Question for the guys

marc_kowal · Aug 18, 2016

Ok, so here's something that's a little embarrassing, but I wanted to know if any of the gents have had any situations like this.

As you know, I was bridging with Lovenox since I needed a colonoscopy. On my last day of my Lovenox, I noticed blood in my semen (yikes)! I quickly looked up side effects of Lovenox and it did say that it could cause this to happen and it should go away after the Lovenox leaves your system. My wife and I checked a few days later and it looked a little better, but a few days after that, it was a dark brownish color now

Off to the urologist I go! After he gives me an exam (which was tons of fun....NOT), he says he doesn't see anything wrong, and that this can sometimes happen for no reason at all and that it could take weeks or months to resolve itself. Something could have been irritated or inflamed, and normally men wouldn't see anything, but because I was on Lovenox and Warfarin, it was noticeable. And he said blood in the semen is not indicative of cancer and not to be alarmed.

So I trust my doctor, no reason not to as he's always done right by me. A few days later I notice that I'll get a "spasm" in the prostate area and then when I urinate, I see little blood clots come out. Call the doc, and he says come in for a urine sample and they will send it out for testing. Tests came back negative for infection.

So now I sit and wait and hope this clears up sooner rather then later. So has anyone else had something like this go on because of their Warfarin? It would probably put my mind at ease if some folks said yes and it went away eventually. All I know is I'm getting sick of something new popping up after I get some other problem resolved.

~Marc

pellicle · Aug 18, 2016

Hi

well I'm no expert in this area but I'll have a quick stab at an answer.

Looking at where the prostate is located: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate

its highly likely it was disturbed during the (usually not gentle) colonsocopys.

Looking at what the prostate does (provide much of the volume of the fluids produced at ejaculation) if it was "bruised" by the "rough treatment" of the colonsocopy then it would indeed be likely to bleed a little and it feeds into the same tube as the bladder does.

I think that the "leaves your system" comment belies how little they grasp of pharmacology or indeed the process of bruises .. but that you have had small clots come out suggests that what bruising that happened then is breaking up.

So I agree that its wait and watch, and that there is no cause for alarm. I'd use pain as my indicator and if something hurts that you would then bring that to their attention. As to why the clots exiting, well if you look at the lower picture of the prostate you can see that internal damage would leave via the urethra, consistent with what you see.

That you are seeing clots is not unexpected because while heparin (which is what lovenox is) and warfarin are anticoagulants they do not prevent coagulation just slow it. So if some small bleeding occured then the AC therapy (both heparin and warfarin are AC) then that would make for a larger clot because the bleed would have bled a bit longer.

HTH

marc_kowal · Aug 18, 2016

And the weird thing is, there's no pain. Just a lot on un-needed stress.

gregjohnsondsm · Aug 19, 2016

Are you having any signs of infection? Fever? I would get a blood test to check for infection and be sure that they didn't mess up doing the colonoscopy. That can be very bad. Rule out the very bad first.

marc_kowal · Sep 6, 2016

Well it seems like the doc was right, and the "time heals all wounds" adage applies here. No sign of blood in over a week. It did make me freak out whenever I saw it, but I'm glad it's over. Makes me wonder if this will happen at my next colonoscopy in 10 years.