Having Difficulty Urinating? You May Have BPH

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is more commonly known as an enlarged prostate, a name that perfectly describes the condition. One of the top symptoms of an enlarged prostate is difficulty urinating.

In fact, if you struggle with urination, and you’re a man over 40, there’s a good chance it’s due to BPH. Dr. Michael Rotman understands your problem and has extensive experience helping men find BPH relief.

Here’s why men develop BPH

Beginning around the age of 25, your prostate begins to grow, gradually increasing in size for most of your adult life. Of course, this is the second natural growth phase your prostate goes through — the first one occurs in early puberty — but it’s during this second growth phase that BPH occurs.

Why does your prostate keep growing when it’s more typical for tissues and organs to shrink with age? Because age-related hormonal changes promote cellular growth.

The second growth cycle also explains why BPH is common as men get older. Although BPH rarely causes symptoms before age 40, its incidence jumps to 50% of men who are 51-60.

The reason BPH affects urination

Every symptom of BPG centers on urination, and here’s why: Your prostate surrounds the urethra. As a result, prostate growth places extra pressure on the urethral tube. At first, it slightly constricts the urethra, partially blocking urine flow. Eventually, the prostate can grow large enough to severely obstruct urination.

Here’s a more vivid way of looking at it: A normal prostate is about the size of a walnut. In your 40s, it’s closer to the size of an apricot and, by 60 years of age, progressive growth makes it enlarge to the size of a lemon.

With that much pressure against the urethra, an enlarged prostate causes urinary symptoms such as:

• Urinating often (eight or more times daily)
• Urgent need to go
• Getting up to go frequently during the night
• Trouble starting a urine stream
• Weak urine stream that stops while urinating
• Incomplete bladder emptying
• Need to strain or push to start urinating or to empty bladder
• Dribbling small amounts of urine

It’s estimated that about half of all men with BPH develop urinary tract symptoms.   

Medical options to improve urination

BPH is not cancerous, and it does not increase your risk of cancer. As long as it hasn’t progressed to the point of blocking your ability to urinate, we can take the time to talk about your options and decide which is best for you and your symptoms.

Depending on the severity of your symptoms, medications are available to relax your muscles and improve your bladder flow. Other types of medication may help prevent prostate growth by blocking the production of androgens.

When medications don’t help, we can talk about a variety of minimally invasive procedures that relieve the blocked urethra.

Here at Michael Rotman, MD, we specialize in innovate and top-notch treatments such as transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), which is used to trim excess tissue away from your prostate, one small piece at a time.

We also offer today’s most innovative BPH treatments. For example, the Rezūm® System clears the blocked urethra using radiofrequency (RF) energy and water. As the RF energy turns water into steam, the steam is injected into prostate tissue, where it gently damages the cells and clears the area.

You don’t need to ruin another night’s sleep with multiple trips to the bathroom or spend extra time in the bathroom waiting to go. Call one of our offices in Murray Hill or Lawrence, New York, or use online booking to schedule an appointment.