These two drugs helped me tremendously, but are they safe?

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After many years of enlarged prostate I wanted to get off the two daily medications I was taking because of known dangers - Avodart (dutasteride)and Flomax (Tamuosin) My Urologist highly recommended Greenlight Laser surgery. He promised it was a simple surgery that removes the central portion of the prostate to allow great urine flow. I had the surgery this past June. Immediately I was almost completely incontinent - wearing pads and diapers at all times to help with the drips, leakage and free flow of urine.

After three months I was no better at all. I saw another Urologiest/surgeon who said the problem was due to the Greenlight Laser procedure that had left me with a weak bladder sphincter. She told me to stop taking the dutasteride and Tamulosin and she prescribed two new meds to help control bladder sphincter problem - Oxybutynin and Myrbetriq. She also told me to do 100+ legals a Kegals a day and that she highly recommended I have a second surgery to install an artificial sphincter. The meds and legals worked well over the next 3 months. I'm now a little over 6 months since the first surgery and almost all leakage problems are gone requiring no pads, diapers etc. (Sometime a fold a single paper towel into my underwear for extra confidence.

Here's my issue now. I desperately want to get off the Oxybutynin and Myrbetriq because I have read how they are both linked to memory problems, early onset dementia and even Alzheimers. Has anyone detoxed from these two drugs? Is it difficult? Do I taper off? I'd appreciate your experiences.

Thank youQ

 

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I don’t have any suggestions on the medications you are taking but the number of daily Kegels sounds a little extreme. Hope they work for you.
I had never hear of the Greenlight laser procedure before. I did a Urolift
procedure myself.

Any thoughts of suing the Urologist who did the Greenlight Procedure?

 

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I am on Myrbetriq and my doctors have never mentioned memory problems (or if they did I don't remember-LOL). I will ask my doctor about it next time I see him.

 

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I recommend working with your NEW urologist to move toward the lowest dose available of the medicines. Also ask if the pill can be split.

Remember just as it took 3 months to get dry, stopping the medicine too fast may restart the dripping. I would step down one drug per month per step per month.

 

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When my incontinence became as bad as it now is, my doctor offered me prescriptions, but I'd already read on here that there were side effects associated with them. That, plus the fact that they apparently aren't effective with every person using them. The side effects, with the exception of a dry mouth are the symptoms I have been dealing with from my head injury for 32 years already, so I wasn't interested in making any of them worse. When I started reading that there is a connection to dementia, I decided that wearing protection was the lesser of the two evils. I'd already been doing so for years anyway; the fact that it would now be all the time wasn't that big a deal. As I've mentioned elsewhere, it meant that with few exceptions (swimming in pools, excessively physical work, or in hot environments) my life could go on as usual.
Anyway, to get back to the topic of this thread, my doctor told me that there were some 'cleaner' meds available now, which to me doesn't really mean 'safe'- only that they are not as dangerous. She left the decision to me, and believe me I wouldn't go near the stuff, I don't care how bad my problems get. If you can get off these medications, I would suggest you do so, even if your leakage returns. The loss of bladder control isn't as bad as losing your mental abilities. I know- mine were threatened and I'm still climbing out of that hole.

 

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Hi,Teddy here,I had a xxxx bad luck before noon,no it has nothing to do with my bladder,every second day my wife and myself have a walk of 3 km.It was snowing and the side of the road was packed and verry slippery,just as I was thinkingof puting on my anti skid under my booths I xxxx fell on my back,man did it hurt,lucky I didn't hit my head.A few people driving by asked if I needed any help ( it was nice of them ).We went back to the car and as we got home my wife put a cold gel pad across my back. I was not bad this afternoon,I managed to go to work as supervisor ( for a school bus company )it wasn't that bad.When I got home I had supper then I had my bath. Everynight after my bath I do my floor exercises and man I couldn't do them my back was hirting like hell.My wife put some cream on my back,it took me about 5 minutes to get of the floor,hope I'll be better tomorrow,I'll do my regular Kegel exercises sitting down instead. As for Rangerman,I do 6 different floor exercises twice a day ( 15 of each and 4 to 5 times a day I do Kegels which amounts to about 85 Kegels a day ).For me my exercises helped me a lot,next Thursday it will be 3 months of my operation and I'm using 1 to about 2 pads a day since the 28th. December 2020

 

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Ok, 10 months ago I was on Avodart (Dutasteride)and Flomax (Tamsulosin)they are quite a team together. I was on them 6 mo. trying to attack long-term pain I have suffered with bladder spasms and or IT. It did seem to help but we decided to get off of it slowly, that being Flomax first them Avodart.I did notice side effects, my breasts grew to much larger, I was already impotent, but noticed no ability at all. So all during this time I was and still am taking 15mg of Oxybutynin, which my urology PA told me a few years ago I must stay on this the rest of my life. Well ok, yes really noticing now memory issues. So right now trying bladder instills, and hoping this might help me enough I can stop the Oxybutynin. Personally, I wish I never started the Oxy.

 

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@Rangernan I have been on both drugs and just stopped using them as I found they were no longer working for me. Had no side effects going cold turkey. I am still taking Tamsulosin though and will be on that for life.

 

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In regards to Oxybutynin I'm suppose to take 30mg daily but I've been on it over 20 years so it seems to work less and less hence my high daily dose. I've stopped cold turkey taking it many times over the years, you should be just fine.

 

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What does Oxybutynin do? Any side effects?

 

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Rangernan, I renewed my prescription for Myrbetriq and read the entire insert (I did have to use a magnifying glass). There was no mention about an impact of memory loss. Could you please share where you read about Myrbetriq and memory loss? I would like to do some research before I ask my doctor about this. There was a report from AARP but they issued a correction and retracted that report.
Thanks for your help with this.

 

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@ShepNYC for me, dry eyes, dry mouth and possibly blurred vision were the side effects I experienced.

 

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@stuart I searched the BNF for Myrbetriq and no drug came up exactly but Mirabegron is the actual drug name and there were no side effects listed for memory issues, however, on searching Google for Myrbetriq, under RxList, they list memory issues as one of the side effects.

 

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Laalaauk, I just searched RxList and the memory issues are no longer listed. I believe it must the same thing I found on the AARP site, where they indicated that the original listing was a mistake. Maybe this is good news for you.

 

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Hey Stuart,

That's strange because it is still there when I looked this morning. I can't advocate for Rx List as it is not recommended to be used by my University but I guess it is better just to be aware than not.