It Could Be Nothingor It Could Be Dangerous
The prostate thats normally the size of a walnut has a tendency to enlarge at some point in most mens lives: prostate gland. An enlarged prostate gland is not uncommon, particularly after the age of 40. This gland which surrounds the urethra has the important function of secreting a fluid that helps to nourish sperm. The urethra is a tube that carries urine from the bladder out through the tip of the penis. If the prostate gland begins to enlarge, it may press on the urethra causing problems with urination, such as urinary tract infections, and can result in bladder or kidney damage.
It is important for men to be aware of these reasons and to inform his physician at any time he notices any bodily changes that may be the sign of an enlarged prostate.
The three possible reasons for an enlarged prostate are:
BPH Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
The basic definition of BPH is an enlarged prostate, and its a benign or non-cancerous condition. During a mans life, the prostate will go through two main growth phases. The first occurs during puberty when the prostate doubles in size. The second begins around age 25 and will continue throughout the remainder of a mans life, making BPH very common in older men. With age, the prostate tends to enlarge. BPH does not appear until the second phase when the prostate begins to press on the urethra causing urinary issues.
Prostatitis
Prostate Cancer
Does Bph Affect Sexual Health
Even after understanding what causes an enlarged prostate, you might still wonder how it affects your sex life.
While BPH doesnt directly affect your sexual function, some medications that treat an enlarged prostate might have sexual side effects, such as ED .
However, if youre experiencing both ED and BPH , some ED medications can also improve BPH.
Prostate Cancer And Sexual Health
A prostate cancer diagnosis can leave you feeling anxious, frustrated, and depressed.
It may also leave you wondering about your ability to have sex. You may also be questioning how prostate cancer treatment can affect your sex life.
Prostate cancer rarely causes problems with sex, but the treatments for prostate cancer often affect penile function and reproduction.
Prostate surgery and radiation are the two most common treatments for prostate cancer. Both of these can affect the nerves in your penis and could cause sexual problems like erectile dysfunction .
Cryotherapy and ultrasound therapy can also cause ED. Your doctor may recommend hormone therapy or radiation therapy, as well. This therapy can lower your sex drive.
Radical prostatectomy is the most effective nerve-sparing surgery for prostate cancer. It can substantially limit the duration of post-surgical ED but requires a surgeon to be highly skilled and trained in the process.
In this type of procedure, the surgeon takes care not to damage the erectile nerves that surround the prostate as it is removed.
However, if cancer has infiltrated these nerves, it may not be possible to save them.
Preventing injury to these nerves dramatically improves the chances of a man recovering erectile function within two years of the surgery.
In addition to ED, you may also find that your orgasms are different after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
They may not feel as strong, and you will not see as much ejaculate.
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How Common Is Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the most common prostate problem for men older than age 50. In 2010, as many as 14 million men in the United States had lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia.1 Although benign prostatic hyperplasia rarely causes symptoms before age 40, the occurrence and symptoms increase with age. Benign prostatic hyperplasia affects about 50 percent of men between the ages of 51 and 60 and up to 90 percent of men older than 80.2
What Treatments Are There For Bph
If you have LUTS linked with BPH, its important to think about how much the symptoms are bothering you before deciding on treatment.
If your symptoms are mild, it might be best not to have any treatment, as treatment side effects can affect your quality of life more than your initial symptoms prior to treatment. There are medicines that can help if you have mild to moderate symptoms. If your symptoms are moderate to severe, there are a number of surgery options with varying risks and benefits.
Because BPH can affect your relationships, it can help to include your family or partner in the treatment process.
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Tips For Dealing With Bph
Harvard Medical School recommends four tips for relieving BPH. The first is to reduce stress by exercising or practicing meditation as men who are tense may need to urinate more frequently. Do not rush any trips to the bathroom and take the time to completely empty the bladder. This will cut down on the number of trips to the bathroom. As some medications may cause frequent urination, talk to a doctor about adjusting dosages or changing prescriptions. The last tip is to avoid drinking too close to bedtime and cutting back on caffeinated beverages throughout the day.
What Are The Symptoms Of Enlarged Prostate
When the prostate becomes enlarged, it can block the urethra and impair bladder function. Symptoms that may indicate this is happening include:
- Urinating many times a day and being unable to hold off urination
- Problems starting a urine stream or a weak or interrupted stream, followed by dribbling at the end
- Waking at night to urinate and accidental loss of urine
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Study Raises Biological Questions
Researchers say the findings raise several questions about the biological role of sexual activity and ejaculation in the development of prostate cancer.
Leitzmann says that until now, sexual activity had been associated with prostate cancer risk due to the hormone hypothesis. The male sex hormone testosterone is known to spur the growth of prostate cancer cells and it also fuels the male sex drive. Therefore, it had been proposed that very sexually active men had a higher risk of prostate cancer because they had higher testosterone levels.
But he says this theory has its shortcomings because testosterone levels alone do not predict prostate cancer risk and they do not appear to correlate with sexual desire as much as previously thought.
Instead, researchers say ejaculation may protect the prostate through a variety of biological mechanisms that merit further research, such as:
- Flushing out cancer-causing substances. Frequent ejaculation may help flush out retained chemical carcinogens in the prostate glands.
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Reducing tension. The release of psychological tension that accompanies ejaculation may lower nervous activity associated with stress and slow the growth of potentially cancerous cells in the prostate.
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Promoting rapid turnover of fluids. Frequent ejaculation may help prevent the development of mini-crystals that can block ducts within the prostate gland, reducing cancer risk.
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Cause Of Urinary Problems As Men Age
Many men experience urinary symptoms as they age, which may be caused by inflammation of the prostate gland . In older men, symptoms may be due to a blockage in the tubes due to a benign enlargement of the prostate gland . The most common symptom is difficulty emptying your bladder. Urinary symptoms may become bothersome enough that they require treatment. Not all urinary symptoms are due to changes to the prostate. Also, some men have enlarged prostates and yet experience few, if any, symptoms.
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A Chicken And Egg Situation
Sadly, this is a chicken and egg situation. For men facing lower urinary tract symptoms of frequency, urgency, slow flow, and dribbling, the first-line treatment are alpha-blockers. They are known to relax the prostate to ease urine flow.
If medications do not work, doctors will try surgical methods starting with minimally invasive techniques. However, they may sometimes recommend removing the prostate altogether.
This is known as radical prostatectomy. Transurethral resection of the prostate is a surgical procedure that is known to relieve symptoms of BPH.
Men who have this procedure often experience sexual side-effects after surgery. According to the Harvard Medical School, between 50 to 75% of men who underwent TURP experienced retrograde and dry ejaculation.
Most men will experience relief of urinary problems. Some even experience improved blood pressure.
One of the complaints encountered by sufferers is retrograde ejaculation. This is caused by the easing of the prostatic sphincter, resulting in the semen going backward.
The operation to correct the BPH can either be carried out with TURP or laser done by simply coring out a cavity to allow a better flow of urine with minimal resistance.
The adverse effect of retrograde ejaculation is both undeniable and unavoidable. But the degree of compromise on erectile rigidity is still unclear and hotly debated.
Why The Prostate Can Be Shrunk
Scott Davis The Prostate Protocol takes a highly logical approach.
Consider this:
Your prostate was normal-sized once.
Whereas its not now. Now its too big.
But theres a reason its too big. It didnt just happen. Something caused it to be enlarged.
Now, we have long known that hormonal imbalances in a man cause the prostate to grow out of control.
In particular, if you have an enlarged prostate then right now your estrogen and testosterone hormones are way out of balance.
For as long as your hormones stay like this youll always have BPH.
Unfortunately, weve never actually known why that hormonal imbalance is happening.
This is why BPH treatments are so unreliable. Doctors are guessing to some extent.
To get a shot of BPH we need to straighten out the hormone problem. But how do you do that if you dont know what messed them up in the first place?
Well, thats what has changed.
Because we now do know what leads to our hormones going so out of whack.
And knowing this is the key to how my prostate and the prostate glands of thousands of other men have shrunk back to their normal sizes.
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Problems With Enlarged Prostate Gland
Benign enlargement of the prostate gland is more common as men get older. It can cause troublesome symptoms, although it doesnt always.
The urethra passes through the prostate gland, so men may have problems urinating if the enlarged gland restricts the flow of urine. If the flow stops completely, a catheter is required to empty the bladder. It is rare for this form of acute urinary retention to cause kidney damage.
An enlarged prostate doesn’t always cause urinary problems. Studies indicate that the size of a man’s prostate gland has little influence on the type or severity of his urination problems. BPH is just one possible cause of urinary symptoms.
Another cause of urinary symptoms can be changes to the muscular wall of the bladder, which may cause spasms of the bladder or weaken the bladder, causing problems passing urine.
Natural Supplements For An Enlarged Prostate
At Bens Natural Health, we have formulated natural supplements to improve prostate health and reduce prostate size. When it comes to managing your BPH, we firmly believe that natural is the way to go. Not only will natural remedies help to heal your prostate, relieving you of uncomfortable symptoms, but they will do so without any adverse side effects.
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How Might An Enlarged Prostate Affect My Life
Having an enlarged prostate affects men in different ways. Some men can manage mild symptoms and dont need treatment. Other men find they need to stay near a toilet. This can make it difficult to work, drive, be outdoors and attend social events. If you need the toilet a lot during the night, this can affect your sleep and make you feel more tired during the day.
Some men with an enlarged prostate find their symptoms improve over time without treatment. But for most, the symptoms will stay the same or slowly start to cause more problems over time unless they have treatment.
The Different Types Of Surgeries
Fortunately, there are numerous surgeries that can be performed to help reduce symptoms of BPH or treat the problem altogether. The different types of surgeries available that help BPH includes transurethral resection of the prostate , transurethral incision of the prostate , a prostatectomy, and various types of laser surgery. TURP is the most common type of surgery done for an enlarged prostate and has proven to reduce the greatest amount of symptoms in a patient. Requiring a short recovery time and is less traumatic than open surgery, TURP involves an electrical loop that cuts tissue and seals blood vessels, and only the tissue growth that is pressing against the urethra is removed to allow urine to flow more easily.
TUIP is another common procedure done to help relieve symptoms of BPH and involves making cuts in the prostate instead of removing the affected prostate tissue, as these cuts reduce pressure on the urethra, resulting in easier urination. Symptom relief is slower than TURP, but patients have less side effects with TUIP than TURP, are able to go home the same day, and only wear a catheter for a day or two.
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Sex And The Prostate: Overcoming Erectile Dysfunction When You Have Prostate Disease
If you are concerned about erectile function, its important to understand what erectile dysfunction really is. Failing to have an erection one night after youve had several drinks or even for a week or more during a time of intense emotional stress is not erectile dysfunction. Nor is the inability to have another erection soon after an orgasm. Nearly every man occasionally has trouble getting an erection, and most partners understand that.
Erectile dysfunction is the inability to attain and maintain an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse at least 25% of the time. The penis doesnt get hard enough, or it gets hard but softens too soon. The problem often develops gradually. One night it may take longer or require more stimulation to get an erection. On another occasion, the erection may not be as firm as usual, or it may end before orgasm. When such difficulties occur regularly, its time to talk to your doctor.
Erectile dysfunction can have many causes, including some forms of prostate disease and medications and surgery for prostate cancer. Fortunately, in many cases, this problem can often be effectively addressed. Some men find relief by taking medications to treat erectile dysfunction. If these arent effective for you, a number of other options, including injections and vacuum devices, are available. The possibility of finding the right solution is now greater than ever.
The 4 Causes Of An Enlarged Prostate
It is normal for a prostate to become enlarged as a man ages. The prostate is approximately the size of a walnut in younger men but can grow to be much larger as they get older. An enlarged prostate can cause no visible symptoms but will eventually impact urinary and erectile functions if not properly treated.
There are many reasons a prostate gets enlarged, and most of them arent cancerous. Here are the most common:
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What Are The Symptoms Of Prostate Enlargement
Not every man with an enlarged prostate has symptoms. But when symptoms do occur, they are related to the prostate obstructing the flow of urine through the urethra. This can lead to problems such as:
- Difficulty in starting or stopping urination
- Dribbling of urine after urination has stopped
- A weak urine stream
- Pain in the area between the scrotum and the anus and
- A feeling that the bladder is not empty even after urinating.
Although these symptoms are usually due to an enlarged prostate, they may also be caused by other serious conditions . So men should always see a doctor if they notice changes in the how they urinate, or how often.
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- The prostate gland is a male reproductive organ that produces fluids to feed and protect sperm cells.
- Many men experience urinary changes as they age. In many cases, these changes do not need specific treatment.
- When urinary changes cause problems, they can be treated successfully by lifestyle changes, medication, surgery or a combination of the three.
- For problems such as blood in the urine, pain on urination, inability to urinate or uncontrollable urine flow, see your doctor promptly.
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At Bens Natural Health, our motto is to combine holistic healing with modern science.
Bens Natural Health is the worlds first high-quality, all-natural, scientifically proven clinical supplement company. Our supplements are effective, natural and 100% side effect free.
Moreover, at Bens Natural Health, we have four rules for all our supplements:
- We only use the highest quality ingredients
- We only use them if they have been proven to work in independent, peer-reviewed double-blind studies
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- We always formulate them in clinically significant doses of the most bioavailable form
And, all our supplements come with a 90-day money-back guarantee. So if you arent happy with the results, we will provide you with credit or a full refund.
Surgery For An Enlarged Prostate
For most men with very enlarged prostates, surgery can relieve symptoms — but there are both risks and benefits with each type of operation. Discuss them with your doctor. After a careful evaluation of your situation and your general medical condition, your doctor will recommend which is best for you.
TURP : This is the most common surgery for an enlarged prostate, and considered to bring the greatest reduction in symptoms. Only the tissue growth that is pressing against the urethra is removed to allow urine to flow easily. The procedure involves an electrical loop that cuts tissue and seals blood vessels. Most doctors suggest using TURP whenever surgery is required, as it is less traumatic than open surgery and requires shorter recovery time.
With the TURP procedure, patients can expect to have retrograde ejaculation afterwards, says Westney. This is a condition in which a man ejaculates backward into the bladder instead of through the urethra. “Retrograde ejaculation generally isn’t painful,” she tells WebMD. “It shouldn’t be an issue unless fertility is a concern.” Other possible side effects include blood loss requiring transfusion , painful urination, recurring urinary tract infections, bladder neck narrowing, and blood in the urine.
After TURP, the odds of erection problems range from 5% to 35%. However, this is often temporary — and the ability to have an erection and an orgasm returns after a few months.
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