Enlarged Prostate
By Arthur Cantos, RN
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVEAs you age, your prostate tends to enlarge, which can pinch the tube that carries urine out of your body (urethra), making elimination difficult or painful. In fact, half of men over age 60 have symptoms related to an enlarged prostate. If there are no signs of cancer, doctors refer to this condition as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH. Few patients will have exactly the same questions for their doctors, but the following is a guide to the type of information you may want to seek out. Questions Patients Should Ask Their Doctors • What exactly is the prostate? |
| •Why do I have trouble starting to urinate? |
| •Why am I getting up at night to urinate just a little bit? |
| •I don't ever seem to empty my bladder completely. Is that normal? |
| •Does enlargement of the prostate mean I have cancer? |
| •What are my treatment options? |
| •What laboratory tests and physical exams will I need to have? |
| •Will medication shrink my prostate? |
| •How long will I need to take medication? |
| •Will BPH affect my sex life? |
| •Will I need surgery? |
| •Do men become impotent after prostate surgery? |
| •Should I change my diet or my lifestyle? |
| •Should I limit my fluid intake? |
| •Should I stop working? |
| •Could I have prevented this from happening in the first place? |
Questions Doctors May Ask Their Patients | •Do you feel any pain when you urinate? |
| •How long ago did you start having to get up frequently at night to urinate? |
| •How long have you had trouble urinating? |
| •Tell me what other symptoms you are experiencing. |
| •Have you had any problems with your sex life? |
| •Do you have fevers and chills? |
| •What did you do when you started having these symptoms? |
| •Are you taking any medications, including herbal supplements or over-the-counter drugs? |
| •When was the last time you had a digital rectal exam? |
| •Have you had any other diagnostic tests? |
-- Arthur Cantos, RN, is a former clinical product manager for Consumer Health Interactive and former nurse manager of the cardiothoracic unit at UCSF Medical Center.
References
Recommendations from the American Cancer Society Workshop on Early Prostate Cancer Detection, May 4-6, 2000 and ACS guideline on testing for early prostate cancer detection: update 2001. In: American Cancer Society guidelines for the early detection of cancer. American Cancer Society. 2001.
Screening for prostate cancer in American men. American College of Preventive Medicine. 1998
National guideline for the management of prostatitis. Association for Genitourinary Medicine/Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Diseases. 1999 Aug.
Mayo Clinic. Enlarged Prostate (BPH). April 2006. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/enlarged-prostate-bph/Bp99999/PAGE=bp00003
Reviewed by Peter Pompei, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Our reviewers are members of Consumer Health Interactive's medical advisory board.
To learn more about our writers and editors, click here.
First published March 26, 2002
Last updated February 14, 2008
Copyright © 2002 Consumer Health Interactive
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