GarryP

Originally I was planning to get my treatment in the UK or Australia (covid permitting) but then I was lucky to get a discount package here in Thailand. In hindsight, I think I was very lucky for some of the very reasons you raise. I had a catheter fitted for 7 days and suffered urinary urgency for a while too post catheter. If I'd had to travel in that condition it would have been very uncomfortable/difficult. I think you are doing the right thing in getting the treatment here, unless you can stay overseas for a few months i.e. your home country, before returning to Thailand. Perhaps, you could find a Thai government hospital that provides the treatment that you need. I assume you are considering TURP. Just do your research on which gov't hospital the recommended surgeon works at. You'll find that a lot of very highly respected doctors work both at private and government hospitals here.

Yeah, Yeah, yeah. A con job. Approved by NICE in 2018 which means it is a recommended treatment on the UK NHS. First approved by the US FDA in 2015. Now also approved in many other jurisdictions. But yeah, a real con job. Those double blind studies and numerous other studies are all a con. Yeah, you're right. Must be a conspiracy to push the treatment out into the mainstream. I must be a liar. I get up to pee a minimum of 10 times a night, can't get wood, my condition is worse than pre-treatment. Have moved my office into the bathroom so I can sit on the toilet while typing away on my computer. Sorry can't provide pictures as they would be extremely disturbing and go against forum rules. I am totally unhappy. If I had only known God Fredscats before I wasted my hard earned money on Rezum, I could have followed your guiding light and flown off to India to have my prostate roto-rooted by the surgeon of your choice. Oh, woe is me, woe is me.

Bees.

I know barely anything about radiotherapy as a treatment for BPH. However, I understand there is a new treatment available that uses radiotherapy for BPH that cuts the flow of blood to the prostate resulting in prostate shrinkage but as far as I am aware it is not available in Thailand. I believe, however, you are talking about treatment of cancer of the prostate.

Great cut and paste there. I think you may be surprised at the number of men with prostates of less than 80 gms who suffer from BPH. Mine was only 37gms when I had the Rezum treatment. The average prostate weight of men seeking treatment is not as high as you may think. It is much closer to 50gms. More recent studies indicate that Rezum is just as effective for larger prostates too. My conditions have greatly improved and they are continuing to do so. Will I need retreatment after 5 years? I don't know. For Rezum the historical data only goes back about 6 years, so it is still uncertain how long it will last. Your prostate will continue to grow at an average of 1.6% per year after 60 years old so ultimately retreatment may be necessary even in the case of those who have had TURP. TURP does not stop your prostate growing. If you had TURP at 80 years old, then perhaps no worries, but if you had it at 50 or 55 and then live into your late 70's or 80's there is a chance that you will need to be rebored. However, if or when I need retreatment (something I accept), I will again have the choice of various treatments unlike someone who has been TURPed who will have much fewer options. Also, with my treatment have had not had to worry about ED or retrograde ejaculation, something that TURPed individuals are much more likely to suffer from.

My son's house in Bangkok has grills and those that get hit by rain are rusting. No primer whatsoever.

You are totally misrepresenting what xylophone said (why should I be surprised). He actually supported alternative treatments such as iTend, Rezum, Urolift etc. and suggested that TURP should be a last resort. Trying to have any sane conversatioon with you on this subject is like flogging a dead horse. Enjoy your TURP.

Will be having a house built upcountry later this year and this is something we are considering. As well as CCTV and a big red alarm bell (the latter purely for show).

Take off your tinfoil hat. Read the studies before you pan them. You know about, and are in love with, one treatment, so all the others are rubbish according to you. Get your head out of the sand and educate yourself.

Go enjoy your TURP but stop banging your drum for the procedure. If you took off your blindbold and actually took time to study alternatives and their efficacy, including long term studies, you would see that there are indeed a number of proven beneficial treatments for BPH, and TURP is not the holy <deleted> grail. Invasive surgery is nearly always the last resort. Misleading others and pushing them towards a potentially life changing procedure (and not in a good way) is morally wrong. Should your doctor advise that in your case TURP is the best way forward then okay, buzz off to India, and get it done on the cheap. But just because it is cheap there is not a valid reason for recommending that others follow you down your misguided path. Mods, if inappropriate please delete.

Perhaps because when no-one was living there, there was nothing worth nicking. I don't leave anything laying around when I go on holiday.

Doggie style?

It could be one of those pink IDs handed out to foreigners. It seems to vary from district to district as to whether they will issue them. May need to get a yellow house registration first though. Not really anything afoot as Immigration already have your address so it is not as if it is a way of keeping watch on all those sneaky foreigners.

Alpha blockers and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. But apparently there is less of a problem with the newer alpha blockers. If you are taking high blood pressure meds you need to be careful too. Bangkok. Generic Cialis is available on street corners along Sukhumvit Road and is sold by those guys offering a wide variety of performance enhancers (Viagra, Kamagra, Horny Goat Weed and many others) and sex toys (couldn't vouch for the quality of any of the products as I have never bought anything from them). But it is not (openly) available in most drugstores here as to sell it without prescription is illegal. Also, the fact that a drug is a generic doesn't mean that a prescription is not needed. The prescription is based in the drug concerned rather than the brand name. So regardless whether tadalafil was available as Cialis or some other brand, such as Toptada, a prescription would still be required. FYI, even when I bought Cialis using my prescription, the price was very high. Much higher than any generic would be (if available). To this day, I do not know why generic tadalafil is not available here, as Sildenafil aka Viagra, is produced by the Thai Government Pharmaceutical Organisation and goes under the brand name Sidegra and being a generic is much cheaper than buying the Vigra brand. Probably someone' hands are being lined with silver.

Like many of the meds, not all work for everyone. For example, I was prescribed tadalafil (cialis) for BPH, and while initially it did seem to improve my BPH symptoms slightly, it did not last beyond 6 months. I did benefit from it in another way though ????. Also despite the patent having expired for tadalafil, generics are still not available in Thailand. On top of that, it is prescription only and very expensive. I did, however, get my supplies elsewhere, but am not allowed to mention where/how as it is against forum rules. A big concern of mine before going on meds was that I am still sexually active but a lot of the meds can result in impotentence/ED. Hence my agreement to go with tadalafil. One that really worked for me was alfuzosine (Xatral), but I was only on it for two weeks after Rezum treatment when my condition got worse, before getting better.

My prostate was not overly large. Far from it actually. It was only 37 gm. The problem was more to do with the increase in tissue impinging on my urethra, than the overall size. There are also many cases where men have been found to have very large prostates but few or no BPH symptoms, while others, like me, have had more severe symptoms with small prostates. It may be worth having some tests run to see what/where the problem is first as that could point you in the direction of available treatments that would be appropriate for you. I had already made the decision for Rezum, not realizing that it is not appropriate for everyone, even those of us with small prostates. Luckily, after the tests the doctor advised that it was an appropriate treatment for me. However, he did say that Urolift would not have been an option in my case because of the shape/size and causes of my BPH symptoms.

I see. In that case, I would tend to agree with you as you are already suffering quite severe symptoms of BPH. For Rezum, I am expecting to have to go through the procedure again in about 10 years, at which time I will probably reconsider what would be best taking into consideration surrounding factors.

Could it be possible that the 3 year limitation is because the device was not proved long ago so they do not yet have evidence of efficacy after 4 years? I remember with Rezum, they started with 3 years but are now saying it is still proving effective 5 years post treatment. Perhaps in a few more years, the iTind may prove to be effective for 5 or more years.

I think I mentioned before that had I been in my 70's and no longer sexually active, then perhaps I would have gone the TURP route. It all depends on what you are looking for from a personal perspective. The problem is, it seems that some doctors push one particular treatment over an other and their patients sometimes then go ahead without a clear understanding of the possible negative outcomes. At least it seems like you have sought second opinions on what treatment would be best for you and I wish you all the best. FYI my father had TURP just over 2 years ago when he was 88 years old. He told me that he wishes he had not waited so long. He had been on medicines since his late 50's and suffered a lot from side effects, including impotence from the age of 62. That is one of the reasons I went ahead with Rezum, as I tend to suffer the same side effects to medicines as my father.

I take it got your driving license when they still issued them with lifetime validity.

Had I been much older and not sexually active, I would perhaps have gone with TURP as the results are almost immediate, but there are still possible side effects such as ED, retrograde ejaculation and even permanent incontinence in some cases. Many sites pushing the Rezum treatment are misleading in regard to how long it takes to see the benefits of the treatment, particularly those in the US. They use wording such as "and improvement has been seen at 2 weeks post treatment". However, many of the Aussie and UK sites are more truthful saying that in most cases your condition will get worse before it gets better and you should start to see improvement at around 2 months after treatment. What you need to realize is that the results are never the same across the board and what works for some may not work for others. Also, people have a different physical responses to the treatment. I certainly did get worse and went back on meds for a couple of weeks, but now I am much better and sleeping better. I am peeing much stronger than pre-treatment even though I was taking meds then. That is, I am happy with the results of Rezum treatment. Do your research and choose which way you want to go, but don't forget that while a particular treatment may seem to be the one you want to try, you may not necessarily be a suitable candidate. For example, after checking my prostate the doctor let me know that I would not have been a suitable candidate for Urolift because of the shape of my prostate, not that I wanted that treatment anyway. As to ultimately having to have the treatment again or something different, I am aware of that. Your prostate only stops growing when it is removed from your body or you are dead. So tissue may start impinging on my urethra again down the road. I can accept that.

Had it done on 21 October 2021 at Bumrungrad Hospital. I'm happy with the results and still improving. May be worth checking out this thread before you start panning something you know little about. https://aseannow.com/topic/1238152-enlarged-prostate-treatment-rezum/

When I was investigating costs for Rezum treatment, private treatment in Australia was cheaper than Thailand and the UK. Singapore was absolutely ridiculous though. Luckily, I got a special discount package at Bumrungrad Hospital, and surprisingly my office insurance covered some of the costs, so I had the treatment here.

Ah yes, Religious Indoctrination. Actually when I was at the nearest comprehensive, it was Religious Education and the teacher was actually a nice guy. The nasty teacher was our History guy. Threw board rubbers at people who he was not happy with. Only ever got in one fight at school and our PE teacher separated us and we walked away. No punishment. My only ever detention was because my Chemistry teacher was peeved at me repeatedly misspelling the word "separate". Sod forgot all about me so I had to traipse around school looking for him so I could get approval to go home. Found him playing table football in the 6th form common room with his teacher mates. Told me he'd forgotten about me and assumed I'd already gone home. Good job there were still buses running or it would have been a 4 mile walk home.

Any one in your neck of the woods get any rain yesterday. Apparently it was cats and dogs in the afternoon in Kham Muang, Kalsin, which ain't that far from the Owl.