Prostate massage is also used as an erotic massage for sexual stimulation, often in order to reach orgasm. Vigorous prostate massage has been documented to have injurious consequences: periprostatic hemorrhage, cellulitis, septicaemia, possible disturbance and metastasis of prostate cancer to other parts of the body, and hemorrhoidal flare-up, and rectal fissures. The practice is still used in some parts of China. In a recent trial, however, prostate massage was not shown to improve outcomes compared to antibiotics alone. In the late 1990s the ineffectiveness of drug treatments for chronic prostatitis led to a brief resurgence of interest in prostate massage. Once the most popular therapeutic maneuver used to treat prostatitis, it was abandoned as primary therapy in the 1960s. Prostatic massage should never be performed on patients with acute prostatitis, because the infection can spread elsewhere in the body if massage is performed. As a consequence of these findings, prostate massage is not officially sanctioned in medicine for the treatment of any medical disorder today. In recent trials, however, prostate massage was not shown to improve outcomes compared to antibiotics alone.
In the late 1990s, a small number of doctors tried prostate massage in conjunction with antibiotics for the treatment of chronic bacterial prostatitis with uncertain results.
