What is Urethral Stricture?
When an elderly person must go for urination quite frequently or he gets sudden urging for urination or interrupted urination, then generally a doctor thinks of prostate enlargement.
But if similar symptoms are happening in a young person, then it may be due to the narrowing of the urethra which is known as urethral stricture.
Urethra is a fine and delicate tube that passes the urine collected in the bladder out of the body. Semen discharge in men happens through urethra.
The urethra, which is like an elastic tube, is always open. The neck of bladder controls the process of urination.
If urethra becomes narrow due to any reason, then urine has difficulty in getting out of it; this condition is called urethral stricture.
The patient has urging for urination, but he feels that there is difficulty urinating, and it takes time to urinate.
Causes of Urethral Stricture
Urethra becomes narrow in urethral stricture. There are many reasons for narrowing of urethra.
- Injury of urethra is a common cause of urethral stricture. This injury can happen while travelling or while playing.
I have seen in my clinical practice, which I have been doing since 1997, that medical intervention is a common cause. It may be a medical intervention cystoscopy in which a camera and pipe are inserted through urethra to see bladder.
The medical intervention may be catheterization which is done to drain the bladder during a surgery. The medical intervention can be radiotherapy during cancer treatment.
Because of all these the lining of urethra gets damaged and scar forms due to which urethra becomes narrow.
- The second most common cause of urethral stricture is recurrent infection of urethra or bladder which is also known as UTI.
This infection can occur due to STDs like gonorrhea or chlamydia. This infection can also occur due to long-term use of catheter.
Infection causes swelling in urethra. This swelling when heals leaves scar tissue behind. Scar tissue causes narrowing of urethra which leads to urethral stricture.
- Sometimes, when kidney stones move out of urethra, they damage the urethra, and a stricture is formed.
- Prostate cancer, bladder cancer that spreads to the urethra is also a reason for stricture in the urethra.
- Sometimes urethral stricture is also formed due to circumcision in children; this is revealed later when the stream of urine becomes distorted and thin, and the child must apply force to urinate.
- Sometimes the problem of urethral stricture is congenital. This problem also comes to notice later in life when the child gets older and he realizes that he is having trouble urinating if compared to others.
Allopathic treatment
First: Till date there is not a single medicine in allopathy which can treat urethral stricture. Most of the allopaths prescribe a long course of antibiotics to prevent recurrent UTIs. But this is not stricture treatment and moreover we all know about the side effects of antibiotics.
Second: When a patient of urethral stricture consults a urologist, the surgeon first tries dilatation of urethra.
In dilatation a thin rod is inserted inside the urethra to open it; but within few days the stricture again becomes hard and tight. So, dilatation is required quite frequently. By doing frequent dilatation the possibility of multiple stricture increases.
Third: Due to frequent dilatation the stricture becomes tighter and further dilatation becomes impossible. Then an operation called IOU (Internal optical urethrotomy) is performed.
In IOU, stricture is opened by making a cut with a thin knife. But I have seen in my practice that even after IOU stricture develops again like after dilatation. The stricture becomes hard and tight, and the urologist advises IOU again.
Fourth: When urethrotomy fails then doctor advises urethroplasty. Urethroplasty is a major operation in which a part of mucosa from your mouth is used to reconstruct the urethra.
According to my clinical experience this operation is also a failure in majority of patients. Also, there are high chances of complications like bleeding, infection, damage to penis and other organs.
Fifth: Some doctors advise their patients to get permanent fixation of urethral stent in the urethra; but I have seen that this causes recurrent infection, irritation of bladder and discomfort.
Can homeopathy help? My clinical experience
Most of the stricture patients consult me after they have undergone dilatation and surgery. The homeopathic treatment for urethral stricture is safe, natural and without any side effects; and it saves the patient from frequent surgeries.
Now let us know the benefits of taking homeopathy in stricture urethra:
- Homeopathic medicines make the stricture soft which reduces the need for dilatation and gradually with long term systematic treatment the need for dilatation completely stops.
- With the help of homeopathic treatment urinary tract infections remain in control; this prevents worsening of stricture and urine continue to come out easily.
- Homeopathic remedies make the musculature of urinary bladder strong; so that during urination the bladder empties as much as possible which prevents the chances of bladder infection or UTI.
- By taking homeopathy urinary output increases at every urination which reduces frequent urge for urination in patients.
- Sometimes injury is the main reason behind the development of stricture. With the help of homeopathy this side effect of injury can be dealt without hard scar formation.
When to start homeopathy?
A urethral stricture patient can start homeopathy anytime, but it is better to start as early as possible because then the possibility of complete recovery increases. Also, homeopathic remedies prevent further complications due to stricture urethra.
Improvement in cases of urethral stricture depends upon patient’s susceptibility towards remedies, patient’s age, number of strictures, length of stricture, how old the stricture is, and the surgeries done till date.
Number of Medicines
There are around 75 medicines for urethral stricture in homeopathy which are quite effective.
Now to choose from these 75 medicines a homeopathic physician needs to be highly qualified and experienced, because it is a very complicated process.
A good doctor will never prescribe remedies only on the name of urethral stricture. He will take the complete case history of the patient, study all the symptoms, properly analyse the information he has gathered, decide upon the potency and repetition keeping in mind the sensitivities and susceptibility of the patient and then prescribe the remedies.
In cases of urethral stricture, I generally prescribe remedies for a month. Every month I study the case again and finetune the remedies and their potencies.
Name of Medicines?
In this blog I have not named any medicines, nor I have promoted medicines of any company; because by doing so I will be playing with your health and may harm you. A sane doctor will never do this!
According to me homeopathic treatment is strongly recommended in every case of urethral stricture because it makes the stricture soft, prevents UTIs, strengthens bladder musculature and promotes healing in a natural way. This saves you from surgical operations and it improves your quality of life and there are no side effects.