Enlarged Prostate - Benign Protastic Hyperplasia (BPH)

Have you noticed that trips to the bathroom are becoming more and more frequent? At first, you might be able to shrug it off as one of the inevitable signs of aging, but in fact you might be subject to something called Benign Protastic Hyperplasia (BPH).

It is sometimes also called benign enlargement of the prostate (BEP) or benign prostatic enlargement (BPE). Note that all three names include the word benign.

If you look up benign in the dictionary, you'll probably find that it means to be kindly disposed. Sometimes it can used to refer to favourable conditions, such as good weather. But when doctors use the word, what they really mean is that the condition won't kill you. That's still good news, but BPH is not benign in the sense of being good.

Another bit of good news for sufferers of BPH is that they are not alone. According to some estimates, more than half of the men in North America between the ages of 60 and 70 have symptoms of BPH. Change the age range to between 70 and 90 and the number of men exhibiting those symptoms jumps to around 90 per cent

The symptoms of BPH can be divided into two categories: irritative and obstructive. The symptoms that fall under the obstructive category include hesitancy when urinating, stop and start urination, a weak stream, straining and incomplete voiding.

Those symptoms can be pretty bad on their own, but the irritative symptoms are very well named indeed. The most common irritative symptoms are a overwhelming and sudden need to urinate, and increased frequency of urination. When it occurs at night, as it quite often does, it is called nocturia.

What's actually going on inside the body to cause these symptoms? Essentially, the prostate becomes enlarged because certain cells (known as the stromal and epithelial cells) begin to experience rates of growth beyond that which would be normally expected. This is somewhat similar to what happens when the body develops cancer, but not to the same degree.