ARE THERE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PROSTATITIS?
Most discussion of prostatitis divides it into four types. However, they are often hard to tell apart, and the dividing lines are often not clear. The general feeling in the newsgroup is that they are all aspects of the same disease. Acute bacterial prostatitis comes on quickly, can cause intense pain, fever, and chills, can require hospitalization, but is usually “cured” quickly with antibiotics. (Some newsgroup members have reported that their supposedly cured acute bacterial prostatitis turned chronic after the cure.) Chronic bacterial prostatitis is less intense, but is not cured quickly by antibiotics alone. Examination of the urine and prostatic fluid, particularly via the Meares and Stamey technique or the Feliciano technique, indicate that disease-causing bacteria and/or fungi are present in the prostate. The condition may clear up after several months of antibiotics, or it may not. Often after treatment with antibiotics alone the condition will go dormant for a while then retu
