Men have been walking around with these prostates our whole lives. As we age they
will grow and enlarge to the point that most of us will end up symptomatic and
with issues related to this process. But what is the prostate, why do we have
it and how does it cause issues?
The fact that only men have prostates is a big giveaway that it's part of our
reproductive system the prostate's role is to make components of semen which
help the sperm function correctly and eventually reach the egg. Prostatic
secretions contain a variety of substances including zinc, citric acid
and highly refined sugars, as well as enzymes such as PSA which you may have
heard of and PSA helps make the semen thinner, but is also a very good marker
that we use in blood tests to detect prostatic growth. The acidic nature of
the vagina means that it's somewhat inhospitable to sperm and so prostatic
secretions have work with seminal vessel secretions to neutralize this
environment and this is one part of physiology that really amazes me the
fact that young males produce secretions to perfectly neutralize the environment
of the vagina even before they ever see or come in contact with that region.
It's an absolutely fascinating part of how the male and female reproductive
systems work together to achieve fertilization even though they're
present in two completely different bodies. The prostate is also quite
muscular and the prostate works with the regional sphincter muscles to help
prevent semen from entering the bladder during ejaculation they also help move
secretions towards the urethra during erection and the prostate also assists
in preventing urine from entering the seminal ducts during urination. But why
all the problems well in most men's issues it's because the prostate wraps
around the urinary tube called the urethra, and there are two main reasons
why this can induce symptoms. Firstly as the prostate enlarges during aging the
increasing size of the organ is limited by how large it can grow outwards and so
simply compresses the urethra.
Secondly the muscular cells within the prostate can
also grow and if they contract they then squeeze closed the urethra. Both issues make
it hard to urinate and even then make it hard to fully empty the bladder when you
can urinate. This results in the bladder becoming overactive sometimes even
resulting in incontinence in particular, incomplete emptying or urinary retention
increases the risk of infections crystals forming urinary stones and it's
drugs such as fuller moxtra flomax that you may have heard of that
try to treat these muscular contractions compressing the urethra.
Other options include surgery, in particular, removing areas of the
prostate surrounding the urethra with the simple aim of opening up the
tube and allowing release, along with other possible things to do
prostate cancer so the benign non cancerous growth of the prostate occurs
in nearly all males particularly by the time they reach 80 years and above the
same phenomenon occurs in other animals including primates and dogs so this
growth seems somewhat natural the enlargement is most commonly associated
with the conversion of testosterone into DHT. This DHT causes cell, growth inhibits
cell death, and overtime the prostate enlarges. Interestingly the
enzymes responsible for the conversion from testosterone to DHT is a target of
such drugs like pro. The thing is, these rapidly dividing cells can also
become cancerous and it's sometimes tricky to tell the difference between
normal prostatic enlargement and cancerous prostatic enlargement it's
also tricky to determine whether we should and how we should treat each of
these diseases. However; positively, now that we know a lot more about the
processes involved and the normal progressions of prostatic enlargement we
are getting better at detecting the rapid, highly abnormal growth that could
indicate cancer regular tests and assessment is the best thing you can do
to care for your prostate for early detection of any issues. Females, keep it
on our radar remind us to get it checked talk about it. If you're a male and
you're worried, see your doctor. we all have prostates and for most of us
they will enlarge and cause some sort of issue but it also means that it's a
conversation your GP has had hundreds of times before and will be happy to talk
you through it and any other concerns. It's all part of looking after ourselves
and keeping happy healthy bodies