Treatment for Enlarged Prostate

The choice of the most adequate treatment depends on the severity of the symptoms and also how the disease affects your daily life. The options of treatment include regular checkups, make changes in lifestyle, medication or surgery.

If you are older than 60, you have a higher predisposition to symptoms, but many men with enlarged prostate only have mild symptoms. Generally, lifestyle changes are enough to feel better.

If you suffer from benign prostatic hypertrophy, you must perform an annual checkup to control the progression of symptoms and determine if changes in treatment are necessary.

Lifestyle changes (for mild symptoms):

-Urinate when you feel you need to.

-Avoid alcohol and caffeine, especially after dinner.

-Do not drink an excessive amount of liquids at once. Distribute the consumption of liquids during the day and avoid its ingestion two hours before going to bed.

-Try not to take over-the-counter cold or sinus medications that contain decongestants or antihistamines, as these drugs can increase BPH symptoms or trigger urinary retention.

-Keep yourself warm and practice exercises regularly, since cold weather and lack of physical activity can worsen the symptoms.

-Reduce stress. Tension can lead to more frequent urination.

Medication

Alpha 1 blockers: (doxazosin, prazosin, tamsulosin, terazosin, alfuzosin, and silodosin) These medications relax the muscle fibres of the bladder neck and prostate, allowing easier urination. Most people treated with alpha 1 blockers say it helps with their symptoms.

The 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors finasteride and dutasteride decrease the levels of hormones produced by the prostate, reduce the size of the prostate gland, increase the flow of urine and decrease the symptoms of Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy. Symptom improvement usually occurs 3 to 6 months after starting treatment.

Surgical treatment

Prostate surgery may be recommended if you have:

-A great impact on the quality of life despite treatment with medication.
-Obstruction demonstrated in the urodynamic study.
-Recurrent urinary retention requiring probing.
-Recurrent urinary tract infections.
-Hematuria (bleeding) of prostatic origin.
-Renal insufficiency.

There are many surgical procedures for treating an enlarged prostate. The most common is transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) which is aimed to remove through the urethra the inner layer of the prostate by applying an electric current.

Transurethral incision of the prostate (TUIP) diminishes the obstruction that the prostate causes in the urethra. One or many incisions in the gland, the prostatic capsule and the bladder neck allow enlarging the diameter of the urethra.

Transvesical prostatic adenomectomy is an open-sky surgical procedure for cases where the volume of the prostate is too big.

Finally, there are new techniques similar to TURP, but they use holmium, green, diode, or thulium laser to vaporize prostate tissue.

You might also want to read: Surgery for Enlarged Prostate