What is chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome ?

That is the million-dollar question! It is possible that several different conditions, still to define/discover, are the underlying cause to CP/CPPS symptoms. It is also questionable if the prostate is involved. Research “is dominated by hypotheses, all of which lack a substantial evidential standing”. “Ethiogenic theories vary from the abstruse to the fashionable… and sadly often of confusion in medical thinking” (P. Hanno (1)). CPPS is most likely both under- and over-diagnosed.

“Patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome (2) demonstrate no evidence of inflammation. They do not have urethritis, urogenital cancer, urethral stricture, or neurological disease involving the bladder. Indeed, they exhibit no overt renal tract disease.” What is known is that the men categorized with this label present with fairly similar symptoms and problems, that the condition is more common the more north you live and that it shows a relapsing (flare) and remitting (improvement) pattern superimposed on a seasonal pattern with wintertime exacerbations.

“If I knew how to really cure CPPS I would be world famous, make millions, afford an apartment over-looking Central Park, one in Aspen and one in Miami and only need to work three months a year” (Anonymous).
“We must break down the difference between the urologist, gynecologist and gastroenterologist and treat the pelvic floor as a single unit” (GR Sant).

Andra bloggar om CPPS, kroniskt bäckenbottensmärtsyndrom, kronisk abakteriell prostatit, NIHIIIb
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(1) IC Epidemiology Task Force Report of the Bethesda Oct 29, 2003 meeting. Draft 1/6/2004.
(2) A syndrome is, according to the Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary, “a combination of signs and/or symptoms that forms a distinct clinical picture indicative of a particular disorder” but is not necessarily of a related etiology. That is why the word “syndrome” is used in CPPS. Unfortunately in the case of CPPS it is rather a label to “a combination of signs and/or symptoms”. Period.