Symptoms of Enlarged Prostate

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Many men with enlarged prostate may not show symptoms, therefore the prostate enlargement may be an incidental discovery on routine health examination. Some may present with minimal symptoms while some may present with frank symptoms indicative of an advanced disease. The common causes of prostate enlargement are Benign prostatin hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer, and acute or chronic prostatitis. It is advisable that men that are over the age of 45 years should have annual rectal examination. Annual digital rectal examination is an important first step in detecting or ruling out serious conditions, and enlarged can be easily detected on rectal exam.

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)
Benign Prostatic hyperplasia is the most common cause of prostate enlargement and less than half of the men with benign prostatic hyperplasia actually show symptoms which may either be obtructive or irritative. Obstructive symptoms include: difficulty in initiating the flow of urine, incomplete emptying of the bladder, diminished force of urinary stream, dribbling at the end of urination, straining to urinate, intermittent urinary stream, and urine retention resulting in inability to urinate

The irritative symptoms of BPH include: daytime frequency of micturition, waking up frequently to urinate at night ( nocturia), pain while urinating ( dysuria), urinary urgency ( sudden compelling desire to urinate that warrants no delay) and overflow or urge incontinence (urgent need to urinate that may be associated with leakage of urine). >>Read More About Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Cancer Of The Prostate
Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men and is twice as common in African American men than Caucasians. Even though the exact cause is unknown, there is an increased risk in men with one or more relatives that had the disease before age 70. Patients with prostate carcinoma may present with pain while urinating, difficulty initiating, maintaining and terminating urination, increased urinary frequency, urine retention, back of hip pain ( from metastasis), and hematuria ( blood in urine). Patients may also present with symptoms of complications of the disease. Some complications include spinal cord compression, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. >>Read More About Cancer Of The Prostate

Prostatitis
The symptoms Prostatitis may be systemic or localized. Systemic effect include 'flu-like' symptoms such as  fever, chills, malaise, and myalgias. Localized effect may manifest as; urinary irritation or obstruction to urinary outflow. Common local urinary symptoms include perineal and lower abdominal discomfort, pain while urinating, testicular discomfort, poor urinary stream and microscopic piuria. >>Read More About Prostatitis

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References

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec17/ch240/ch240a.html?qt=prostate&alt=sh

Benign prostatic hyperplasia - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Retrieved on 103009

Bent S, Kane C, Shinohara K, et. al. Saw palmetto for benign prostatic hyperplasia. NEJM . 2006; 354:557-566.