[TMI tag]
Typically I am rather thick and copious, but since my colonoscopy procedure I’ve noticed the volume is way down. I don’t think I am having any retrograde ejaculations since my urine looks normal. Is this a common occurence after a colonoscopy?
Meant to add: I found one other guy during a Google search who had the same problem after said procedure.
Bumping for the morning crowd.
Mine has been zero since my last colonoscopies (then again, as a female-type, it was zero beforehand also :p).
More seriously: what do you think the mechanism might be? The only thing that comes to mind is that after rectal surgery, they caution you that it might be difficult to urinate for a bit afterward. It was never made clear just why that was - I am speculating that it has something to do with how all the nerves are interconnected, and trauma to one area causes everything else to basically clamp down in sheer terror. The person who had the surgery was strongly cautioned that if he couldn’t pee within x hours, he was to go to the ER. So maybe something similar is at play?
Hopefully a medical Doper will pop in with a more educated opinion.
I see scattered anecdotal reports online relating to urinary retention after colonoscopy, but nothing coming up in a PubMed literature search. As for negative effects on ejaculate volume, a common factor with urinary output could be function of pelvic floor musculature (i.e. the pubococcygeus muscle), whose function might conceivably be affected by something happening during colonoscopy. According to one study of “minor” colorectal surgery associated with urinary retention, the mechanism of urinary problems was unknown but postulated to be:
“Adrenergic stimulation causing reflex
inhibition of the detrusor muscle and bladder
outlet contraction secondary to anal distention and pain”
Again, this is not directly related to the OP’s question but might provide hints as to a common mechanism.
One would expect any anesthesia-related problems to dissipate fairly quickly after colonoscopy.