BPH and Prostate Cancer are not the only conditions that can affect the prostate, but they are by far the most common. The Prostate gland can become infected in a number of ways causing infectiove "Prostatitis". This is nasty and very painful. It will be dealt with seperately, not on this page. PROSTATITIS
The Prostate can also be injured. The commonest injury to the Prostate happens in more severe pelvic fractures. Here the gland can be partly or totally torn in two. This will mend, usually with few problems, however the urethra in the middle also gets torn in half. This does not heal so well, and careful, delicate surgical repair is usually needed. It is very hard to repair the urethra without a stricture ( tight narrowing) developing a few months later.
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What Causes it ?
In the vast majority of men the problems are caused by the simple benign enlargement of the Prostate with age. As the gland only enlarges very slowly, the squeezing of the urethra is also very slow. So the onset of the symptoms is measured in months and years, with no day to day change. For many men it is impossible to say when it started, with such a gradual onset the symptoms are frequently passed off as "Normal Ageing" . Which of course it is. Sadly though , there are an awful lot of men who do not seek help for what are frequently quite severe symptoms, It is assumed that this is something that older men just have to put up with. Fortunately that is no longer the case, it is such a shame that so many men have disruption of their lives and sleep when they do not need to.
Very much more serious there is Prostate Cancer The second commonest cancer in men after Lung Cancer it accounts for more than 10,000 deaths per year in England and Wales. A cancer in the prostate causes the Prostate to enlarge and eventually squeeze the urethra. This then gives exactly the same symptoms as benign enlargement. The only thing that sometimes rings alarm bells is the speed of onset of the symptoms. A cancer grows much faster than a benign gland enlarges, so rather than the symptoms creeping on over several years, with a cancer a man my go from being asymptomatic to quite bad symptoms in the space of a few months.
Until the cancer spreads out of the Prostate gland itself it will produce no extra symptoms that differ from benign growth. Unfortunately by the time it has spread outside of the gland, it is an advanced growth with very poor chances of a cure.
We hear a lot about Prostate Cancer in the media, but hear little about its much commoner and less hyped" little brother". Benigh Prostatic Hypertrophy or BPH disrupts many more lives than Prostate Cancer, for each cancer sufferer there are at least ten men with BPH who are needlessly putting up with symptoms.
IMPORTANT A hint to help you try to avoid looking stupid.!!
It is called the PROSTATE gland
It is NOT called the PROSTRATE gland.
If your glands are prostrate then we really need to have a man to man talk !!
What is the Prostate?
The Prostate Gland is part of the male reproductive system. Its function is to make most of the liquid part of semen, The gland's secretion is rich in certain sugars that are essential for the sperm to stay alive long enough to find an egg and fertilise it.
The Prostate sits immediatly under the bladder with the urethra ( or the tube that you pee through) running through the center of the gland. Sadly, this is a fundamental design fault as when the Prostate enlarges with age, as it will do, the result is that the urethra gets squeezed in a lot of men.
A normal healthy Prostate gland is traditionally described as being roughly the size and shape of a walnut. It normally gradually enlarges as the man grows older. ( For no terribly good reason ! )
The squeezing of the urethra is what causes the problems as it becomes progressively harder to pee. Enlargement of the Prostate also interferes with the control of bladder emptying so that the bladder is not fully emptied, hence the symptoms of frequency and getting up at night as the man is never less than about half full.
Prostate Problems
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