Are bladder isses normal after external beam prostate radiation? Tips?

I hope you are still seeing and in contact with your radiolgist/oncologist. This would be something I think you should asked them or your urologist.

Now on a personal level I have had this also happen. I finished my proton radiation less that 4 weeks ago. I had this same unusually happen to me just today. I found if I drink cold drinks and drink hot coffee this happens to me. For some reason this stopped happening after a couple of hours.

I differ from you as my change in urination is throughout the day and night. Sometimes 2-3 hours sometimes 1-2 hours. I think not only prostrate is highly irritated from radiation treatment there is some secondary radiation of bladder even though pencil beam proton. I was advised since prostrate can move during the radiation they do margins. So even though I did the drink water to mover bladde up and away I think you still get some radiation irritation to bladder and rectum (had Space/Oar).

My urninary functions are all over the place. I asked my radiogist/oncologist about these changes and he said it would take a couple of months to get better and that was not uncommon to happen and I was at less than a month since end of treatments.

I have access to my oncologist/radiologist via portal, phone, and have appts. if needed as well as scheduled appointments. Since we are all diferent and can react all differently I would recommend contacting your care provider to make sure it is not something that needs to be addressed medically.

During my radiation treatments I thought my urine smelled funny. I had a complete urninalysis done but was normal. I was told food and drinks can cause this.

Many thanks for the support. I will certainly take your advice. Best of luck.

I have had bad days like this too. Drink lots of water all day. Stay away from pop, beer, and wine.
Ask your urologist for something to take daily at night
to limit your triggering sensitivity. Keeping active also helps me… if I sit for long periods it is worse than if I walk
the dog 0.5 - 1 km too

Many thanks ...

Sure, glad I only did five proton radiation treatments as the only urinary problem post radiation seems to be more urgency when washing dishes in hot water with it running. If I have to go at all I have to stop the dishes and go, or I will dribble a drop. Now during the radiation, I had to stop the coffee as they tell you to avoid caffeine. After the first treatment my mug of coffee was waiting the car for me, and I drank it on the way home then finished my pot of Mr. Coffee. The same scenario for the second treatment except this time about an hour after I finished the pot my bladder said, "you dummy you should have listened to the instructions". I was going every half an hour whether it was a little or a lot. Needless to say, I stopped the coffee for about two weeks after my last treatment.

@robertdluken, did you get any answers about the bladder issues from your cancer team? How are you doing now?

I also experienced some urinary problems after 44 rounds of external beam radiation. And for the most part after a couple of months it did get better. Sometimes they can actually hit the bladder during radiation treatments and that will cause urinary problems.
I also found out certain drinks caused me to go continuously and it got a bit scary. Soda ( Coke ) for me was the cause. But I’m sure any soda , coffee, caffeinated drinks will do it !! Stay away from them as much as possible until things calm down ✌️

I had tomotherapy for six weeks and from the 5th week I started having urinary problems like incontinence, increased frequency, urgency, constriction, and dribbling. For a week or 10 days, I had tremendous burning and pain before and during peeing. All issues subsided in about one month without any medication, but to date, I do have an issue of incomplete voiding and the feeling that I still want to pee is still there but not always.

I received 5 Proton treatments back in May. During and just after treatments, I had issues starting urinating and holding in the other end. My oncologist prescribed FlowMax and they helped. After about a week I was able to retrain myself to have control of going to the bathroom. Currently all is well, no issues and I got my first results post treatment, all is good.

I had 5 treatments with the MRIdian in Jan/Feb. Some urinary restriction after the 3rd treatment. Flomax worked within 24 hours. Urinary issues did not last long for me and there was no pain.