Can Apixaban and Edoxaban cause urinary retention ?

[Oursfou1]

Hi everyone , i am Jean -François a 62 years old french Canadian and i have had atrial fibrillation for many years , i wear a pacemaker since 2008 and i have been on 31 mg aspirin for years . I have been prescribed apixaban for a pulmonary embolism in june 2021 which have been changed for edoxaban in 2023 for stroke prevention . I am known for having a bening prostatic hyperplasia since a few years but it seems that my urinary retention had worsen singnificantly since taking these direct oral anti coagulants . My question is , to your knowledge ,can DOAC be a cause of urinary retention ?

[BobD Volunteer]

Not in my understanding .

[mjames1]

Some studies suggest daily aspirin helps reduce prostate swelling and therefore bph. So what is more likely, is that stopping aspirin is what made your bph worse and not starting a DOAC. Unfortunately, they will probably not want you to take both at the same time.

That said, there may be other medications, such as alpha blockers, that can relax the muscles in your bladder making it easier to void. There have also been promising studies using low dose Cialis for bph, which may present with some positive side effects And as you probably know there are some newer minimally invasive procedures that can also help.

CIC (self catherization) is another option that urologists tend to skip over, but it's a non-drug, non surgical solution that's been around since 3000 BC when they used catheters made of straw! I personally used this method (not straw ) at various time when my bph acted up.

In any event, if you go the drug route, any drug you add should be crossed checked with your current medications to make sure there are no conflicts.

Jim

[Oursfou1 in reply to mjames1]

Thank you for your reply

[mjames1 in reply to Oursfou1]

My pleasure. I probably know more about bph than afib, so feel free to send me a private message.

Jim

[BobD Volunteer in reply to mjames1]

With no prostate Jim my problem is the reverse! If my boys and I are on a journey and make a comfort break I'm back in the car before they have started. lol 😁

[Oursfou1 in reply to mjames1]

Thank you Jim

[secondtry]

No experience but I doubt any connection. I think the improvement I have seen comes from reducing anxiety/stress and taking lambertshealthcare.co.uk/ot... (nb for Admin I have no commercial interest).

[Oursfou1 in reply to secondtry]

Thank you

[Ppiman]

I haven't noticed anything worsening with my prostate issues since starting rivaroxaban in 2019, and now apixaban. I don't know if you know, but aspirin is not recommended at all for stroke prevention in AF, so it's good you have changed to an effective anticoagulant.

If you have actual urinary retention, you need to see a urologist, I would think, but if it is the usual slowness and pausing issues, well, I can sympathise and can only say that there's little that works truly well but that the alpha-blockers seem to ease the problem well enough, if only just. These are drugs like alfuzosin, which I take, or tamsulosin, which wasn't effective enough for me. Such drugs are often given alongside a hormone blocker such as finasteride to shrink the prostate in the hope of easing the symptoms further. My urologist told me that the latter drugs often don't do much to help urine flow but are still well worth taking as they have been shown to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer significantly. Apparently, the readings from PSA tests do need careful adjustment (I was told the readings need to be doubled) when taking finasteride so as not to miss any increase.

Oh, to be young again, I say!

Steve

[Oursfou1 in reply to Ppiman]

Thank you for sharing your experience Steve . I will ask for an appointment with a urologist !

[Dippy22]

I’m on Edoxaban and if anything I have quite the opposite problem.

[Oursfou1 in reply to Dippy22]

Thank you for your reply