BPH - Understanding the Problem

Dr. Dean Elterman, MD, MSc, FRCSC Urological Surgeon

Duration: 1 minute 27 seconds

BPH stands for benign prostatic hyperplasia, which is a fancy way of saying an enlarged prostate. Essentially, the prostate is actually an organ or more specifically a gland, and it's involved in your male reproductive system so contributes to semen production in a small way.

As we get older and we're no longer worried about procreation, the prostate really doesn't do anything beneficial and you don't need it. In most men, it grows. The issue is that the prostate sits just below the bladder and in fact the prostate is shaped like a doughnut, and urine passes through the middle of the prostate. As the prostate gets larger, usually with age, the hole through the middle gets narrower, and it squeezes the urethra, which is the tube that you pee through, as it travels through the prostate and it can get increasingly more difficult to pee.

BPH is a very common condition. Approximately 50% of 50-year-old men will have an enlarged prostate by the time they reach 80 years old. 80% of men will have an enlarged prostate which means that the majority of men are going to develop an enlarged prostate during their lifetime. It's mostly genetic related but diet can also contribute a little bit. For example, if you are over weight, the prostate can grow a bit, but really, it's just luck of the draw.

Presenter: Dr. Dean Elterman, Urologist, Toronto, ON

Local Practitioners: Urologist