Prostate problems are very common after age 50

Aug 11th, 2010
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For most men, prostate problems are very common after age 50. However, there’s no need to worry if you’re approaching 50 and haven’t developed prostate problems yet.

The prostate gland is the size of a walnut and it grows as you age. When it get to be too large, then it can cause health problems. However, most prostate issues are not cancers. In other words, even when you have prostate problem, it doesn’t mean that it increases your risk for prostate cancer.

The best thing to do is have your health exam done regularly and if you notice anything wrong, tell you doctor. If you’re age 50, have your prostate checked.

Posted in: Enlarged Prostate, Prostate Problems.
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The prostate is enlarged, but not prostate cancer, Benign prostatic hyperplasia

Aug 6th, 2010
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As men get older, prostate becomes a common problem. One in two men after 50 will develop some prostate problems. But the good news is that not all prostate problem develops into prostate cancer.

When the prostate is enlarged, but not cancerous, it’s commonly called Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH.  It is a very common problem among older men. It is a very inconvenient problem since you have to urinate a lot. The treatments your doctor will recommend varies.

Depending on your condition, some doctors might just tell you to wait and watch to see whether it gets worse. If you have more serious symptoms, your doctor might prescribe medicines to relax muscles near your prostate or to shrink it. Keep in mind, if your problems are not serious, you should wait since all medications have possible side effects. If it gets much worse, they you might have to do through a surgery to help the urine flow. Many patients all use other forms of treatments such as radio waves, microwaves, or lasers.

Source: National Institute on Aging

Posted in: Benign prostatic hyperplasia, Enlarged Prostate, Prostate Health, Prostate Problems.
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Personal prostate problems

Aug 18th, 2009
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Of late I had been noticing that I was having difficulty in passing urine. It took forever to pass urine. I did not realize earlier as I used to generally take the newspaper whenever I went to the toilet and was busy reading it while attending to the morning call. It was only when I was urinating standing in the urinal that I noticed that it took a very long time for me to relieve myself.

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.

Posted in: Prostate Health, Prostate Problems.
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Prostate Cancer – Staging Prostate Cancer

Jul 17th, 2009
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If cancer is found in the prostate, the doctor needs to know the stage of the disease and the grade of the tumor. Staging is a careful attempt to find out whether the cancer has spread and, if so, what parts of the body are affected. The grade tells how closely the tumor resembles normal tissue in appearance under the microscope.

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

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Prostate Cancer – Planning Treatment

Jul 17th, 2009
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A team of specialists often treats people with cancer. The team will keep the primary doctor informed about the patient’s progress. The team may include a medical oncologist who is a specialist in cancer treatment, a surgeon, a radiation oncologist who is a specialist in radiation therapy, and others.

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

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Prostate Cancer Symptoms and Diagnosis

Jul 7th, 2009
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Most cancers in their early, most treatable stages don’t cause any symptoms. Early prostate cancer usually does not cause symptoms.

However, if prostate cancer develops and is not treated, it can cause these symptoms:

  • a need to urinate frequently, especially at night
  • difficulty starting urination or holding back urine

Possible symptoms of prostate cancer:

  • inability to urinate
  • weak or interrupted flow of urine
  • painful or burning urination
  • difficulty in having an erection
  • painful ejaculation
  • blood in urine or semen
  • pain or stiffness in the lower back, hips, or upper thighs.
Any of these symptoms may be caused by cancer, but more often they are due to enlargement of the prostate, which is not cancer. If you have any of these symptoms, see your doctor or a urologist right away to find out if you need treatment. A urologist is a doctor who specializes in treating diseases of the genitourinary system.

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/

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Prostate Cancer Causes and Risk Factors

Jul 7th, 2009
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Scientists don’t know exactly what causes prostate cancer. They cannot explain why one man gets prostate cancer and another does not. However, they have been able to identify some risk factors that are associated with the disease. A risk factor is anything that increases your chances of getting a disease.

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/

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Prostate Cancer Defined

Jun 18th, 2009
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The body is made up of many types of cells. Normally, cells grow, divide, and produce more cells as needed to keep the body healthy and functioning properly. Sometimes, however, the process goes wrong — cells become abnormal and form more cells in an uncontrolled way.

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/

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Non-cancer prostate problems

Jun 18th, 2009
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Here are some examples of non-cancer prostate problems:

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

Posted in: Prostate Problems.
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The Prostate

Jun 18th, 2009
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The prostate is a gland about the size of a walnut and wraps around the tube that carries urine out of the bladder. It grows larger as you get older. If your prostate gets too large, it can cause health issues. Most prostate problems are not cancer. Having a problem with your prostate does not raise your chance of getting prostate cancer.

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

Posted in: Prostate Health, Prostate Problems.
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