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Prostatitis is an inflammation of the prostate. Because women do not have a prostate gland, it is a condition found only in men, although women do have microscopic paraurethral Skene's glands connected to the distal third of the urethra in the prevaginal space that are homologous to the prostate, and may cause symptoms.

A prostatitis diagnosis is assigned at 8% of all urologist and 1% of all primary care physician visits.

Nomenclature

The term prostatitis refers in its strictest sense to histological (microscopic) inflammation of the tissue of the prostate gland, although historically the term has loosely been used as a rubric to describe a set of quite different conditions. To try to remedy this, the NIH devised a new classification system in 1999.

Classification

According to the 1999 National Institute of Health (NIH) Classification, there are four categories of prostatitis:

• Category I: Acute prostatitis (bacterial)
• Category II: Chronic bacterial prostatitis
• Category III: Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS)

Subdivisions of IIIa (inflammatory) and IIIb (non-inflammatory) exist based on levels of pus cells in expressed prostatic secretions, but these subcategories are of limited use clinically

• Category IV: Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis