causing the acini not to "shed" bacteria, and protecting the bacteria inside from antibiotics and the body's own immune cells.
Continuing research in emerging medical communities,[11][12] published articles in non-medical circles,[13][14] and anecdotal evidence on the Internet shows that there is still interest in the technique as alternative therapy.
In China, a 2008 survey of 627 urologists found that prostate massage is used prevalently as a nonpharmacological therapy for chronic prostatitis.[15]
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ Nickel JC, Downey J, Feliciano AE, Hennenfent B (1999). "Repetitive prostatic massage therapy for chronic refractory prostatitis: the Philippine experience". Techniques in urology 5 (3): 146–51. PMID 10527258.
- ^ Shoskes DA, Zeitlin SI (1999). "Use of prostatic massage in combination with antibiotics in the treatment of chronic prostatitis". Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases 2 (3): 159–162. doi:10.1038/sj.pcan.4500308. PMID 12496826.
- ^ Ateya A, Fayez A, Hani R, Zohdy W, Gabbar MA, Shamloul R (2006). "Evaluation of prostatic massage in treatment of chronic prostatitis". Urology 67 (4): 674–8. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2005.10.021. PMID 16566972.
- ^ Nickel JC (November 1999). "Prostatitis: evolving management strategies". The Urologic clinics of North America 26 (4): 737–51. doi:10.1016/S0094-0143(05)70215-9. PMID 10584615.
- ^ Buse S, Warzinek T, Hobi C, Ackerman D (2003). "[Prostate massage with unwanted consequences. Case report]" (in German). Der Urologe. Ausg. A 42 (1): 78–9. PMID 14655640.
- ^ Sengoku A, Yamashita M, Umezu K (1990). "[A case of Fournier's gangrene: was it triggered by prostatic massage?]" (in Japanese). Hinyokika kiyo. Acta urologica Japonica 36 (9): 1097–100. PMID 2239620.
- ^ "Prostatitis Prostate Massage or Drainage". www.chronicprostatitis.com. http://www.chronicprostatitis.com/massage.html. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
- ^ Nickel JC, Alexander R, Anderson R, Krieger J, Moon T, Neal D, Schaeffer A, Shoskes D (1999). "[Prostatitis unplugged? Prostatic massage revisited.]". Tech Urol. 5 (1): 1–7. PMID 10374787.
- ^ http://www.prostatitis.org
- ^ http://www.webmd.com
- ^ Churakov AA, Popkov VM, Zemskov SP, Glybochko PV, Bliumberg BI (2007). "[Combined physiotherapy of chronic infectious prostatitis]" (in Russian). Urologiia (1): 61–5. PMID 17472003.
- ^ Shen SL, He DL, Luo Y (2006). "[Clinical trials of combined therapy of an oral Chinese medicine with massage for chronic nonbacterial prostatitis]" (in Chinese). Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue 12 (9): 851–3. PMID 17009541.
- ^ "Prostate Problems? Hidden In More Ways Than One"The American Chiropractor, 2008. accessed 13 October 2007
- ^ Williams D (2005). "[Massaging the Prostate]". Alternatives 10 (20): 157–9.
- ^ Yang J, Liu L, Xie HW, Ginsberg DA (2008). "Chinese urologists' practice patterns of diagnosing and treating chronic prostatitis: a questionnaire survey". Urology 72 (3): 548–51. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2008.03.061. PMID 18597833.
[edit] External links
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Book: Prostate |
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- Prostate massage, the medical procedure
