Prostatitis can be treated with antibiotics. You might not have heard of it, but prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostate gland, will affect more than half of the male population at some point in their lives. It is a sometimes serious and often painful condition that can be treated if it is diagnosed properly.
Trouble is, few people have heard of it.
A recent survey by the American Foundation for Urologic Disease found that only 15 percent of those who responded had heard of prostatitis, and that more women than men know about this exclusively male disease. The incidence of infection increases with age, but prostatitis can happen at any age. The symptoms vary from one type of prostatitis to another, and the signs of the disease often mimic the symptoms of other urinary or prostate disorders, according to the American Foundation for Urologic Disease. There can be no symptoms at all, or symptoms severe enough to send men rushing to the emergency room. Prostatitis can sometimes be confused with prostate cancer, although the two conditions are not related.