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Benign prostatic hyperplasia
Make it clearer
Benign prostatic hyperplasia sounds alarming, but every word is reassuring once you translate it. Hyperplasia means there are more cells than normal, prostatic means they are in the prostate, and benign means the growth is not caused by cancer. It is a prostate that grew more than it should have.
To understand why that growth gets in the way, you have to see where the prostate sits. The prostate is right below the bladder, and it wraps around the beginning of the urethra, which is the tube that urine leaves through. So when the gland grows, it squeezes the tube from the outside. Picture a rubber ring thickening around a garden hose: the hose has not changed, but the opening has narrowed. The bladder muscles have to work harder to push urine through that narrowed opening. And here is the part worth understanding: over time those muscles can weaken and no longer empty the bladder completely.
In brief
Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a condition in which the prostate grows larger than normal, and that growth is not caused by cancer.
The prostate sits below the bladder and wraps around the urethra at the bladder neck, so as the gland grows it squeezes that tube.
The bladder muscles have to work harder to push urine through that narrowed urethra, and over time they can weaken and fail to empty the bladder completely.
Sources (1)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney DiseasesProstate Enlargement (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia)
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated