DDAVP spray can stop bed-wetting
Dear Dr. Gott: When I saw your column about the 16-year-old who wets the bed, I couldn’t write to you fast enough. My older brother – now in his 50s – wet the bed until well into his teens, and I remember everything my mother and brother went through trying to “cure” him until it eventually stopped on its own. Back in the early 1990s, my son Billy, at age 14, was still wetting the bed, and I felt terrible for him.
When Billy was 14 I read an Ann Landers column that contained a letter from a woman whose 18-year-old twins had miraculously stopped wetting the bed after using the nasal spray DDAVP. I contacted Billy’s pediatrician, who promptly prescribed the spray for him, and to our delight he stopped wetting the bed after the first day of use. The only downside was the cost, which at the time was something like $140 for a three-and-a-half-week supply, not covered by insurance. So each time Billy finished a bottle, I waited a couple of days to get it refilled, just in case. It took a few months, but after a few refills, he never wet the bed again. Billy’s pediatrician explained that there is some kind of hormone that in certain adolescents is lower than it should be, with the level at its lowest supposedly at around 4 a.m. Billy used the DDAVP spray before bedtime, and it opened up a whole new world for him: sleepovers, overnight camp, etc. Assuming you don’t disagree, I can’t urge that mother strongly enough to look into this for her son.
Dear Reader: Your observations are valid, and I thank you for sharing them. Unquestionably, many adolescent bed-wetters are helped by DDAVP spray, and it makes sense for parents to request the prescription.
Dear Dr. Gott: Has an in-depth study ever been done on benign prostatic hyperplasia patients, comparing the elderly who are still sexually active with those who are just using their plumbing to urinate? Is there any serious reason to believe the BPH will be either lessened, eliminated or delayed by remaining sexually active?
Dear Reader: It’s always tempting to blame patients’ diseases on their behavior. For example, is the normal, age-related enlargement of the prostate gland caused by too little or too much sex?
Doctors have been fairly evenly divided on this issue, falling into the “use it or lose it” wing or the “give it a rest” camp.
BPH will affect most men sooner or later; therefore, I think it’s fair to assume that sexual activity does not play a crucial role. However, no one knows the cause of this condition, which leads to frequent urination and other symptoms that can now be relieved by prostate-shrinking drugs, such as Proscar and Avodart.
My advice to elderly gentlemen is to remain active in whatever manner is possible, and don’t become obsessed about whether your sex life will lead to BPH.