UberIM

67 here and in good overall shape. I have BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy) and am 4 months out from a laser prostate surgery-HOLEP-
Unfortunately developed a bulbar urethral stricture as a complication of my operation.
Anyone with any experience with either of these situations and when they retuned to riding?
I was about to buy a new Mtn bike when this fit hit the Shan for my perineum.
Getting olderand feeling more vulnerable.
I did a search prior to starting a new thread. If I missed a discussion already I apologize.

terrymorse 

Pill and Ills category, please.

Trsnrtr

So moved.

Calsun

When I was exploring surgery options 2 years ago I found that in the west that there was no one doing HOLEP and what the surgeons told me was that it took at least 100 operations before the surgeon was able to do it successfully and so they stopped doing them entirely. I opted for greenlight laser instead as a result which was very successful and my recovery time was two days.

Biker395 

I have had both a green light laser prostatectomy and a robot assisted non-radical prostatectomy. Both were aimed not so much at BPH, but at getting to some calcifications that were suspected to be harboring bacteria.

The green light laser procedure was pretty easy. I had a catheter for a few days afterwards, and removed it myself. I had to wait a couple of weeks before riding again, but that was not an issue.

But it did not remove all of the calcifications, and the infection returned. So some time later, I was referred out to get a HOLEP procedure because apparently, that procedure allows them to remove more of the prostate and get closer to the capsule, where most calcifications occur. I asked that doc (UCLA doc who does lots of them) if he was going to do a standard HOLEP or if he was going to do it with the goal of removing all calcifications and infected tissue. Answer: Standard HOLEP.

I was also considering having a another rather highly regarded surgeon do a non-radical robotic prostatectomy. Just for yuks, I asked the UCLA doc who he would recommend to do such a surgery. He recommended two that he thought were highly regarded. One I had already seen and was not interested in me because he really specializes in cancer cases. The other is the highly regarded surgeon for whom I had already asked for a consult, and was going to see a couple of days later.

Doc #2 (also a roadie) told me that my case was not simple and was not an ordinary surgery people do every day of the week, and that my case was complex. He also said that his goal would be to get all of the calcifications out and any suspicious tissue, and have everything biopsied. This guy has done 1000s of prostatectomies.

So doc #2 did the surgery. It took much longer to recover than it did from the green light procedure. The catheter was in for a week, and had to be removed at his facility. All tissue samples biopsied negative. I was also off the bike 4 weeks before I even tried to ride, and at that, I was not ready, It was more than another month before I was ready..

I had none of the possible nasty side effects. As for the infection, so far so good, but we will see.

In any case, docs are definitely doing HOLEPs. What is best for you depends on the circumstances. It is also possible to need a follow up TURP or green light procedure, as some of the tissue does grow back (less with HOLEP).

All I can say is that do your best to find a doc you trust, and when you do, put your faith in them. Prostates are difficult little glands that cause a lot of trouble for us.

Calsun

I was lucky in having taken a fall off a step stool and landed on hard stone with a concussion. The resulting x-rays and CAT scan and ultrasound revealed that I was OK except that my bladder was completely full and so it was negatively impacting my kidneys and damaging them. The Greenlight surgery to remove prostrate tissue was in my case essential. After the surgery I could drink 2 quarts of water each day and I could sleep through the night without having to get up an urinate. This made a huge difference in my health and in my quality of life.