A simple solution to a common penis problem
“We see prostatorrhea most often in young men who have never had sex and don’t masturbate for cultural or religious reasons”. What happens is the men notice a discharge while they’re peeing. It gets squeezed out when there’s increased pressure on the pelvis.
Infected penis?
“About once or twice a week a patient comes to my clinic and complains of discharge. I always ask him if it happens all the time and if he gets stains in his underwear. If that’s the case, he probably has an infection. ” If not, Dr Ghanem is pretty sure he’s dealing with another case of prostatorrhea.
Right now, Dr. Ghanem says this is the most common complaint related to penile discharge in conservative societies - more common than gonorrhea or chlamydia. “We presume that the secretions are seminal fluid. Young men can get sexually excited several times a day. They see something which arouses them or they simply fantasize about sex. When that happens, the male genital glands start secreting fluid. These secretions build up and if they’re not released through ejaculation, they’ll seep out during urination.”
Masturbation is the “cure”
So how can this be treated? “We encourage them to masturbate“ says Dr Ghanem. “ Usually they’re happy because they can relieve themselves of this problem."But sometimes the men are worried because they’ve been frightened by myths about masturbation. “Then we get into religious discussions with them” says Dr. Ghanem.
“We quote different interpretations and opinions about masturbation in Islam. Many Muslim scholars believe masturbation is okay because it may help prevent people from practising pre-marital sex. It’s a safe way to satisfy your sexual needs.”
99% of young men masturbate
“We also tell them that not masturbating is really worrisome because 99% of young men masturbate. Some people suggest this is a mental disorder, but I don’t think so, given that the discharge disappears when the patient starts to masturbate. So we just give young men the license to do it.”
So far there’s very little hard data on prostatorrhea. For this reason Dr Ghanem and his colleagues have started a started a masters study into the classification of this problem and the characteristics of these patients. “We need to do research to gather evidence to prove our assumptions”.
Have you had experience with this condition? Let us know how you dealt with it.