I could not apply any pressure as it did not help in speeding up the process. It took its own time to trickle down. I had to repeatedly pull my penis to empty out the bladder. At one point of time I had to stand for about 5 to 7 minutes at the urinal to relieve myself fully. It became very embarrassing when people would come and go but I would continue standing at the urinal. I decided to consult a doctor and seek medical relief.

Doctors use various blood and imaging tests to learn the stage of the disease. Imaging tests, such as ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, produce pictures of images inside the body.

There are four stages used to describe prostate cancer. Doctors may refer to the stages using the Roman numerals I-IV or the capital letters A-D. The higher the stage, the more advanced the cancer. Following are the main features of each stage.

Stage I or Stage A — The cancer is too small to be felt during a rectal exam and causes no symptoms. The doctor may find it by accident when performing surgery for another reason, usually an enlarged prostate. There is no evidence that the cancer has spread outside the prostate. A sub-stage, T1c, is a tumor identified by needle biopsy because of elevated PSA.

Stage II or Stage B — The tumor is still confined to the prostate but involves more tissue within the prostate. The cancer is large enough to be felt during a rectal exam, or it may be found through a biopsy that is done because of a high PSA level. There is no evidence that the cancer has spread outside the prostate.

Stage III or Stage C — The cancer has spread outside the prostate to nearby tissues. A man may be experiencing symptoms, such as problems with urination.

Stage IV or Stage D — The cancer has spread to lymph nodes or to other parts of the body. The bones are a common site of spread of prostate cancer. There may be problems with urination, fatigue, and weight loss.

Source: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/prostatecancer/stagingprostatecancer/08.html

Before starting treatment, you may want another doctor to review the diagnosis and treatment plan. Some insurance companies require a second opinion. Others may pay for a second opinion if you request it.

Some prostate cancer patients take part in studies of new treatments. These studies — called clinical trials — are designed to find out whether a new treatment is safe and effective.

Often, clinical trials compare a new treatment with a standard one so that doctors can learn which is more effective. Men with prostate cancer who are interested in taking part in a clinical trial should talk with their doctor.

Source: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/prostatecancer/planningtreatment/02.html

The doctor will ask questions about your medical history and perform a digital rectal exam to try to find the cause of the prostate problems. In this exam, the doctor feels the prostate through the rectal wall. Hard or lumpy areas may mean cancer is present.

The doctor may also suggest a blood test to check your prostate specific antigen, or PSA, level. PSA levels can be high not only in men who have prostate cancer, but also in men with an enlarged prostate gland and men with infections of the prostate. PSA tests may be very useful for early cancer diagnosis. However, PSA tests alone do not always tell whether or not cancer is present.

Neither of these screening tests for prostate cancer is perfect. Screening tests check for disease in a person who shows no symptoms. Most men with mildly elevated PSA do not have prostate cancer, and many men with prostate cancer have normal levels of PSA. A recent study revealed that men with low prostate specific antigen levels, or PSA, may still have prostate cancer. Also, the digital rectal exam can miss many prostate cancers.

The doctor may order other exams, including ultrasound and x-rays, to learn more about the cause of the symptoms. But to confirm the presence of cancer, doctors must perform a biopsy. During a biopsy, the doctor uses needles to remove small tissue samples from the prostate and then looks at the samples under a microscope.

If a biopsy shows that cancer is present, the doctor will report on the grade of the tumor. Doctors describe a tumor as low, medium, or high-grade cancer, based on the way it appears under the microscope.

One way of grading prostate cancer, called the Gleason system, uses scores of 2 to 10. Another system uses G1 through G4. The higher the score, the higher the grade of the tumor. High-grade tumors grow more quickly and are more likely to spread than low-grade tumors.

Source: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/prostatecancer/symptomsanddiagnosis/

Age is the most important risk factor for prostate cancer. The disease is extremely rare in men under age 40, but the risk increases greatly with age. More than 60 percent of cases are diagnosed in men over age 65. The average age at the time of diagnosis is 65.

Race is another major risk factor. In the United States, this disease is much more common in African American men than in any other group of men. It is least common in Asian and American Indian men.

A man’s risk for developing prostate cancer is higher if his father or brother has had the disease.

Diet also may play a role. There is some evidence that a diet high in animal fat may increase the risk of prostate cancer and a diet high in fruits and vegetables may decrease the risk. Studies to find out whether men can reduce their risk of prostate cancer by taking certain dietary supplements are ongoing.

Scientists have wondered whether an enlarged prostate, a condition also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH, might increase the risk for prostate cancer. They have also studied obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, radiation exposure, and a sexually transmitted virus to see if they might increase risk. But at this time, there is little evidence that any of these factors contribute to an increased risk.

Source: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/prostatecancer/causesandriskfactors/

These extra cells form a mass of tissue, called a growth or tumor. Tumors can be benign, which means not cancerous, or malignant, which means cancerous. Prostate cancer occurs when a malignant tumor forms in the tissue of the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. In its early stage, prostate cancer needs the male hormone testosterone to grow and survive.

The prostate is about the size of a large walnut. It is located below the bladder and in front of the rectum. The prostate’s main function is to make fluid for semen, a white substance that carries sperm.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among American men. It is a slow-growing disease that mostly affects older men. In fact, more than 60 percent of all prostate cancers are found in men over the age of 65. The disease rarely occurs in men younger than 40 years of age.

Source: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/prostatecancer/

Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, is when the prostate is enlarged, but not cancerous. It is very common in older men. An enlarged prostate may make it hard to urinate or cause dribbling after you urinate. You may feel the need to urinate a lot, often at night. See your doctor for an exam.

Treatments for BPH include:

• Active surveillance or watchful waiting. If your symptoms are not too bad, your doctor may tell you to wait before starting any treatment to see if the problem gets worse. You will need a checkup each year. You can start treatment later on if your symptoms get worse.
• Medications. There are medicines that can relax muscles near your prostate to ease your symptoms or medicines to help shrink the prostate. Talk with your doctor about possible side effects.
• Surgery. If nothing else has worked, your doctor may suggest surgery to help urine flow. There are many types of surgery. Talk with your doctor about the risks. Regular checkups are important after BPH surgery.
• Other treatments. Sometimes radio waves, microwaves, or lasers are used to treat problems caused by BPH.

Acute prostatitis is a bacterial infection. It usually starts all of a sudden. It can cause fever, chills, or pain in the lower back and between the legs. It might hurt when you urinate. See your doctor right away. He or she can prescribe medicine to make you feel better.

Chronic bacterial prostatitis is an infection that comes back again and again. This problem can be hard to treat. Sometimes taking antibiotics for a long time may work. Talk with your doctor about other things you can do to help you feel better.

Chronic abacterial prostatitis, also known as Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome (CPPS), is a common prostate problem and occurs mostly in young to middle-aged men. It causes pain in the lower back, between the legs, or at the tip of the penis. Men with this problem often have painful ejaculation and need to urinate frequently. Sometimes antibiotics are helpful. The condition is very hard to treat and may require more than one treatment.
Source: http://www.nia.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Publications/prostate.htm

You may know when something is wrong with your prostate. See your doctor right away if something doesn’t seem right to you. Sometimes a doctor may find a problem that you don’t know about during a routine checkup or by doing a rectal exam. You may also need to have special x-rays or scans to check your prostate and the area around it.

Source: http://www.nia.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Publications/prostate.htm

The prostate is part of a man’s sex organs. It is the size of a walnut and surrounds the urethra. As the prostate grows larger it can press on the urethra. This narrows the urethra and can cause some men with prostate enlargement to have problems urinating. Prostate enlargement is said to be the most common health problem in men older than 60 years of age. The prostate usually starts to enlarge at about the age of 40.

Early in prostate enlargement the bladder muscle become thicker to force the urine through the urethra. It does so by contracting more powerfully. This can make the bladder more sensitive. As the prostate is getting larger and the urethra is squeezed tighter, the bladder may not be able to keep up and cause problems fully emptying the bladder. If too much blockage happens from the prostate enlarging it may cause repeated urinary tract infections which can cause kidney damage.

Sometimes men with enlarged prostate don’t get any symptoms at all. But common symptoms of enlarged prostate are a weak urine stream, difficulty starting to urinate, dribbling after urinating, feelings of not fully emptying the bladder, leaking urine, more frequent urination, bloody urine, and loss of sexual desire or functions.

Getting a physical exam every year is recommended to be sure there are no signs of enlarged prostate. If there are signs there will be another physical exam to determine exact causes of symptoms. A digital rectum exam is normally done to examine the prostate gland. The doctor can then determine the size and condition of the prostate or feel for lumps. Urine tests are done too to make sure there are no signs of infection.

There are both medical and surgical treatments for enlarged prostate. A common operation for resection of prostate is TURP. The doctor will scrape away the inner core of the prost ate through a small instrument inserted through the urethra. This is done to give relief from symptoms. TUIP is an operation that instead of removing prostate tissue the doctor makes cuts in the prostate; the cuts reduce pressure on the urethra making it easier to urinate. There are also other surgeries out there to treat enlarged prostate.

Often times after having TURP done men find that they have the side effect of semen not going through the penis during orgasm. Since it is not going through the penis it is going backward into the bladder. It can be treated with a drug to keep the bladder closed. This can cause problems with fertility. Erection problems and loss of bladder control are also common side effects of prostate surgeries.

Saw palmetto has a long history of relieving inflammation of the prostate and reducing the hormones that cause prostate enlargement. Pygeum africanum is another herb that can reduce enlargement of the prostate and inflammation. Zinc is very important in cell growth and differentiation in regulating normal cell death. It is great for building the immune system as well.Zinc is very helpful with enlarged prostates and inflammation of the prostate.

Forever Pro 6 is a blend of 6 vitamins, minerals, and herbs for prostate health. By tapping into the power of these ingredients and putting them into an easy to take tablet, it is one of the strongest nutritional supplements for prostate health. It has saw palmetto, pygeum extract, vitamin E, selenium, and lycopene in it. They are great antioxidants to help maintain proper prostate function by stopping the damaging effects of free radicals.

About The Author

Steven Johnson is interested in maintaining a vital and healthy lifestyle. For more information on various health products and other life-enhancing nutrients please visit his website http://www.alternative-health-supplements.com/pro-6.htm

Source: the National Cancer Institute