Enlarged Prostate

Perhaps the most common alarm signal that comes with enlarged prostate is restricted urine flow.

Enlarged prostate has a high degree of probability of appearing in men over the ages of fifty in North American populations. As the population ages, with the greater number of males living are in the older age cohorts, the incidence of “benign prostate hyperplasia” is increasing.  Symptomatic distress increases with age.  Frequency of treatments based on medical or surgical interventions increases with age.  Prostate size increase and changes in its chemical makeup are affected by fluctuations in testosterone levels.

Current Wisdom

Medical theories which once held prostate size is a predictor of urinary restriction of outflow have been rejected.  The correlation between prostate total girth measurement and the rate of urinary flow is minimal and not reliable as a predictor of complications due to prostate size.  Rejection of size to outflow restriction theories has not led to wholesale rejection of theories about risks associated with benign prostate hyperplasia.  Research is fairly settled on the normal growth rate or size expansion of a healthy prostate gland in males over age 50.  The normal growth rate is 1 to 2 cm annually.  Age is the defining risk factor in majority of prostate disease cases.  Benign prostate hyperplasia is under medical research investigation as a disease that can trend high in males of entire family groups of siblings and offspring (extended families).  Benign prostate hyperplasia is the medically verifiable condition of prostate disease cases in 80 per cent of all diagnoses.

Symptoms

The early stages of benign prostate hyperplasia are marked by false alarms where a bodily signal to urinate is not consistent with actual ability to pass urine.  The signal can also be followed by long waiting periods at the urinal to pass fluid.  There is also the possibility that the patient will experience an urge to urinate but, what follows is greatly reduced stream resulting in less urine passed overall or an incomplete passing of fluid during the transaction.  The incomplete passage of urine will leave the bladder partly filled which, in turn, refills giving the urge to urinate a greater frequency than normal.  Patients tend to misunderstand the prostate as causing greater volumes of urine production.  Advance stages of prostate illness are associated with ever lengthening periods of urination, higher rates of urinary restriction which causes the bladder to remain partially filled, and severe urgency signals to urinate causing patients to have to scramble for the bathroom while indoors or run to the outhouse or the bushes while outdoors.  Later stage symptoms also include frequent trips to the bathroom during sleeping hours at night.  The impact of night time urination, or “nocturia”, reduces REM sleep acquisition levels of the patient and can have harmful effects on the nervous system and heart, and overall, the patient’s autoimmune system can be compromised as nocturnal release of endocrine systemic hormones can be affected by night time activity outside of sleep.

Male Reproductive Issues

The prostate gland is part of the male reproductive system. As a component producer of reproductive fluids for transmittal of sperm, the prostate gland has effects on the erectile response of the male reproductive organ which must circulate adequate blood flow to gain hardness sufficient for penetration of the female sex organ In order to deposit sperm through effective ejaculation of semen.  Ejaculatory failure or erectile dysfunction have been theorized as symptoms of benign prostate hyperplasia.  However, research continues in order to find hard evidence of clear findings to validate the growing concerns of middle aged patients with benign prostate hyperplasia.