What is Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia?

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, or BPH, causes your prostate gland to get bigger with age. As the title implies, this is not a malignant or cancerous process. The prostate gland is the gland in the male that makes semen. It’s the gland that physician’s feel through the front wall of your rectum during a rectal exam.

Who gets BPH? 

It usually happens in older men. It can also be hereditary. If one lives to be old enough and is a male, you will probably develop some symptoms of BPH.

What are the symptoms?

You may have problems urinating because the prostate gland surrounds your urethra, which is the tube that carries the urine out of the body through the penis. 

It may be hard to start urinating, or you may not be able to urinate at all if you develop Acute Bladder Retention. If one has BPH you may have to go to the bathroom more often and may not be able to completely empty your bladder each time. This may give you symptoms of urgency, or the sensation that you have to urinate, even if you don’t have a lot of urine to pass.

How can my doctor tell if I have BPH?

Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms. You may need a rectal exam to see how large your prostate gland is and to check for cancer, which can also cause your prostate to get bigger. Your doctor may take a urine sample to check for signs of bladder or prostate disease. 

How is it treated?

If the symptoms don’t bother you, you may not need treatment. Symptoms usually get more pronounced over months to years. If the symptoms get to the point where you want relief from medication, there are medicines that can help you feel better. Basically these are of two main types. There are those that work rather quickly over a few days to a week or two and continue to give you relief while you take them. Side effects from those types of drugs can include rare fainting episodes as well as symptoms of rhinitis. Rhinitis can present with stuffy head and nose, almost as if you think that you might have a cold or sinus infection. The other main type of medication works more slowly over three to six months and continues to help shrink your prostate as long as you are taking the medication. There are fewer side effects from the latter family of drugs. Some patients need both drugs.

You may decide to have surgery if the above do not help. Your doctor can tell you what treatment is best for you.  A urologist would obviously be involved at that point. Today there are many different options for surgery for BPH.

Where can I get more information?