PsA and BHP?
I had a cystoscopy performed yesterday (YEE-OUCH!) and it was discovered that I have an enlarged prostate. My doc doesn't think it's prostate cancer because I have no family history and my PSA levels are normal. Just Benign Prostate Hyperplasia.
I know BHP is caused in part by inflammation and was wondering if anyone knew of any link between it and PsA? One may have nothing to do with the other but I was curious.
Gosh I hope you are recovering okay from the procedure, Sean. That must have been uncomfortable to say the least !
This is a really interesting question. I wasn't able to find anything on BPH and PsA, however I did find a study which looked at the link between BPH and rheumatoid arthritis. As RA is another type of inflammatory arthritis, I thought the findings may be of interest: it concluded that there was a significant association between benign prostate enlargement and a prior RA diagnosis. The full text is here if you're interested in reading it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4501730/
I'd be curious to hear if anyone else has any thoughts/research on this. Did you get a chance to get your doctor's thoughts on this?
- Catherine, Community Moderator
I did not get a chance to get my doctor's thoughts on this. I will tell you one thing I've noticed about doctors - at least the one's I've visited - is that a lot of them feel pretty set in their ways and not all that interested in learning about new diagnoses and associations.
Just to give you one example, when my doctor was going over various options to treat BPH he never mentioned that there's a brand new non-surgical treatment that's seen a LOT of success. They place a bead in the artery going to your prostate and starve it of oxygen, shrinking it. That treatment is only being studied in the U.S. at the moment but these are the sorts of things you have to really dig into and find out yourself.
Oh and THANK YOU for posting that study. I had a strong suspicion that my enlarged prostate might be linked to my PsA and that RA study seems to indicate that's likely the case.
The good news on that front is that my body has been responding really well to the Humira so with any luck I have my inflammation issue managed.
You are so welcome, Sean! I think how many things the inflammation can affect is finally starting to sink in for me. I do hope that the Humira will continue to work well for you. I am still amazed and impressed that you noticed a difference with it so quickly. It makes me feel hopeful for if I ever have to start one of the biologic drugs!
- Catherine, Community Moderator
I will say this about Humira ... my only regret so far is not having started it sooner.
I was so afraid of the side effects of the drug when what I SHOULD have been afraid of was what the inflammation was doing to my body. Who knows what damage I might have prevented had I started taking Humira years ago?
