Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, more commonly known as enlarged prostate, is a health condition that effects an estimated fifty percent of all men over the age of sixty.
Because it is such a common ailment, there is a large selection of treatments available to manage the symptoms.
With a little research you should be able to find a treatment that is harmonious to your needs.
A few ideas are listed in this article to give you a place to start and hopefully point you in the right direction.
The most common method for BPH treatment is medication.
It's simple, non-invasive, evades the necessity for anesthesia, and completely eliminates the need for recovery.
But, for all it's advantages, it has its share of disadvantages as well.
When medicine is a continuous investment it can get very costly.
It only masks the symptoms instead of fixes them.
Your symptoms will reappear once you stop taking the medication because when you stop taking it, it stops working.
This is the first line of treatment doctors will use.
It is also the only form of treatment for milder cases.
Surgery is another form of treatment.
When symptoms have not improved after non-surgical BPH treatments, surgery may be considered.
There are choices in types of surgeries performed, but the overall goal is to remove large amounts of prostate tissue that interfere with urination.
With this method, a hospital stay between one and two days should be expected, anesthesia will be used, recovery time will be needed , bleeding may occur for up to six weeks, a catheter may be needed for up to two weeks, and it is not uncommon for the symptoms to reappear after five years.
But, the success rate is very high and can completely give you freedom from urinating related complications.
Consult your urologist to find out what he or she offers.
A sort of middle ground between the two previously mentioned forms of treatment would be non-surgical BPH treatment.
Again, there are a number of choices available with their own advantages and disadvantages.
But, the overall goal is to remove enlarged prostate tissue without interfering with the healthy tissue and is performed on an outpatient basis.
Recovery time is shortened with usually no hospital stay because it is a non-surgical treatment.
Local anesthesia may still be necessary, but the actual time needed for treatment may be as short as thirty minutes.
Although for a shorter time, a catheter will probably still be needed afterward.
With symptoms reappearing after five years, results may not be permanent, as with surgery.
However, success rates are also high with complete freedom from the unfavorable symptoms.
As with any medical procedure individual results will vary.
For your BPH treatment consult with your urologist to learn what options are available to you.
To determine which avenue will bring you to your ideal outcome, do some personal research.
You could be on your way to a freer lifestyle.