In his own words, Dr. Michael J. Curran discusses a condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). You can also watch the video—he discusses everything around 40 seconds in. (We've lightly edited the transcript for readability.)
As with all content on Greater Boston Urology's blog, the following information is educational in nature, not medical advice. Always talk to your physician about your specific health care questions and conditions.
[Editor's note: This article was reviewed and updated on 1/19/24 with additional links.]
"One of the things I wanted to talk about today was a condition called benign prostatic hypertrophy, or commonly referred to as BPH. This is a very common condition that affects men. It's typically seen in an aging population.
BPH is an enlargement of the prostate gland. As men get older, the stromal tissue in the prostate, which is the connective tissue and support tissue of the gland, continue to grow, where the glandular tissue, which is the tissue that handles the reproductive qualities of the gland, usually does not continue to grow.
As the stromal tissue grows, it has a concentration around the urethra and tends to restrict or impinge the flexibility, mobility, and size of the urethra. As this happens, men will notice varying degrees of difficulty with urination. In some men, it may present in a condition where they're in retention, meaning they don't empty their bladder of urine, and other men just present with flow issues, where the urinary flow is restricted, and they may develop symptoms or signs of urgency.
If you don't seek treatment for an enlarged prostate and are beginning to have bladder dysfunction, some of these changes could become permanent, so you don't want to kid yourself into thinking that, 'This happens to everybody. There's nothing that can be done for it.'
If you seek the help of a urologist, there's actually a lot we can do for it. We can control symptoms with medications. We can also cure the problem with surgery."