cough syrup and bph/urinary stream?

cough syrup and bph/urinary stream?

Hi, I'm 53 yo and was diagnosed on having an enlarged prostate about 5
years ago.

The only possible effects I have really noticed is difficulty
urinating when I wake up, but not all the time, sometimes a good
strong stream. But when I do have the problem, hard to start urinating
and frequent stopping of the stream. Occasionally during the day I may
have difficulty also. I just had my annual tests done and my PSA is
1.3 so that's good, but I was referred to a urologist because of my
morning complaints. Actually some mornings I wake up with a "woody",
and I told the urologist about that, and he says that's a good thing
in this respect.

I had a terrible cold or some kind of crud around the new year, which
I seem to get every year around then, and without fail a horrible
aggressive cough that seems to last about 6 weeks, just starting to
really get better in that respect, not hacking away too bad since a
week ago or so. In that time I was also taking regular doses of DXM/
guaifenesin cough syrup, which seems to help marginally, so I was
taking a tablespoon every 4 hours or so (directions say 2 teaspoons).

The urologist said with BPH, not to use cough syrups and that may have
had to do something with my seemingly worse lately urination problem.
When I got home I see I was taking a generic DXM/guaifenesin (Good
Sense Tussin DM). I tried looking this up online, and it did mention
caution with people with BPH and/or urinary retention, however all the
sites also stated "their" cough syrup had not only DXM/guaifenesin,
but also acetaminophen and/or pseudoephedrine which the one I buy does
not have, so is it
the pseudoephedrine that causes urinary retention or can DXM or
guaifenesin cause it also? I don't see any of that kind of warning on
my cough syrup bottle. Anybody with any experience on this?

Also the urologist gave me a 5 weeks worth of samples of something
called Uroxatral (alfuzosin HCI 10mg exrended release capsules) to
help my urine stream, but I won't start them for a couple more days
until after my sleep study appointment as I don't want to introduce
anything new in my system until after that appointment.

I also take 320 mg Saw Palmetto twice a day (Rexall brand from Wal-
Mart), and I asked the urologist if that really helps and he said "You
can take them if you want, they won't hurt you". I thought I may also
get pills to keep the size of my prostate in check, but I assume he
thought my prostate isn't bad enough, as he did do a digital rectal
exam and said he felt nothing bad.

Thanks.

Re: cough syrup and bph/urinary stream?

dke3591 wrote:
>The urologist said with BPH, not to use cough syrups and that may have had to do something with my seemingly worse lately urination problem.

I had a similar experience about two years ago. I had just turned 50.
Somebody at work was spreading bronchitis, while still in the early stages of
said disease, my doctor prescribed a cough syrup with a decongestant. The
urinary problems had only been somewhat bothersome prior to that, within days
they began to worsen. Six month later I had surgery (TUIP) to relieve the
obstruction. My Uro said to never take a decongestant again.
I did try both Flomax and Uroxatral - could not tolerate the side effects.
Best of luck,
Rick

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Re: cough syrup and bph/urinary stream?

On Feb 27, 10:48 am, "RichardD55 via MedKB . com " <u17130@uwe> wrote:
> dke3591 wrote:
> >The urologist said with BPH, not to use cough syrups and that may have had to do something with my seemingly worse lately urination problem.
>
> I had a similar experience about two years ago. I had just turned 50.
> Somebody at work was spreading bronchitis, while still in the early stages of
> said disease, my doctor prescribed a cough syrup with a decongestant. The
> urinary problems had only been somewhat bothersome prior to that, within days
> they began to worsen. Six month later I had surgery (TUIP) to relieve the
> obstruction. My Uro said to never take a decongestant again.
> I did try both Flomax and Uroxatral - could not tolerate the side effects.
> Best of luck,
> Rick
>
> --
> Message posted via MedKB . com * w w w .medkb . com /Uwe/Forums.aspx/prostate-bhp/200702/1

I tried the Uroxatral, after 3 days I quit, side effects were awful,
constipation, lightheaded, legs felt like rubber, ears ringing,
clumsiness, forgetfulness, felt like I had a tight band around my
chest. nausea. After I stopped taking it, I felt my normal self 2 days
later, and those were just the 10 mg dose, I read they also make a 40
mg dose. As far as urinating, seems the Uroxatral helped somewhat. So
back to my uro for other options, maybe a drug to shrink the prostate,
but I read side effercts can be bad at that too and you take the drug
the rest of your life.

I faxed my doctor's office to let him know also know the cough syrup I
was taking is only DXM and guaifenesin (no decongestant or anything
else) and he said in that case it was alright to take.