Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and pelvic floor spasm: can we diagnose and treat?

National Institutes of Health category III prostatitis, also known as chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, is a common condition with significant impact on quality of life. This clinically defined syndrome has a multifactorial etiology and seems to respond best to multimodal therapy. At least half of these patients have pelvic floor spasm. There are several approaches to therapy including biofeedback, acupuncture, and myofascial release physical therapy. However, the only multicenter study of pelvic floor physical therapy for pelvic floor spasm in men failed to show an advantage over conventional Western massage. We have proposed a clinical phenotyping system called UPOINT to classify patients with urologic chronic pelvic pain and subsequently direct appropriate therapy. Here, we review the current approach to category III prostatitis and describe how clinical phenotyping with UPOINT may improve therapy outcomes.