Men don't normally like talking about them until something goes wrong, and then they like talking about them even less.
But it's time to talk about them.
Acute prostatitis diagnoses have more than doubled suddenly.
Acute prostatitis is a sudden infection or inflammation of the prostate. It causes fever, pain, trouble peeing, and a very unwell feeling.
Covid makes this more likely because it weakens bladder defences, increases bacterial infections after illness, and disrupts the nerves that control the urinary tract. Covid also raises the chance of urinary retention, which makes infections spread into the prostate faster.
For years, people who have been reading the science have been warning that covid infections cause immune system disruption.
Not in a mysterious hand-wavy way.
In a very specific, well-understood biological way:
Covid infections damage B cells and destabilise antibody production.
And covid infections also trigger autoimmune activity in a significant minority of people.