An enlarged prostate is a symptom of an enlarged prostate, frequent urination, a feeling like you always have to go to the bathroom, dripping, and waking up in the middle of the night. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or prostate enlargement, is more common than most men realize. You may be asked to fill out a form to assess how severe your symptoms are and how much they affect your daily life. Your provider can use this score to determine if your condition worsens over time.
The treatment you choose will be based on the severity of your symptoms and how much they bother you. Your provider will also consider other medical problems you may have. If you're over 60, you're more likely to have symptoms. However, many men with an enlarged prostate have only minor symptoms.
. If you have BPH, you should have an annual exam to monitor your symptoms and see if you need treatment changes. Alpha-1 blockers are a class of medications that are also used to treat high blood pressure. These medicines relax the muscles of the bladder, neck, and prostate.
Most people who take alpha-blockers notice an improvement in their symptoms, usually 3 to 7 days after they start taking the medication. Finasteride and dutasteride lower the levels of hormones produced by the prostate. These medications also reduce the size of the gland, increase urine flow, and decrease symptoms of BPH. You may need to take these medicines for 3 to 6 months before you notice that your symptoms improve.
Possible side effects include decreased sexual desire and impotence. Antibiotics may be prescribed to treat chronic prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate), which can occur with BPH. BPH symptoms improve in some men after treatment with antibiotics. Many herbs have been tried to treat an enlarged prostate.
Many men use saw palmetto to relieve symptoms. If you use saw palmetto and think it works, ask your doctor if you should continue taking it. The choice of recommended surgical procedure is usually based on the severity of the symptoms and on the size and shape of the prostate gland. Most men who have prostate surgery have an improvement in urine flow rates and symptoms.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia, a noncancerous enlargement of the prostate gland, is the most common benign tumor found in men. The main symptom of an enlarged prostate is difficulty initiating urine flow or a dripping stream when you urinate. The patient may also experience increased frequency and urgency, hesitation and interruption of urine flow. Because the prostate tends to enlarge with age, it can compress the urethra and cause problems with urination.
Sometimes, men between the ages of 30 and 40 may start to have these urinary symptoms and need medical attention. For others, symptoms aren't noticed until much later in life. An infection or tumor can also enlarge the prostate. Be sure to tell your doctor if you have any of the urinary symptoms listed below.
For this procedure, a urologist inserts a special ultrasound probe into the rectum, near the prostate. Although some people believe that it is best to treat any type of cancer that is found, including cancers that are found through screening tests, prostate cancer treatment can cause serious and sometimes permanent side effects. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the PSA test in conjunction with a DRE to help detect prostate cancer in men aged 50 and older. The narrowing of the urethra and urinary retention, the inability to empty the bladder completely, cause many of the problems associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia.
Therefore, large research studies are now being conducted, with thousands of men, to study prostate cancer screening. The urinalysis, which is performed on all patients with symptoms of BPH, may be the only laboratory test if the symptoms are mild and no other abnormalities are suspected in the medical history and physical exam. During a TUIP, the urologist inserts a cystoscope and an instrument that uses an electrical current or laser beam through the urethra to reach the prostate. A recent study found that 10 milligrams (mg) of terazosin a day resulted in a 30% reduction in BPH symptoms in approximately two-thirds of men taking the medication.
Unlike other therapies that remove or dry prostate tissue, the urethral prostatic stretching procedure involves placing UroLift implants in the prostate with direct visualization to compress the prostate lobes and clear the prostatic urethra. Surgery was the only option until the recent approval of minimally invasive procedures that open the prostatic urethra and drugs that can alleviate symptoms, either by shrinking the prostate or relaxing the muscle tissue of the prostate that contracts the urethra. To get the benefits of finasteride for BPH without compromising the early detection of prostate cancer, men should have a PSA test before starting treatment with finasteride. Another theory focuses on dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a male hormone that plays a role in prostate development and growth.
Urologists generally use prostate stents on men who may not tolerate or may not be suitable for other procedures. Preliminary research suggests that these drugs improve symptoms in 30 to 60% of men, but it is not yet possible to predict who will respond to medical therapy or which drug will be best for an individual patient. .
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