Blood in semen after biopsy

Was that under a general anesthetic?

I had 34 taken, but that was under general anesthetic and mainly targeted a specific area (anterior).

Before the current mpMRI scans, there used to be mapping biopsies, which is a type of transperineal template biopsy to sample all areas of the prostate. These were typically 100 cores.

With the development of effective transperineal local anesthetics over the past few years, they are doing transperineal biosies increasingly under local anesthetic.

The limit for TRUS was usually 12 samples, beyond which the patient becomes too uncomfortable.

I’m a little concern. Had my prostate biopsy done on 26 October last years. It’s been 11 weeks and I’m still having blood in my semen. Wondering if I should consult the doctor. 

Kian, that does seem like a long time. It was 3 weeks for me, and the leaflet I was given said up to 6 weeks. It does require a good number of ejaculations to get it out, and I did so daily to clear it in 3 weeks.

What colour is the blood? Blood is bright red for 3 days after it bled, but turns rust coloured after 3 days. So if the blood is bright red, you have fresh bleeding, but if it's been rust coloured except for first few days, then it hasn't bled since the procedure - it's just that you haven't got it all out.

Edited by member 16 Jan 2021 at 10:54  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Dawnrazor,

It was 5.3 with 19% free/total ratio on 17/11/20.

Edited by member 30 Jan 2021 at 07:00  | Reason: Addressed to the person who asked the question.

Just joined the group as I have only recently had the (first?) biopsy, so no results yet. But I was worried about blood in semen as the doctor suggested it may happen. I was quite shocked the first time as it was all blood (or at least that's what it looked like). I see now that this has happened to others as well and believe it to be normal, but I am disconcerted that we have not been warned about it in any detail; the doctor suggested to me to produce semen after the procedure, but didn't warn me.

I managed three times since the procedure and it is still all dark red and abundant.

On a slightly unrelated topic, can an enlarged prostate limit the production of semen?

Thank you

Kind regards

Some of the blood is broken down and the constituents reabsorbed by the body.

If there's too much, this doesn't work and a scab gets left there. This does make subsequent MRI scans more difficult to interpret.

In my case, I think I got it all out after the first biopsy. By the second biopsy, I was already on hormone therapy with very little ejaculate, and I didn't get it all out. A subsequent (second) MRI scan shows a bright white blob in my prostate. I was puzzled by this and asked the radiologist, saying I didn't think prostate cancer showed up so easily in MRI scans. It doesn't. He said this is the result of not getting all the blood out. What's left breaks down. The iron in the red blood cells becames concentrated, and because iron (or rust by this stage) is magnetic, it shows up very brightly on MRI scans. However, it would make further MRI scans of the prostate more difficult to interpret, if I ever need any. I now have a rusty prostate !

Aless

I felt the same after the biopsy and wanted to clear it of blood as soon as possible before surgery. It worried me the idea of leaving blood in my ball sac as I feared it may have contained cancer cells. In fact my surgeon told me it was completely normal and not to worry at all but I put the work in to clear it and it took 5 weeks or so!