Before introducing prostate enlargement, we first need to understand what the prostate is. The prostate, which lies immediately below the bladder, is a special male organ shaped like an upside-down chestnut, with the urethra passing through the middle of the prostate.
The normal prostate is small, only about 20 grams, and most men’s prostates get progressively larger as they get older.
However, there is no need to worry, as an enlarged prostate is just a physiological phenomenon. The most important thing is that it is not a disease, but rather a normal condition that occurs in most people.
But an enlarged prostate sounds much more serious, so now there are many charlatans in society who take advantage of people’s ignorance of benign prostatic hyperplasia to exaggerate the dangers of prostatic hyperplasia, alarmist talk, and even claims that prostatic hyperplasia can turn into prostate cancer, ultimately for their unjustified profit-making purposes.
Is prostate enlargement harmful to the human body or not?
Clearly, prostate enlargement can be harmful, but then again, it is not harmful to everyone. This is because although the incidence of prostate enlargement is high, most patients do not develop symptoms from prostate enlargement, and even fewer of them develop serious complications.
When prostate enlargement produces clinical symptoms, it is medically known as prostate hyperplasia, which means that prostate enlargement constitutes a disease. The company’s main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the public.
Why is the prostate enlarged?
The presence of functioning testes and aging are the main factors in prostate enlargement, and prostate enlargement does not occur in people who have a total removal of both testes at puberty. The prostate is a gland that is highly dependent on androgens for growth. 90% of the androgens in the prostate come from the testes and 10% from the adrenal glands, and the prostate must rely on androgens to maintain its growth, development, and function.
But unlike other androgen-dependent tissues, such as the brain, skeletal muscle, and the epithelium of the trochanters in the testes, testosterone in prostate tissue needs to be converted to dihydrotestosterone by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase in order to have its biological effects, and if 5-alpha reductase is absent because of genetic mutations, for example, the prostate does not develop and prostate enlargement does not occur.
With progressive age, the prostate enlarges in response to the continued action of androgens produced by the functioning testes. Although the amount of dihydrotestosterone in the enlarged prostate tissue is not higher than in normal prostate tissue, the level of testosterone in the surrounding blood gradually decreases with age, while dihydrotestosterone and androgen receptors in the prostate remain high.
Unlike other androgen-dependent tissues, the prostate is an organ that maintains its cell growth in response to androgens throughout life.
In addition, androgens, non-androgenic substances in the testis, apoptosis, and growth factors are all closely related to prostate hyperplasia, but the exact mechanisms of action remain to be elucidated.
What symptoms does prostate enlargement cause?
What are the symptoms of prostate enlargement?
The symptoms caused by prostate enlargement fall into the following three categories:
1) Irritation symptoms: These include frequent urination, urgency, urge incontinence and increased nocturia.
Among them, increased nocturia is often the earliest of the symptoms of prostate enlargement, and the frequency of nocturia often increases gradually with the onset of the disease. It is also an irritating symptom to urinate as soon as you have the urge to do so, and you can’t even hold it in. A little slower, you may wet your pants, i.e., urge incontinence.
2) Obstructive symptoms
Including straining to urinate, thinning of the urine stream, interruption of the urine stream, and dribbling after urination. Patients will have the experience of rushing to the urinal but not being able to urinate immediately and needing to wait for some time to do so; even if they can, it is not easy, often requiring breath holding, stomach pressure, and a red face from holding it in, but they still feel heartbroken. Moreover, the urine is not far away, sometimes it even drips onto the feet, and sometimes it is broken several times in the middle, and it is always dripping after urination. The obstructive symptoms often cause great pain to the patient.
3) Complications
Prostate enlargement is a slowly progressive disease. In some patients, the condition gradually worsens and eventually complications such as hematuria, urinary retention, hydronephrosis, and bladder stones may occur, at which point prostate enlargement is often more serious and should be treated promptly.
Not all patients need treatment
Prostate enlargement is a benign lesion of the prostate gland, and its progression varies greatly among individuals. Many patients with prostate enlargement have clinical symptoms that do not change significantly over a long period of time, and the degree of tolerance of symptoms varies from person to person, so not every patient with prostate enlargement needs aggressive treatment.
Many patients with prostate enlargement do not have significant symptoms and do not have complications due to prostate enlargement, and the patients are largely tolerant of their symptoms, so we can temporarily withhold treatment for these patients, as long as they are dynamically monitored for changes.
Watch-and-wait is not the same as a laissez-faire approach, but rather a conservative approach for a subset of appropriate patients. During watchful waiting, patients should be followed up regularly, usually at least once a year, for changes in symptoms, symptom scores, rectal exams, ultrasounds, urinalysis, renal function, and urine flow rates.
When reviewing, you need to pay particular attention to comparing the previous test and to determine whether you need to start treatment through active communication with your doctor.
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