Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
The diagnosis of BPH does not necessarily mean that you have to be treated for it. Even if you have symptoms such as frequency and urgency of urination, or if you have to get up at night, you may not be bothered too much by these symptoms depending on your lifestyle. If you don’t mind getting up at night or having to urinate every 2 to 3 hours, or if you don’t mind a slightly weaker urinary stream than you are used to, there is no need to be treated for it.
Only if your symptoms bother you, or interfere with your daily activities, should you consider treatment. What are some of these interferences? For example, if you find yourself seeking out the isle seat in a movie theater because you have to routinely get up during a movie, that could be somewhat troublesome to you. If you always ask for an isle seat when you book a flight with an airline, that could be indicative of you having troublesome symptoms. If you find yourself searching for the next rest stop whenever you undertake a trip in your car, that also could be a sign that you should undertake some treatment.
If you don’t seek treatment, the symptoms don’t necessarily get worse. In fact, in some cases the symptoms actually improve or wax and wane over time. In other cases, the symptoms may get slightly worse over a very long period of time, but in other cases the symptoms get worse year after year and eventually you will find yourself in a position to ask your doctor for treatment. The complications that we discussed before do not happen invariably, but rather only in few patients. If you believe that you have one of those complications, you should definitely see your doctor and talk about it with him.
Twenty years ago, the only treatment your doctor could offer was a surgical intervention called transurethral resection of the prostate or TURP. Nowadays, you can choose from a host of different interventions aside from just a conservative “watchful waiting” strategy.
Many patients who are treated conservatively without any active interventions do well over many years. Watchful waiting implies that you see your physician on a regular basis, for example, once a year and have your prostate checked. You would fill in the questionnaire, have a DRE, and perhaps a PSA measurement and if everything is stable, you would go on for another year.
For more information about the Department of Urology, contact:
Phone: 214-648-4765, FAX: 214-648-4789
Mailing Address: 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., J8.148, Dallas, TX 75390-9110
