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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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.
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]
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]
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.
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]
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